Album Review: Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo - Almanac

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Emily Barker is something of an enigma. The Australian born singer-songwriter has, since forming alt-folk outfit The Low Country back in 2002, racked up several remarkable musical milestones. She has enjoyed a critical kudos which has dutifully persisted from her earliest output through two outings with current foil the Red Clay Halo. She has toured with luminaries such as Jose Gonzalez. She also has an uncanny knack of picking up awards, with the handful of Aussie songwriting gongs she netted in 2006 now vying for pride of place in the trophy cabinet with the BAFTA and Royal Television Awards she won last year for providing the theme to hit BBC series Wallander (a reworking of her 2008 track ‘Nostalgia’). And yet, she returns this month as a virtual unknown outside a network of zealous folk-enthusiasts, and with a third Red Clay Halo album, Almanac – her first in 3 years – funded largely with donations thanks to an arrangement with the Pledge Music initiative...

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Listen Up! No. 73: Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo - Little Deaths

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BAFTA Award-winning Australian songwriter Emily Barker sings wistful, undulating songs with a endearingly breathy fragility. It's as if she's staring out of a window at rolling hills, her gentle ruminations and lightly strummed guitar later commited to a tape of Red Clay Halo's more than capable accompaniment. At once melancholy and uplifting, minor in key but major in depth, this kicks the crap out of most of the unseemly dribble of contemporary folk seeping out of London. Her record, Almanac, funded with help from Pledge Music, comes out in February. In the meantime, enjoy her last single, the beautiful 'Little Deaths'.