With five albums and three books to her name, British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and poet Emily Maguire is truly “a talent to be reckoned with” (RnR Magazine, UK). With a remarkable, inspiring story to tell, she has been featured many times in interviews and playlists on BBC national radio, her thought-provoking lyrics, supremely expressive voice and spellbinding live performances winning her fans across the globe.Originally from the UK, Emily came to Australia for a 3-week holiday in 2003 and spent the next 4 years living with bass player and record producer Christian Dunham in a shack made of recycled wood, tin and potato sacks on a goat farm in the Australian bush. They set up their own record label Shaktu Records, released Emily’s first two albums and started touring Australia and the UK.Emily did numerous interviews and sessions on ABC local radio stations during that time. In 2004 her debut album ‘Stranger Place’ was ‘Album of The Week’ on ABC Mid North Coast, ABC Radio Midwest & Wheatbelt and ABC Radio Newcastle. After her live performance on ABC Radio Newcastle, the presenter announced on air it was “the best live band session I’ve heard on ABC Radio… ever”. In 2007 the title track of Emily’s second album ‘Keep Walking’ was playlisted on national ABC Radio, covering 60 stations across Australia. That same year a chance play on BBC Radio 2 at the end of a UK tour won Emily a tour with American legend Don McLean that changed her life.From playing to 50 people in a church hall she now found herself on stage at the biggest concert halls in the UK including the Royal Albert Hall in London. Having been played across Australia on ABC Radio, ‘Keep Walking’ was now playlisted on BBC Radio 2, the biggest radio station in the UK, no mean feat for an independent artist.Over the next 12 years Emily had 2 more singles playlisted on Radio 2, released 3 more albums, published 3 books, toured with major acts including Eric Bibb and Dr Hook, played the acoustic stage at Glastonbury and did countless radio interviews and sessions – most recently for BBC Radio 4’s flagship arts programme ‘Front Row’ in November 2018.Open about her own struggles with bipolar disorder since the publication of her first book ‘Start Over Again’, Emily became a patron of the charity Restore and performed her songs for mental health hospitals and groups across the UK, work which recently earned her an international award for public service and advocacy. In the autumn of 2018, Emily published her third book ‘Meditation Mind’, a book of poetry inspired by her Buddhist practice. She toured bookshops and Buddhist centres across the UK, reading poems and singing songs on acoustic guitar with Christian on double bass. In January 2019, after 12 years away, Emily and Christian returned to the farm in the Australian bush to start work on her sixth studio album.Following its UK release, Emily’s fifth album ‘A Bit Of Blue’ was released in Australia in September 2019. Described as ‘exhilarating and transformational’ (RnR Magazine), the album won critical acclaim on its UK release with the first single ‘For Free’, an uplifting and thought-provoking song of social conscience, played on BBC Radio 2.
https://www.emilymaguire.com
View more ...