I’m really looking forward to playing the fantastically quirky, extremely intimate and vintage-chic Junk Bar in Ashgrove, Brisbane, on Saturday 17 September.  I’ll be performing as an acoustic duo with my husband Christian on bass.  The evening will also feature an opening set from the lovely Brisbane singer-songwriter Kelsey Berrington.  Tickets are $20 and are on sale now.  Book tickets

Tickets are now on sale for a very special fundraising event at Chenrezig Institute, a beautiful Buddhist centre up in the hills behind the Sunshine Coast.  The evening will start with a dinner specially prepared by Geshe Tsultrim followed by the concert.  I’ll be performing with my husband Christian Dunham on bass.  Tickets for this fundraiser are $55.  Click here for the ticket link.  Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

My latest poetry collection ‘Words With Wings’ has been reviewed in Caduceus Magazine (UK).

Words With Wings
by Emily Maguire
Reviewed by Dawn Gorman

Better known as a singer-songwriter than a poet, Emily Maguire, who has toured with legends Don McLean and Dr Hook, wrote this collection of short, stream-of-consciousness poems following her daily Tibetan Buddhism meditation practice. She says: ‘I’d write the first phrase that came into my mind. I had no idea what I was about to write, from one line to the next’. She reads the poems on a downloadable CD (free with the book), accompanied by piano music she also composed as a stream of consciousness – and both this, and her voice, are remarkably soothing.

Her work is influenced by her experience of mental health recovery – she has bipolar disorder – and there is much wisdom here to serve as balm for the fear that lives in us all. Sometimes, the comfort lies in simple acknowledgement that everyone fears something. In the opening poem, Clouds, she says: ‘We are all fire-eaters / And trapeze artists / Hoping there’s a /Safety net to catch / Our fall’. In Fear, meanwhile, she explores how anxieties can be channeled positively: ‘We create art to make / Lamps in the night’.

Maguire, who swapped life in the UK for a farm in the Australian bush, takes a cynical look at our tech-driven lives. In Enough, she says: ‘something / Sacred’ is missing from the draining world of emails and Twitter posts, adding: ‘we / Are in love / With our machines / Far more than / With each other’. But Nature offers solutions – in Wings, she watches crows and kookaburras in flight and suggests we, too, lift our eyes from the ground and exalt in life, concluding: ‘We just need / To find where / We put our wings’.

Maguire says she offers her ‘words with wings’ to ‘uplift, comfort and inspire’ – and they do.

So I went to the UK and got a big hug from my mum and saw my other family and friends which was just wonderful. Funny how after all this time – 2½ years – it felt like I’d seen them just yesterday. Not the kids though – they’d all grown up so much.

Now I’m back on the farm in Australia working on my new album and upcoming tours… more news soon.

Hope all’s well in your world.

xx

 

Thanks to everyone who came to hear us play at Springbrook Hall, Felton Hall, Mt Nimmel Hall, Mt Nebo Hall, Stanthorpe Little Theatre and Kerry Memorial Hall. Thanks especially to the volunteers who run these wonderful venues. We’re looking forward to going back next year.

We’ve been working on the final mixes for my new album. I am so happy with it and can’t wait for you to hear these new songs. It will be out in the coming months.

Next week I’m getting on a plane back to the UK to see my family who I haven’t seen for 2½ years. I’ve missed them so much and can’t believe I’m actually going to see them in person again after all this time.

I hope all’s well in your world.

xx