EMILY BARKER - Bound For Home - with Frank Turner

 

EMILY SAYS: Hello I hope you're keeping well. Today I have a brand new song to share with you and an exciting show to announce! Listen to Bound For Home: LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

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“In Sydney Harbour, twelve thousand miles away and ten hours from now, the yachts will be racing on the crushed diamond water under a sky the texture of powered sapphires. It would be churlish not to concede that the same abundance of natural blessings which gave us the energy to leave has every right to call us back…the birthplace of the fortunate sends out its invisible waves of recollection. It always has and it always will, until even the last of us come home.” – Clive James This past year, many of us have spent extended time away from loved ones, myself included. Since writing this song a couple of years ago the sentiment has intensified. I recorded this song when the band and I made 'A Dark Murmuration of Words' in Wales at the end of 2019 though for various reasons, we held it back. 'Bound For Home' was written with my friend, Frank Turner, on a day I was feeling particularly homesick. Frank is a huge Clive James fan and he read me James’s stunning poem ‘Leçons De Ténèbres’. I learned that day that Clive, based in the UK for decades, had become too ill to make the journey back to Australia. His memories of growing up in the suburbs of Sydney became the muse for so much of his work. He was as fascinated with how we remember, as much as with the memories themselves. As Frank and I worked on the song, it emerged that a conversation was occurring between Clive and I. I was thinking about my childhood home, asking my tidal question of whether or not it was time to return, and reflecting on Clive’s lack of choice on the matter. He finally succumbed to his illness a few months after Frank and I finished the song. Now that he has passed, I picture him returned to Sydney Harbour, standing with this feet in that “crushed diamond water”, staring at the sun, eyes closed, soaking in his muse under a sapphire sky. His story pulls me ever closer to my homeland. As well as Frank lending his voice to our song with some beautiful harmonies, the song also features some great guitar playing (Nashville-tuning) and bowed double bass by Lukas Drinkwater. Watch the video by Tori Styles. To celebrate, Frank and I will be chatting via Instagram Live at 7pm BST tonight about our songs, and songwriting in general. Hope you can join us.