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The Crack Magazine

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See Emily play

Aussie Emily Barker released one of the best Americana/folk albums in 2024 in the shape of the brilliant ‘Fragile as Humans’, and no doubt she’ll be hitting us up with songs from it when she plays Cluny 2 in Newcastle this January.

I don’t mind admitting that I became aware of Emily Barker’s work through her track ‘Nostalgia’, which was the haunting theme tune to the BBC drama ‘Wallander’ starring Kenneth Branagh. But I’m glad I dived in, because she’s a real talent. Her ‘Flight Path Rhymes’ album (2021) is a real favourite of mine, featuring reworkings of some of her earlier work and drawing on influences that include everything from folky 60s pop to PJ Harvey to Joni Mitchell. She followed that with 2024’s ‘Fragile as Humans’, which is another stunning release. It’s an album in which she tackles all the biggies – collectively “the human condition” – but she does so in the warmest of manners, melding country/rock, Americana and folk into luscious arrangements that really take flight. She’s a consummate live performer and it’s great her latest tour is swinging by our way. GM

Emily Barker + Liz Stringer, Tuesday 28 January, Cluny 2, 7.30pm, £20, thecluny.com

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