Emma Swift (born 15 December 1981) is an Australian singer-songwriter. Before becoming a musician, she was a radio broadcaster, hosting Americana music show ''In the Pines'' on

FBi Radio FBi (call sign: 2FBI) station is an independent, not-for-profit community radio in Sydney, Australia. FBi places a heavy emphasis on local emerging music: it has a policy that at least 50 per cent of its music content is to be Australian, of ...

and ''Revelator'' on Double J at

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

in Sydney, Australia.

Career

Originally from Sydney, Australia, Swift moved to

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

in 2013, to pursue a career in music. Swift recorded her self-titled debut EP in Nashville with producer

Anne McCue Anne McCue is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, music-recording producer, video director, and radio host from Australia, more recently (as of 2007) based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Early life and education McCue grew up in Camp ...

. It was released in 2014 and was nominated for the

ARIA Award for Best Country Album The ARIA Music Award for Best Country Album, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie Aussie is Australian slang for ''Australian'', both the adjective and the noun, and less c ...

at the

ARIA Music Awards of 2014 The 28th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) are a series of award ceremonies which include the 2014 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fin ...

. Jeff Glorfeld from '' Sydney Morning Herald'' said "Recorded in Nashville with a top-notch crew of session players, the mellow-voiced Sydney singer avoids the usual pitfalls and excesses by enlisting fellow Aussie expat Anne McCue, a fine singer in her own right, as producer. What they deliver is set of songs free of artifice, just heartfelt music." Swift has toured the US, Australia, UK, and Europe with

Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing th ...

, and they have released two 7" vinyl singles together, "Follow Your Money" in 2015 and "Love Is a Drag" in 2016, produced by Norman Blake of

Teenage Fanclub Teenage Fanclub are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in Bellshill near Glasgow in 1989. The group were founded by Norman Blake (vocals, guitar), Raymond McGinley (vocals, lead guitar) and Gerard Love (vocals, bass), all of whom shared ...

. Swift also performed backing vocals along with

Gillian Welch Gillian Howard Welch (; born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, bluegrass, count ...

and

Pat Sansone Patrick Anthony "Pat" Sansone (born June 21, 1969) is an American multi-instrumentalist in the rock bands Wilco and The Autumn Defense. Early bands Sansone was born in Meridian, Mississippi. Upon entering college at The University of Southe ...

Wilco Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently d ...

on Hitchcock's 2017 self-titled album. Swift opened for

Ryan Adams David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, artist, and poet. He has released 23 albums, as well as three studio albums as a former member of alt-country band Whiskeytown. In 2000, Adams left ...

in Australia in 2016. In 2018, Swift released a split 7-inch single with Pony Boy (the recording pseudonym of Los Angeles singer-songwriter Marchelle Bradanini). Both musicians covered songs by

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

; Swift covered "Mellow My Mind," from Young's 1975 album '' Tonight's the Night'', while Pony Boy covered " Like a Hurricane" from 1977's ''

American Stars 'n Bars ''American Stars 'n Bars'' is the eighth studio album by Canadian folk rock songwriter Neil Young with , released on Reprise Records in 1977. Compiled from recording sessions scattered over a 29-month period, it includes " Like a Hurricane", one of ...

''. In 2020, Swift released an album of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

covers, ''

Blonde on the Tracks ''Blonde on the Tracks'' is the debut studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Emma Swift and was released August 14, 2020 by Tiny Ghost Records. The album consists of Bob Dylan covers and recorded between 2017 and 2020 in Nashville, Tenness ...

''. Swift said "The idea for the album came about during a long depressive phase, the kind where it's hard to get out of bed and get dressed and present to the world as a high-functioning human. I was lost on all fronts no doubt, but especially creatively. I've never been a prolific writer, but this period was especially wordless. Sad, listless and desperate, I began singing Bob Dylan songs as a way to have something to wake up for. Interpreting other people's emotions is how I learned to sing and I've always enjoyed hearing Dylan's songs from a female perspective. You can learn a lot about melody and feeling by the way a singer chooses to interpret someone else's song." In October 2020, Swift released the original single "The Soft Apocalypse" with Swift saying "It's very much about this year and this moment in time: my attempt to document what it is like to live in Trump's America in the COVID era. It's one part confession, one part pantheism and one part protest." In 2021 she as a solo artist was inter alia part of the

Newport Folk Festival Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. It was one of the first modern music festivals in America, and remains a foc ...

in July.

Personal life

Swift lives in East Nashville with her partner

and their cats.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

Awards and nominations

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (known colloquially as the

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. History The inaugural 2006 awards were held at ...

) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. ! , - ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, ''Blonde on the Tracks'' , Best Independent Blues and Roots Album or EP , ,

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...

. Swift has been nominated for one award. ! , - ,

, ''Emma Swift'' ,

, , , -

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, Emma Australian country singers Living people 20th-century Australian women singers 21st-century Australian women singers 1981 births Musicians from Sydney Australian expatriates in the United States