Aussie singer-songwriter Emily Barker has announced the release of a new album “Sweet Kind of Blue” which lands on May 19th on the Everyone Sang label. Described as “a departure from her folk-based sound” the record reaches more into the Country / Americana space, having been recorded in Memphis with Grammy-award winning producer Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price, Jason Isbell) alongside various members of Memphis ‘music royalty’ as her backing band, who are always a better backing band than actual royalty.
The new record is her first full studio album since 2013’s Dear River and marks a new sound for Emily as she returns to the soul and blues influences that first inspired her to become a songwriter and musician. She is best known as the writer and performer of the theme to BBC crime drama Wallander, and she’s released music with various bands including The Red Clay Halo, Vena Portae and Applewood Road. In 2015 she composed her first full feature film soundtrack for Jake Gavin’s Hector, which won a Scottish BAFTA for its lead actor, Peter Mullan. Here’s a track from the new record along with an introduction to it.