Blog

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Apologies for the radio silence but I have been enduring the worst bipolar breakdown of my life which began in late 2022 and continues to this day.  I am hoping to have recovered and start performing again from September this year.

For the sake of my mental health, I am not on social media anymore – not Facebook, not Instagram nor X.  I have not deleted those accounts as they are a record of the past 20 years of my previous music career with Christian Dunham but they are not active.  I do however have a YouTube channel.  Please feel free to spread the word about my songs via your own social media channels and please join my mailing list so I can let you know when I am well enough to perform live again.  I would be hugely grateful for your support.

I do not have a booking agent, a manager, a publisher, a publicist, a plugger or a record label. Shaktu Records, the record label I ran with Christian for the past 20 years, no longer exists. I want to have as little as possible to do with the music business.  All I want is to sing my songs in quiet rooms and halls with people listening and not talking.  And hope to uplift, comfort and inspire them by doing so.  I don’t care if there are 10 people there, 100 or 1,000.  If you want me to come and play for your audience, whoever they are, please get in touch direct with me by email.

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Thanks to everyone who came to listen to me sing at the fantastic Queens Head pub in Newton, Cambridgeshire, last week.  I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to see so many familiar faces and get such big hugs from everyone I haven’t seen for the past 5 years.

A huge thank you to Tim Pardoe for coming all the way from Sussex with my CDs and books, to the lovely landlord Robert Short for lending me his pub, to Mike Watts for taking photos and most of all to my old friend Ecki who lent me his guitar. And big love and thanks to my audience who came from far and wide and squeezed into the room to hear my songs played unplugged for the first time since my first ever public performance at the Square & Compass Inn in Purbeck back in 1996.

If you have a folk club, a music or community group, or a living room with friends you think might like my songs, please get in touch with me direct.

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Emily did her first solo performance in the UK last week (her first gig since March 2023) unplugged at the very intimate Queens Head pub in Newton, Cambridgeshire.  Thanks to everyone who came from so far away to be there.  Thanks especially to Ecki for lending Emily a guitar, Tim Pardoe for bringing her CDs and books all the way from Sussex and Robert Short for lending us the room in his wonderful pub.

Emily is still recovering from 18 months of severe bipolar illness but is now booking limited dates from September 2024 onwards for private house concerts, folk clubs, and listening rooms in pubs.  Please click the gigs tab and then contact her direct to find out more.


Many thanks to Mike Watts for the photo.

Please note: Emily is no longer on social media. Her audiences are very welcome to spread the word by using their own social media to post to friends and family their photos, videos and posts about her gigs.  All support by word of mouth would be greatly appreciated.  To find out where Emily is performing, please join her mailing list.

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Emily is now based back in the UK recovering from a year-long severe bipolar episode.  You can read her latest blog.  When she has fully recovered her mental health in the coming months, she will be singing her songs again in intimate solo house concerts and gigs for mental health/community organisations and groups around the UK, but not touring as before.

Emily’s albums and books are no longer available to order online but will be available at her house concerts. Her six studio albums, including ‘A Light To Follow’ which was released in February 2023 just before her return to the UK, can be streamed on her website, Spotify, Apple Music and other digital music platforms. All the lyrics for all Emily’s albums can be found on her website.

If you want to watch Emily perform her songs live, you can find the videos of both sets of her gig at Eudlo Hall in Australia in October 2020 on page 2 of her videos (also on her YouTube channel). This gig, performed to a restricted audience of 43 people during the Covid lockdown, featured Christian Dunham on bass, Sarah King on violin/viola and Louise King on cello.  You can download for free the album and lyric booklet for ‘Live at Eudlo Hall’ here.

A short documentary about the making of Emily’s seventh album ‘A Light To Follow’ in the Australian bush (released just before she returned to the UK last year) is available on her videos page or on her YouTube channel.

You can also hear the 15 minute BBC broadcast (recorded in Australia in 2022) of Emily’s programme about her fourth book ‘Words With Wings’, introducing and playing a selection of the poems (accompanied by her own original piano music) from the digital album that accompanies the book.

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I have not
Died or disappeared
It’s just this
Rollercoaster
Has been
The biggest
Of them all
So you did not
See me
When I flew above the clouds
And when I fell
I fell so fast and so far
You did not see me
Then either
And then the hole
I fell into
Was so deep and so dark
I disappeared for a long time
And then when I came
Shooting up again
You were looking
The other way
I’m sure someday
My ride will run out
Part of me hopes
It comes to rest
On solid ground
So this time
You can see me
Can see I have not
Died or disappeared
Just been reborn.

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Emily’s new record ‘A Light To Follow’ is ABC Wide Bay’s album of the week.  Hear tracks before 7am and between 10-11am each morning this week (March 13-18).  You’ll also catch Emily sharing the inspiration behind many of the songs.  Emily’s full interview with Scott Lamond, featuring her husband and producer Christian Dunham, will air on Friday (March 17) between 9-10am.

Listen to ABC Wide Bay on 100.1fm + 855am or stream online https://ab.co/3xc9ddv