'Geography' - EMILY BARKER :: (Red Rooster Festival) BOPFLIX sessions

 The delightful wonderment that is Emily Barker recorded this for the Red Rooster Festival last year and had it out on the Tube but it seemed a tad hidden away to me so . . . . . . . here it is 'Geography' [from A Dark Murmuration of Words her last solo album 2021]

#bopflix #redrooster #emilybarker

Emily Barker & Lukas Drinkwater - Sleep Australia Sleep (Paul Kelly cover)

 

EMILY BARKER - Sleep Australia Sleep

The most extraordinary Paul Kelly song covered here by the peerless Emily Barker. If this is not the anthem for today then I really don't know what is!?

 It doesn't always quite work as well as it might in the sense a reference to Australia limits it's appeal somehow and it might have become more universal had it not referenced so parochial a country reference but that is splitting hairs and Emily's quite frankly staggering quality she brings to it more than makes up for the homely reference . . . . . the 'green' message more than depressingly clear

She and her wonderful fellow musician husband Lukas flew to Emily's homeland and had to spend a fortnight in isolated hotel quarantine so what would they do? Why record an album of covers of course!

Beautiful stuff and a great idea but she has hardly sat still at him here in Gloucestershire either and released a towering new album 'A Dark Murmuration of Words' and variations thereon (a jump off for an album of poetry and rethought music! no less she is a force of nature and cannot be uncreative for a second it would seem)

She say of this track

Like most Australians, I’m a fan of Paul Kelly. I think of him as the Bob Dylan of Australia: a brilliant storyteller who never shies away from tackling the pertinent and sensitive issues of our times. He’s consistently uplifted burgeoning Australian songwriters such as a young Archie Roach back in the 80s and, more recently, Jess Hitchcock. In ‘Sleep, Australia, Sleep’ – released as a standalone single in 2020 – Kelly attacks the complacency held by corporations, government, and people in positions of power, with their stuck and endangering attitudes towards the climate crisis. The song is also an elegy to our precious native animals and plants: Australia has one of the highest rates of extinction in the entire world. When it came to recording our version, I began by playing and singing it on acoustic guitar. In this stripped-back style, we realised just how devastatingly sad the lyrics are – something which is perhaps a little hidden in Kelly’s sardonic delivery and the waltzy, more uptempo production of the original. We initially intended to add double bass and lots of harmonies but realised this stark, unadorned version delivered the message with clarity.

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Emily Barker's new album "A Dark Murmuration of Words" is out now -

https://smarturl.it/eb-words "an album of spare, striking beauty" Mojo ★★★★ "irresistibly catchy...an album replete with nooks and crannies, light and shade" The Australian ★★★★★

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Emily Barker - FLIGHT PATH RHYMES - Released today!

Emily says: "Hello I'm happy to say that today is the day Flight Path Rhymes is set free into the world." Available exclusively from my Bandcamp page, it is a reimagining of the songs from my album A Dark Murmuration of Words. Flight Path Rhymes was recorded with my husband, Lukas Drinkwater, at our studio in Stroud. Alongside the new versions of the songs, it features a reading of a poem called 'Murmuration Songs,' which I wrote as a means of tying together all the themes. I hope you enjoy this new album as much as Lukas and I enjoyed creating it. You can listen to the whole album now on Bandcamp, where you can also purchase it as a download or on CD if you like! LISTEN TO FLIGHT PATH RHYMES Listen (and buy!) Emily's wonderful 'new' album Flight Path Rhymes' out today! Its a beauty and the thought occurs to me I am not sure of anyone doing a project quite like this but after the release and work on her previous album which I may have, mentioned as being perhaps her best and most mature piece of work to date, and with lock down being what it was/is had caused her to revisit the songs thereon and start writing some poetry [as opposed to lyrics] and using this as a jump off point reconfiguring /re figuring the works piece by piece into quite different pieces of music. Do we know any artist who has done something similar? I cannot think of any . . . . . . . .  Both are beautiful heartfelt and the second 'piece' a joint work with her now  husband the wonderful fellow musician, Lukas Drinkwater.

EMILY BARKER: 'Flight Path Rhymes' - NEW ALBUM!

 EMILY BARKER

'FLIGHT PATH RHYMES'

NEW ALBUM!

So my pathetic attempt at teasers to announce that Emily has been working on the material from her last fantastic solo album 'A Dark Murmuration of Words'  and her recent work on writing poetry has resulted in an entirely new project and an entirely new album 'Flight Path Rhymes' needs some qualifying or we'll be here all week!

From her Facebook page where she announced it, it came right out of the blue (sic) like this:

5 March at 17:34  · 

My "new" album: 'Flight Path Rhymes'

https://smarturl.it/eb-rhymes

EMILYBARKER.BANDCAMP.COM

Flight Path Rhymes, by Emily Barker

19 track album

EMILY BARKER

'MACHINE'

 Turning into a women's day . . . new singles from both Amy MacDonald and Emily Barker just posted this

Emily Barker just released Machine, check it out here. 

Here’s what they say about it: 

“Alongside the album version, there are two new versions of Machine here: one was made with Lukas Drinkwater during the first lockdown when we experimented by creating alternative versions to all the songs on the album (you'll hear more about this later down the line), and the other is a solo version - just me clicking my fingers and singing the melody, much in the style of when it was written.

If you haven't seen Tori Styles' wonderful video, that's here too.

Emily x” 

An extraordinary darker track from Emily here and with tremendous accompaniment from her wonderful husband of this year, bassist Lukas Drinkwater

Do check it out . . . . buy it for a couple of quid!

 EMILY BARKER

If you listen to one song today make it this . . . . .hauntingly sad somehow and ethereal the closer for her new album yet Emily says it came to her almost complete and wholly formed, the muse can affect us like that if we are very lucky . . . . 

It's from her new album 'A Dark Murmuration of Words' and is my recommended play list and purchase of the year.

Emily say:

Hello everyone!

The closing track on my new album is 'Sonogram'. It was one of those songs that arrived almost complete, with the music and lyrics tumbling forth all at once and me scrambling to keep up and note it down - it's a rare treat when that happens.

Here are the lyrics murmuring for you.

Hope you're keeping well.

Emily  

❤️

buy it here

EMILY BARKER

check out her facebook page here

Some more vids from Emily Barker's excellent new album 'A Dark Murmuration of Words'

Emily said last week

Hello everyone,

I was really pleased to find out that 'The Woman Who Planted Trees' has been added to this brilliant playlist featuring many of my favourite artists such as

Mary Chapin Carpenter

,

Yola

,

Billy Bragg

,

Rhiannon Giddens

,

Gillian Welch

,

Ondara

and more. Are you familiar with all these brilliant songs and artists?

If you love what you hear, please remember to support the artists by buying the record or download.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX1nqy6pUAoUv

It's a great playlist!

Happy listening.

Emily

❤️

 IT'S MONDAY MORNING and COFFEE TIME!

EMILY BARKER

As regular viewers (What ARE you talking about? - ED) will know I do tend to go on about how great Emily Barker is and especially her latest album (A Dark Murmuration of Words) and she also shares my love of coffee and has been posting her albums of choice and recent (ish) or of significant purchase with regular favourite brands of  real coffee. So this morning is no exception! Brew up and enjoy! Loretta Lynn produced by Jim White! WOW!

 This . . . . . . . . . . 

Emily says:

Lyrics to 'When Stars Cannot Be Found' from my new album, 'A Dark Murmuration of Words'.

Please turn up and sing along!

I wrote this song with my niece who is six years old, my grandparents - sadly no longer with us, and my heroes in mind.

Emily

buy the album here . . .

Emily and Kate!

I know I keep banging on about the work of Kate Rusby and Emily Barker and amongst lots of other favourite singer songwriters they are figuring so much because they have been especially busy of late and both had albums out recently but they do post some of the best most delightful and fun videos and pictures on their facebook pages and this week is no exception

Here is Emily's latest looking at the painting that she commissioned for the cover artwork of her latest album 'A Dark Murmuration of Words'

and only Kate could post something about her beloved garden and get excited about digging up a potato!!

She says:

OH MY ACTUAL GOODNESS!!!! Look what we dug up today It’s the biggest spud I’ve ever seen!!! And looks like a deep sea fish!!! weighs 1602gms/3.8lbs. Our St George have done brilliant this year, such a beautiful colour, and so huge! How’s your spuds come up???

From one of the finest most pure and staggering voices in folk music today and she shares  . . . . . . a potato! We LOVE her!

 Beyond price!

 MUSIC + COFFEE

EMILY BARKER - 'A Dark Murmuration of Words'

Today I are bin mostly listening to this . . . . . . . . . it came out yesterday and was celebrated by Emily with two live broadcast playings of the album at both 9.00am and 8.00pm with several of the brilliant musicians who played on it (including her husband multi-instrumentalist and renowned bass player Lukas) . . . . . one of the things that amazed me somehow and I realise this shows me up to be an ancient old Luddite but it was released yesterday and I was pleased to receive my digital download via email AND the hard copy of the Deluxe Edition of the CD in the post on the same day. How does Bandcamp DO that?

 [Also it was in my files without really feeling I had to download it but that's another story . . . . ]

Thus far I think it may be Emily's best album to date and it has a sophistication of writing, a depth and emotional maturity that excels over her previous albums and I am a big Fan of those from her work with The Red Clay Halo to her solo efforts like 'Dear River' and 'Sweet Kind of Blue' to 'Shadow Box', Almanac and more. This has a poetic resonance that reflects her current and continuing concerns, the planet and home, where we live and what we are doing in our place in the natural world.

(fans will get the coffee resonance as Emily shares her listening and coffee choices on her Facebook and YouTube pages . . . . . .  This one was my going back to reviewing Sainsbury's own range and this whilst being eminently affordable is Fairtrade and truly dark and rich with chocolate undertones, lovely!)

https://www.emilybarker.com/music/

IT'S HERE! EMILY BARKER NEW ALBUM RELEASED TODAY!

EMILY SAYS: Hello Well, today is the day! I can now share with you the entirety of my new album 'A Dark Murmuration of Words'. It has been some years in the making, with the first song - 'Ordinary' was written four years ago after reading Tim Winton's book 'Breath’.

This collection of songs has taught me so much. Behind each one is a plethora of poets, philosophers, scientists, writers, podcasters, filmmakers, songwriters and great-thinkers to thank for inspiration and information.

Emily says:

Behind each one is a plethora of poets, philosophers, scientists, writers, podcasters, filmmakers, songwriters and great-thinkers to thank for inspiration and information.I have whittled this learning down - filtered through my own experience, thoughts and emotions - into these three to five minute pieces which I am so pleased to be able to share with you now.

Huge thanks to all the incredible musicians, artists, producer Greg Freeman, Sara Silver and Thirty Tigers, all other business team members, and to my manager, Howard Mills for bringing this album to life. And finally, a huge thank you to YOU for all your support.

A reminder too before I go that you can join me tonight for an album listening party.
I'll be live streaming on my YouTube channel and playing the album on vinyl from beginning to end. 

Here are the details...
8pm BST
(12pm PDT / 3pm EDT / 9pm CEST)
I'll be joined by some of the musicians who recorded the album with me.
JOIN THE PARTY

I hope these songs find you well.

love,

Emily x

https://www.facebook.com/notes/emily-barker/a-dark-murmuration-of-words-is-out-now/10159031861351929/