House of Cards

Drawing from the earthy inspirations of a long line of heritage singer songwriters such as Carole King whose qualities start with their songwriting prowess, Brighton singer songstress Emily Baker sets out her stall in this, her finely sculpted debut album and calling card 'House of Cards' (Little Love Records).

House of Cards is a beautifully crafted collection of songs that truly reflect a hugely engaging and emerging talent with songs such as the title track 'House of Cards' and the instantly infectious and easy to relate to song 'One Of Those Days' which form the backbone of this immediately engaging and accomplished body of work.

House of Cards sees Emily not only writing and singing but also playing everything from the guitar to the glockenspiel and Ukulele and you can immediately detect the love, energy and purpose that has gone into every track on this debut which has been carefully pieced together by Producer Colin Walker ( Carleen Anderson, Beth Rowley).

In 2009, Emily won the Arts Foundations songwriting award and Annie Lennox presented her with The Arts Foundation Fellowship in Songwriting which helped set the tone towards Emily writing the body of work contained within House of Cards.

'When I realised I felt a small pang of jealousy for how good one of these songwriters is - that was when I knew I'd found my winner.' - Vashti Bunyan (Arts Foundation Judge)

Once on stage Emily is genuinely at home with the audience. Her skill is in balancing passionate storytelling with flashes of eccentricity between songs: taking a slice of real life and serving up with a melody.

In the last 18 months Emily has toured the UK both solo and with Squeeze frontman Chris Difford; supported Jon Allen, Jesca Hoop, Beth Rowley, Frank Turner and Gabriella Cilmi; and has headlined London Songwriters Week and played London City Showcase, The Secret Garden Party and The Great Escape Festival. Pete Doherty cited her as the person who first influenced him to pick up a guitar and she was reunited with Doherty, supporting him both at Bournemouth Opera House and Hackney Empire.

2011 brings showcases at The Folk Alliance Festival in Memphis, a week in Nashville and UK tours with Amy Wadge/ Pete Riley and as part of The Lost Highway.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.