Crack in the Doorway

After six years of creation, Emma Luker's first solo album has finally been released. Emma is a well-known member of The FIddle Chicks, the Heather Frahn Ensemble, The Eric Bogle Band and many, many more groups over the years, having recorded and played on over thirty albums.
From the opening "Blue Poles", an instrumental feast of strings, Emma takes the listener into the whimsical "Against the World" and "Goldfish at the Laundromat." Both written by local artists, these songs use violin, cello, synth and drums to create a folky fusion and a sweet backdrop for Emma's voice.
Then the listener is taken to the folky realm of "Tinto Jig", with drums, guitar and folk fiddle in the most stripped-back acoustic style. This makes way for "Won't be Found", a haunting road song by Sweden's Tallest Man on Earth, with keyboard sequencing and delay guitar adding extra depth. "Rory's Escape" is a full rock take on an original frenzied fiddle tune, with electric guitar by J-Wah! of Australian band "The Beards". The rest of the album goes from the angst-ridden "Long Way Over" with full band, to "Crack in the Doorway", a world music mix of fiddle, percussion, mandolin and reggae-inspired bass. These tracks are followed by a fiddle and voice version of "To Have and to Have Not" by Billy Bragg, "She moved through the Fair", an old celtic traditional tune played by an authentic solo baroque violin, and the epic world-music jam "Journey Someplace in Another Time", complete with oboe, percussion, strings and guitar.
As you can see, this album is a feast of different sounds, styles and genres, all connected by the emotive violin-playing, the sense of adventure and the standout performances.
"Emma Luker is one of the most accomplished musicians I have had the pleasure of working with during my musical career, and I've worked with a few. It's not just because of the technical mastery of her instrument, impressive though that is, it's something more rare and more intangible than that........I suppose you could call it total empathy. Emma hears a tune or a song, her brain absorbs it, sends it down to her heart, which embraces and colours it, then, most importantly, a little piece of her soul is added to the mixture, and the whole lot is transferred instantly to her fingers, where, via the hitherto lifeless bits of wood and synthetic gut she holds in her hands, the magic is communicated to the listener..."
Eric Bogle, singer/songwriter