IT has taken little more than six months for Bishopbriggs teenager Amy MacDonald to go from being completely unknown to playing a sell-out gig at the Garage tonight.

IT has taken little more than six months for Bishopbriggs teenager Amy MacDonald to go from being completely unknown to playing a sell-out gig at the Garage tonight.

Her debut album, This Is The Life, went straight into the charts at No. 2 in August, her new single, LA, out today, should give her her latest Top 10 hit, and her December show at the Barrowland is on course to be a sell-out.

With KT Tunstall's new album scoring big on the US Billboard chart and Sandi Thom also winning fans across the world, female singer-songwriters have never been hotter on the British music scene.

And an exciting raft of new female talent is already on the horizon, dipping into all genres from folk to R 'n' B and pop with one common factor: real talent.

Kate Nash has already staked her claim as the next big breakthrough, being crowned "queen of the summer" by NME and taking on Lily Allen at her own suburban sass-pop game, notching up a surprise Number One hit with her album Made of Bricks. She has just announced a headline tour for next spring, which brings her to Barrowland on March 7.

But right here in Scotland we have amazingly accomplished ladies in waiting.

Maeve O'Boyle and Yvonne Lyon are just two of the singer-songwriters who have made their name on the local acoustic music circuit. And both of them have the promise to go far in the next 12 months.

Maeve was discovered at the 2006 Celtic Connections festival, when she was a winner of the Evening Times-partnered Danny Kyle Open Stage. And now she is poised to launch her beautifully-crafted folk-tinged pop on the world.

"The Danny Kyle stage was a real door-opener for me. It was directly because of that I met my manager," she explains.

That manager is none other than Scottish pop guru John McLaughlin, who has written songs for stars including Blue, Busted and Westlife.

From performing a half-hour set at a folk festival to working with one of the biggest names in pop is an unlikely route for a Royston-born girl, who now lives in Stepps.

"It's been fantastic. I've met so many great people and I'm going to do what I've wanted to do since I was really young," she says.

Her debut album, which is due out next year is "predominately acoustic, flowing into melodic pop, with a tinge of rock," she says.

YVONNE LYON is another rising star and has has just completed her second album, A Thousand Questions Why.

With regular airplay on Radio 2 and Radio Scotland, as well as TV appearances and support slots with Patty Griffin, Kate Rusby and Michael Marra, she is already a fixture on the Scottish scene.

The buzz about Yvonne has been growing since her debut album, Fearless, was released in 2004. And now she has stepped it up a gear, working with Wet Wet Wet guitarist Graeme Duffin and his production partner Sandy Jones at their Foundry Music Lab recording studio in Motherwell.

Her music has hints of Americana over an essentially folk/ acoustic framework.

A fan of everything from Radiohead and U2 to Shawn Colvin, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Emmylou Harris, when asked to describe her music, she ponders before answering: "It's nu-folk in the sense it's doing that folk thing but with wee snippets of other stuff coming through."

Yvonne, 30, who lives in Greenock but has played the Glasgow circuit for years, comes from a musical family.

"I played piano as a child but it was picking up my dad's guitar at the age of 14 and teaching myself to play that made me write more. It was a more intimate instrument than the piano," Yvonne says.

She continued writing through university, where she studied English, before going on to become a music teacher at Williamwood and Mearns Castle High Schools. But her work commitments got in the way of her increasingly busy gigging schedule: "Teaching was all-encompassing. I didn't have much time at weekends for gigs, and if I did I was exhausted by Monday morning."

In 2004 she quit her school job, but continued teaching music from home to keep up a regular income while recording her first album. A support slot with US star Patty Griffin helped her reputation, and with support and encouragement from folk doyenne Karine Polwart, as well internet success, she built a formidable fan-base.

"At the moment it's at a nice stage. I've just spent a month touring with friends, and the album is getting significant airplay. Getting a record deal isn't my priority, but if the right offer came along I'd definitely consider it."

In 2008 she will be promoting the album more intensively and getting it on iTunes.

She continues: "For me, success would be the creativity, to keep this going, building it slowly. Sometimes if it comes too quickly it's not always a good thing."

And she echoes KT Tunstall, who said in a recent Times interview she was glad she had years of hard slog and experience behind her before she found fame.

"KT worked her socks off and made it. She's got a great attitude. If things took off, I'd like to have that myself, and I'd also like to encourage people the way Karine Polwart has me. That's what it's all about, recycling it, keeping the songwriting community alive."

What the future holds for Maeve and Yvonne remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain: with acts such as popstrel Robyn, R n' B singer Adele and young Irish folk chanteuse Wallis Bird being heavily promoted by their labels, the new generation of female singer-songwriters in every genre will be with us for a long time to come.

n Maeve O'Boyle plays Maggie Mays this Thursday, doors 8pm; Grand Ole Opry, October 21. www.myspace.com/ maeveoboyle n Yvonne Lyon plays at the Stop The Traffic benefit show at Oran Mor on November 20.

www.yvonnelyonmusic.com