Born Isabella Margaret Dice on 2 May 1952 in Grangemouth, Stirling, Scotland, the performer who would later adopt the stage name Isla St. Clair was already a regular and well-liked vocalist at the Aberdeen Folk Club by the age of ten. Radio and television appearances followed at twelve, leading to regular spots on programmes including Stories Are For Singing and My Kind Of Folk. Although she had always been known as Isla, she took the original spelling of her mother’s maiden name, Sinclair, after her mother remarried. Her mother Zetta, herself an established singer and songwriter within folk circles, exerted a strong influence; encounters with traditional artists such as Jeannie Robertson further deepened her commitment. Leaving school at seventeen, she turned professional and subsequently hosted the BBC television series The Song And The Story, performing material that documented vanishing rural customs. On 18 August 1971 she performed her arrangement of “Annie Of Lochroyan” at the Sir Walter Scott Bicentenary Ceilidh. The album Isla St. Clair Sings Traditional Scottish Songs featured accompaniment from Tom Ward on English concertina, for which she received a fee of only £50. Wider recognition arrived through her role as assistant to Larry Grayson on the BBC game show The Generation Game. The later release Inheritance signalled her return to recording, while Scenes Of Scotland presented settings of her mother’s compositions. She maintains an active schedule of appearances in folk clubs across the country and, in 1999, established her own television production company, Storyshop Productions.
