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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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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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My seventh album ‘A Light To Follow’ is out today.  

It has been three years in the making.  The writing, arranging, recording, editing and mixing has all taken much more time than I’d ever imagined.  But I know it wouldn’t be the record it is if any of the steps along the way had been different. 

The songs on this album are all pieces of my heart.  I hope they bring you some joy, some comfort.

I am hugely grateful to Shane Nesic, Sarah King and Dan Lyons for adding their creativity and talent to this record.  Thank you to Nigel Butler for helping us yet again.  Above all, huge and heartfelt thanks to my husband Christian Dunham for listening to my umpteen demos, and engineering, mixing and producing ‘A Light To Follow’.  I couldn’t do it without you.

CDs will be dispatched from the UK and Australia.  If you don’t have a CD player you can still support my music by ordering the digital album from Bandcamp.  The album will be available on all streaming sites including Spotify.

If you would like to know more about the story of the album, we’ve published a book with behind the scenes photographs, lyrics, works in progress and my own personal notes on the inspiration behind each song.  This book comes with an album download card.

Both the CD and book are available in my website shop.  You can listen to clips from the album here.

Thanks so much for your support.

xx

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We’ve just released today a short film about my new album ‘A Light To Follow’ which was recorded here at Shaktu, our home on a goat farm in a place known as ‘the back of beyond’.  The documentary includes footage of our life here – the farm, the animals etc.  It also includes behind the scenes footage of recording and interviews with me and my husband, producer and bass player Christian Dunham.  The album ‘A Light To Follow’ will be released next week (28.02.23).

You can watch the film here.

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The release date of my seventh album ‘A Light To Follow’ is getting very near – it will be out on Tuesday 28 February. If you’re on my mailing list, I’ll send you an email to let you know when it’s out.

The album launch will take place in Bundaberg, Australia at Oodies Cafe on Thursday 2 March. Doors open at 5.30pm, the show starts at 7pm.  Tickets are $35.  Book now if you’d like to be there.

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I am delighted to announce the release of ‘Sunshine’, the first single from my forthcoming album ‘A Light To Follow’.

It’s a song about looking forward, about hope and determination, that sense of relief and happiness you feel when the storm is over.

You can listen to ‘Sunshine’ and read the lyrics here.  You can also listen on Spotify but if you would like to support my music, you can download the song from Bandcamp for just £1.

xx

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My tour of northern New South Wales finished at the weekend with gigs at Pearces Creek Hall and Jiggi Hall followed by an impromptu house concert in The Channon, thanks to the lovely Terri Nicholson.

Big love and thanks to all the hall promoters and everyone who came to see us play in NSW – we had such a fantastic time and will definitely be coming back… if you want me to let you know when, please join my mailing list.

I am continuing on my mission to bring live music to small halls in rural communities (inspired by Woodfordia’s brilliant Festival of Small Halls).  Tickets are now on sale for my next tour in February-March when we’ll be playing halls in south-east Queensland – click here for all the info. Please spread the word if you have friends or family in the area.

Hope all’s well in your world.

xx