Hailing from Bridgetown, Western Australia, Emily Barker is a compelling songwriter with a gift for weaving melody and words. Her talent is perfectly complemented by the magnificent arrangements of her band The Red Clay Halo, whose rootsy ensemble playing underpins Barker’s agile vocal blend of strength and fragility.
February 2011 saw the release of Almanac, immediately attracting strong support from BBC radio with sessions for Cerys Matthews on 6 Music and Radio 4’s Loose Ends, and single ‘Little Deaths’ picked as record of the week on Nemone’s 6 Music show.
The achingly beautiful ‘Pause’ from the album is the theme tune to BBC 2’s gripping TV drama The Shadow Line starring Christopher Ecclestone. And ‘Nostalgia’, from Emily’s second album ‘Despite The Snow’, is the Bafta-winning theme tune to BBC1’s Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh. Both Wallander and The Shadow Line have seen Emily collaborating with Novello award recipient Martin Phipps, leading Dermot O’Leary to jokingly suggest that Emily is the Dennis Waterman of dark crime thrillers!
The band’s 3 albums are
entirely self-financed and released on Emily’s own imprint Everyone Sang, with
Almanac being jointly funded by spareroom.co.uk and a pledgemusic.com
fan-funded campaign.
“This is a dream of a record. A new Marling, then?
No, Barker offers something else..."
BBC Music editor’s choice (Feb 2011)
“Stripped
free of studio frippery and all the better for its carefree simplicity”
**** Q Magazine
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