Songs of Midlife, Myth and Wonder from award-winning Emily Portman
Award-winning folk singer and songwriter Emily Portman (and friends) has a date in Stamford this month, performing material from her acclaimed new album Dominion of Spells, alongside songs from across her celebrated catalogue.
Dominion of Spells charts a heroine's midlife journey through dark woods in search of wonder. Drawing on ballads and folktales, Portman weaves lived experience with rich mythic imagery, exploring motherhood, burnout, mental health, misogyny, creativity and transformation.
The title derives from a phrase coined by William Harvey, physician to King James I, rooted in the ancient belief that women's ‘wandering wombs’ moved around their bodies, causing illness, hysteria, and witchcraft. Portman transforms it: her Dominion of Spells is a realm of wonder, equality, and liberation, where women’s pain is believed, their bodies understood, and their voices heard.
Folk traditions have always carried stories untold by official history. These songs stand in that lineage, telling of women's inner lives, dreams and desires— as artists, as mothers, and wanderers in dark woods.
Portman tours with acclaimed guitarist Louis Campbell and Lucy Revis (Before Breakfast) on cello and vocals, creating a rich yet understated sound world of unaffected vocals, banjo, piano, crystalline harmonies and strings.
See her at Stamford Arts Centre on September 25.