Sally Barker (born 19 September 1959) is a British singer and songwriter, known for her solo work and as a founding member of the Poozies. In 2014, she was a finalist in the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

talent contest '' The Voice'', finishing in joint second place.

Career

Barker was born in Barrow upon Soar,

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, England. Between early 1980 and summer 1982, while studying in Loughborough, she joined or formed several rock bands with fellow students. Bands included 'Manitou', 'The Chapter', 'Sally Barker and the Undergraduates' and 'Runway 5'. Most gigs were played in the Students Union building at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

, but there were some in halls of residence and one at Loughborough Town Hall. Some of these gigs were recorded and The Chapter did one recording session at the

Pebble Mill Studios Pebble Mill Studios was the BBC's television studio complex located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, which served as the headquarters for BBC Birmingham from 1971 until 2004. The nine-acre site was opened by Princess Anne ...

in Birmingham. During Barker's early career, as a singer-songwriter, she supported acts including

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English British folk rock, folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson (musician), Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Marti ...

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

, Richard Thompson,

Wishbone Ash Wishbone Ash are a British Rock music, rock band who achieved success in the early to mid-1970s. Their albums include ''Wishbone Ash (album), Wishbone Ash'' (1970), ''Pilgrimage (Wishbone Ash album), Pilgrimage'' (1971), ''Argus (album), Argu ...

and Roy Harper. Her second release, ''This Rhythm Is Mine'', which also received a US release on Ryko's Hannibal label, marked her maturity as a songwriter. In 1990, Barker became a founding member of the Poozies, an all-women folk band. The line-up featured harpists Mary Macmaster and

Patsy Seddon Patsy Seddon is a Scottish harpist, violinist, and traditional singer in Scots and Gaelic. Biography Seddon was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was a member of leading folk band The Poozies from 1990 until 2012, and the duo Sìleas with ...

from the

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

duo Sileas, and Karen Tweed (accordion) who Barker met at a folk festival in Hong Kong. Barker played with the Poozies until 1995, when she left just before the birth of her first child. In 1992, she recorded the song "I Misunderstood" for the CD ''The World Is a Wonderful Place: The Songs of Richard Thompson''. Barker also appeared on the

Show of Hands Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots/ folk duo formed in 1986 by singer-songwriter Steve Knightley (guitars, mandolin, mandocello, cuatro) and composer and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer (vocals, guitars, violin, viola, mandolin, mando ...

1996 album '' Live at the Royal Albert Hall''. Barker also provided vocals for the 1997 Pete Morton CD, ''Courage, Love and Grace'', and the 1998 Janet Russell CD, ''Gathering the Fragments''. In the autumn of 2006, Barker reunited with the Poozies for a series of shows. She subsequently rejoined the group permanently, the first album with this line-up being ''Yellow Like Sunshine'', released in autumn 2009. Starting in November 2008, Barker presented "The

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

Project" with piano and dulcimer player Glenn Hughes (and occasionally banjo player Debbie Cassell) in which they performed an evening of Mitchell's songs. An album, ''Conversation: The Joni Tapes (Vol. 1)'' was released in August 2010 with an album launch at the Edinburgh Fringe at the Acoustic Music Centre.

''The Voice''

In January 2014, Barker became a contestant on the

talent contest '' The Voice'', joining Tom Jones' team after a blind audition in which she sang " Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". In the battle round on 1 March she sang " Dear Darlin'" with Talia Smith and was put through by Jones. In the first of the knock-out rounds, on 15 March, she sang " Walk On By" and in the quarter-final, on 22 March, Barker was given a fast pass to the semi-final by Jones, after singing " To Love Somebody". In the semi-final, she sang " The Whole of the Moon" and was voted through to the final. Commenting on his tearful reaction to Barker's performance, Jones said: "Sally it’s lovely to hear you sing. You move me and that’s what happened at auditions. It was so beautiful I couldn’t help myself." In the final, on 5 April 2014, Barker sang Joni Mitchell's " Both Sides, Now" and duetted with Tom Jones on "

Walking in Memphis "Walking in Memphis" is a song written and originally recorded by American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, for whom it remains his signature song. It received a Song of the Year nomination at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards in 1992, the same year tha ...

". Having escaped elimination she reached the final three and sang " Dear Darlin'" again as her final song, but was a runner-up to Jermain Jackman.

Later work

In September 2014, Barker announced a British tour between September and December 2014. In 2015, Barker joined the three surviving members of the folk-rock band Fotheringay for six tour dates in the UK and, in 2016, provided backing vocals on a new album by Brooks Williams entitled ''My Turn Now''. She also embarked on a solo tour, which concluded in November 2016. In 2017, she supported

on their Win-tour 2017 tour.

Personal life

Barker has two sons, Ben and Dillon. Her husband, Chris Wakeford, died in 2003.

References

External links

Official site
*

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

br>The Joni Mitchell Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Sally 1959 births Living people English women guitarists English women singers English folk guitarists English folk musicians English women songwriters English women singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters Fotheringay members Musicians from Leicestershire People from Barrow upon Soar The Poozies members Rykodisc artists The Voice UK contestants