I have to confess to being biased about this gig. Everyone loves Emily Barker and her band, she is one of the nicest people in (folk)rock. She comes on stage to introduce all her supports. She invites an audience member to sing with her (very well) on powerful duet Fields of June, in place of Frank Turner who is on the recorded version – perhaps it will be fellow Aussie Nick Cave she plays with next. The packed audience love her. But I have loved her longer than most….
I remember her years ago singing in the playground at Cambridge Folk Festival (she was fully grown, it was just a good place to busk). I remember her singing wildly at all night parties at the same festival, and at little gigs at the Portland Arms. And at the Strawberry fair with The Low Country and now, now she’s all grown up. I almost shed a tear…
She has been to Nashville, and is more of a country singer than before. She wears a sexy spangly jacket. She sounds SO tight and professional, but without losing the common touch which made us all love her in the first place. She has a great band in The Red Clay Halo which, includes the lovely Gill Sandell, an artist in her own right who (quick plug) is supporting ex-Broken Family Band members I Strip for Couples at Cambridge Junction next week.
Emily and band mostly play tracks from the excellent new album Dear River. Partly autobiographical, as she explains tonight: Letters is about her grandfather surviving as a refugee in wartime Holland, A Spadeful of Ground is about the attitude of some Australians to native people. There are two songs about rivers, the album title and the poignant Blackwood about a childhood place in Oz – nothing about the Cam though.
There are also solo songs about coffee – Emily is an addict and seems to be sponsored by East London roasters Square Mile – and a very popular version of Nostalgia, as used in the Wallander soundtrack. There are three encores, the last a version of Aretha’s soul classic Do Right Woman.
I Missed most of gentle Rachel Dadd due to a madman on the bus, but saw all of support Chris T-T, the Tony Hancock of agitfolk and another old Cambridge favourite. He mixed songs by AA Milne about bears with new x-cert single The Bear, as played by Radio 1, mostly in the censored version. His often sad songs barely conceal a wicked sense of humour.
@KevinHand3
