Emily Maguire

England-born singer and songwriter Emily Maguire left behind the gloomy atmosphere of her native “Old Blighty” and settled into a stripped-down existence in rural Australia, where she developed, captured, and ultimately issued her first album. Classically trained on cello and piano, Maguire moved without difficulty to guitar and started composing original material. Her debut long-player, 2005’s Stranger Place, was cut, she later recounted, inside a remote outback shack. Once the record gained traction, the single “The Real World” brought her back to England for a showcase at London’s 2005 Borderline Singer/Songwriter Festival. She spent the following year performing across England and the wider United Kingdom, then returned to Australia to compose, track, and oversee her sophomore effort. That project, featuring Christian Dunham on bass and Shane Nesic on drums, also showcased a string section that Maguire herself arranged and played. Issued by Universal in 2008 under the title Keep Walking, the album arrived after another well-received visit to the U.K.