I'm delighted to announce that I've been nominated for Folk Singer of the Year in this year's BBC Folk Awards! It's a particular honour to be in the fine company of Eliza Carthy, Sam Lee and Rhiannon Giddens in this category. The BBC Folk Awards will be announced at The Royal Albert Hall, London on 27th April. The Furrow Collective are also up for Best Traditional Track for Rachel Newton's beautiful rendition of The Unquiet Grave, so it's going to be a good party!
In other BBC news it was great to be a part of BBC Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend in January. You can still listen to Verity Sharp's 'Voice of the People' programme, in-which I sing 'Old Mother Eve' with lovely accompaniment from Rob Harbron and Lucy Farrell. Thanks to Paul Sartin for featuring A Midsummer Carol from The Devil's Interval in his great feature on The Choir too. I was sorry to have to cancel singing for In Tune due to a sore throat, but it was exciting to see Rosie Hood unfurling her wings with her new song 'Furlong of Flight'. Rosie and I had a great day working on songwriting for her BBC fellowship last year.
I'm looking forward to be back on the road with The Furrow Collective from 17th -25th March - and we'll be launching our new single Wild Hog in the Woods to boot! Spring still seems like an age away, but no doubt the blossoms will put on a fine show before too long and I'll be back to putting on my own shows with a Spring Tour starting on 29th April and culminating in two very special shows with my new big band THE CORACLE BAND, featuring the talents of Lucy Farrell, Rachel Newton, Toby Kearney, Sam Sweeney and M G Boulter.
DIARY DATES:
17TH-25TH MARCH | THE FURROW COLLECTIVE WILD HOG IN THE WOODS RELEASE TOUR.
29TH APRIL | 6TH MAY EMILY PORTMAN TRIO TOUR | FEAT. RACHEL NEWTON & LUCY FARRELL
MAY 13TH | EMILY PORTMAN AND THE CORACLE BAND + THE FURROW COLLECTIVE + ALASDAIR ROBERTS + RACHEL NEWTON | BIRMINGHAM TOWN HALL (TSSH).
MAY 14TH | EMILY PORTMAN AND THE CORACLE BAND | TURNER SIMS, SOUTHAMPTON.
Over & Out, Emily x