Flaxen of hair, soul-tough and pretty as a diamond, with a tear in her voice filtered through ’70s mariachi static, Emma Swift’s music hearkens back to the golden age of music when singers sang your life back to you. It is a voice of pure heartbreak, delivering songs that are equal parts heart-worn and careworn, modern, insouciant, witty and feminist. A lonesome-voiced singer and award-winning radio broadcaster in her hometown of Sydney, it was a move away from Australia to Nashville, Tennessee that inspired Emma to write and record her solo debut. “I left Australia with two suitcases, three pairs of cowboy boots and enough vinyl to make sure the first piece of furniture I bought when I arrived in Tennessee was a record player. I went in search of songs, in search of kindred spirits, in search of mythical honky-tonks and late-night picking parties. I went with a dream no bigger than to find a place where music might matter as much to the town as it does to me,” says Swift. One of Australia’s finest sad-song-singers, Emma’s voice has always required the kind of backing that would do it justice, and thanks to Nashville-based Australian expat Anne McCue and a cast of A-team Nashville session pickers, Swift’s songs have been wrought from (pedal) steel and amber, turquoise and honey. The debut mini-album features Bryan Owings (Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, Iris Dement, Patty Griffin) on drums, Russ Pahl (John Hiatt, The Secret Sisters, Elton John) on pedal steel, James Haggerty (The Autumn Defense, Ruby Boots) on bass. Opener ‘Bittersweet’ is of the type that once sold albums and singles by the millions, a heartbreaker to make one yearn for whiskey, a jukebox and a handful of dollar coins. ‘King of America’ sees Swift leaning hard, unashamedly even on the bluesy turn in her throat, with enough grit and power to have Loretta Lynn raising an eyebrow. Swift wraps her golden voice around ‘James’, a true sad song of the kind that – like waltzes – once had Willie Nelson wondering if there was any reason to keep writing them. Of course, her treatment of the lyric leaves the listener in no doubt that she’s hurting. ‘Seasons’, a staple of Swift’s live set for years sounds like it belongs on a beat up AM radio some summer long ago. The songs are imbued with an easy smile, vulnerability and toughness calling to mind artists like Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Tammy Wynette, Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, or Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies. “Swift has created a dreamy intoxicated world where the heavy-lidded noir crawl of bands like Mazzy Star and Spain co-exist with late-night honky tonk bars, tear-stained sheets and flickering neon signs.” – Chris Familton, Post To Wire “Too quiet, too slow, too tender and too far from the middle of the road? Yeah, probably. Like any of those are bad things.” – Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald “A 4am record, evocative of two smokes left in the pack and empty glasses on the coffee table.” Jeff Glorfeld, The Age “Her voice is divine, a beguiling blend of the high, lonesome strains of Tammy Wynette and the hushed dreaminess of Hope Sandoval… The bluesy Woodland Street sees her hitting some gorgeous high notes, while on Seasons she channels the fragile sweetness of The Velvets.” – Stack Magazine “Her voice has the right balance of sweetness, sonorousness and just a hint of hard-life huskiness and she delivers classic lyrics with perfect poise… Without reinventing the country sound and without even thinking about any of the current trends, Emma Swift has created something timelessly appealing.” – Chris Cobcroft, 4ZZZ Radio Brisbane “Emma’s voice, just like Tiff Merritt’s broken china reincarnation of Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, sits perfectly for me between past and present. And it’s not just her voice. I can hear echoes from the well-worn grooves of my favourite records in this self-titled mini-album.” – Cam MacKellar