aaamusic | On 25, Jun 2013

Dear River, released on the 8^th of July, will be the fourth studio album from Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo. The act melts together country, folk and rock genres to create their own style of music. The singer-songwriter’s musical style bears some similarity to Frank Turner, who the act have performed with at the London 2012 Olympics. Emily’s vocals are a nice mix of strong and delicate across the album, adding to the expressive quality of the lyrics. The lyrics are rich and often have a narrative quality, especially on tracks such as ‘Letters’. There is a very high quality of musicianship across the album, a maturing of style as you would expect from a fourth album. It ticks all the boxes that its target audience would want really. A vibrant variety of musical genres and instruments, crushed velvet vocals and well written lyrics. Certainly recommended to folk rock fans.

★★★★★

Rose Benge