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Emily Frances Algar

Music Journalist and Communications Expert

Atwood Magazine •

Interview: Jill Andrews Confronts the Darkness Head-On With ‘Big Feelings’ - Atwood Magazine

Known for her folk and bluegrass sounds from her time as part of The Everybodyfields, Andrews has toured with The Avett Brothers, Willie Nelson, and The Secret Sisters; collaborated with Anderson East on his track, “Say Anything”; and has had her own music featured on Grey’s Anatomy, This Is Us, Wynonna Earp, and many more.

If you’ve heard a sad song on your favourite television show, chances are, it might be Jill Andrews’. She is also part of...
Atwood Magazine •

Interview: Caylee Hammack Tends to Her Heart on ‘Bed of Roses’ - Atwood Magazine

With Bed of Roses (out March 7th via Capitol Records), the Georgia-born country artist leans into the traditional country sounds that first shaped her, crafting a record that feels both deeply personal and timeless.

It’s a marked shift from her glossier debut, whose R&B and pop elements gave it a more ‘modern country’ feel. Bed of Roses, on the other hand, recalls the sounds of Bobby Gentry, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Hammack even reim...
Atwood Magazine •

Interview: Country Singer Kameron Marlowe Follows the Muse on ’Sad Songs for the Soul’ - Atwood Magazine

Released on February 21st and produced by Ben West, this is the 27-year-old’s third record with Sony Music Nashville. Listening to the album, one can’t help but hear a person wise beyond his years, with a voice that recalls Chris Stapleton, Ryan Beaver, and a young John Legend.

Hailing from Kannapolis, North Carolina, Marlowe got his start singing in church and joined a band in high school. In 2018, a talent scout found one of Marlowe’s songs...
Atwood Magazine •

Atwood Magazine's Weekly Roundup: February 5, 2025

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On Sunday night, Doechii collected the Grammy award for Best Rap Album for her masterful mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal – making history as only the third woman to ever win the category since it was introduced in 1995. While she tearfully accepted her award, her victory lap had already begun.

Immediately after the Grammy Awards, Doechii dropped “Nosebleeds,” an instantly iconic, blatantly arrogant, hype track declaring her place as rap’s q...
Atwood Magazine •

50 Artists to Watch in 2025 – Atwood Magazine

The past twelve months introduced us to a litany of fresh and exciting music makers whose incredible talents, stories, sounds, and voices made them impossible to ignore. Now as 2025 dawns, we look to a year of powerful and promising new music ahead!

Atwood Magazine is proud to present our staff-procured list of Artists to Watch in 2025, in alphabetical order (you can jump directly to an artist by clicking their name above). From buzzy names like Doechii, Mk.gee, and Rebecca Black, to up-and-com...
Medium •

Where does cyber security begin and end?

DDoS, spear-phishing, phishing, ransomware, AI deepfakes, worms, viruses, all these are familiar terms if you work in cyber security. We know what they are, how they work, the consequences of when they are successful, what we can do to best prevent them, and how to clean up the mess afterwards. These lines are clear, but what about when those lines break down and other issues come into play?I’m going to give two examples that sit on those porous lines.The first, in April 2024, a number of Britis...
Medium •

John Paul White — Live at the Omeara, Southwark London, UK

“It’s only going to get sadder”, said John Paul White to the audience at The Omeara as he finished playing the opening song in his set, “I Wish I Could Write You a Song”, from his third record, The Hurting Kind. The Americana artist who was once part of the Grammy Award Winning duo, The Civil Wars.White played an acoustic set as part of his 2024 European Tour, including songs from his critically acclaimed album Beulah, The Hurting Kind and his debut record, The Long Goodbye. Highlights were “I W...
Medium •

A wish list for cyber security in 2025

General Timothy Haugh, a four-star Air Force general who leads the National Security Agency (NSA)and Cyber Command in the United States, told Bloomberg media that he wants to provide a public “hunt guide” so cyber security professionals and companies can search out the hackers and eradicate them from telecommunications networks.Haugh added that the US is reliant on industry to share insights into what happened on their own networks. The same can be said for most countries in the world.In my arti...
Medium •

How to create a successful cyber security awareness environment?

It’s easy to blame an individual rather than asking whether your organisation and its senior leadership team have:a) looked at the security posture of the organisation and what they SHOULD be doing to empower their employeesb) acknowledged that scams are becoming more and more sophisticated and it isn’t just the “gullible” who become victims. In other words, it’s not if but when.The aim should be to move from a shame-based culture to a no-blame culture. Instead of berating someone for clicking o...
Atwood Magazine •

Interview: Nerina Pallot Discusses Her Eighth Album, ‘A Psalm for Emily Salvi’ - Atwood Magazine

I interviewed Pallot seven years ago when her album Stay Lucky was released in 2018. Pallot is a British singer-songwriter-producer-multi-instrumentalist who has been making music since the early 2000s. Her second full-length album Fires, which was self-funded and released independently sent shockwaves through the British music industry with both critical and commercial acclaim. Pallot has since released six full-length records and dozens of EPs. She has also written for Kylie Minogue, Diana Vic...
Medium •

Should there be secrets in cyber security?

Cyber attacks such as data breaches, IT outtages, ransomware are commonplace. No industry is immune to these attacks and they transcend the private and public sectors.Key takeways from each of these cyber attacks has been third party supply chains that are not secure, outdated software that can’t be or has not been patched, and lack of basic security such as two-factor authentication (2FA).My question is, how open should organisations be when they experience a cyber attack? And finally, do they...
Atwood Magazine •

Review: Kelsea Ballerini Breaks With Old Habits on Her Fifth Album, ‘PATTERNS’ - Atwood Magazine

“Sorry, Mom, you know that I had sex before I bought the white dress. I know you’re not impressed with my lack of sticking to the Bible,” sings country superstar Kelsea Ballerini in the second verse off her single, “Sorry Mom.”

You don’t get much more honest and vulnerable than talking about sex, religion and your relationship with your mom less than two minutes into your new song. “Sorry Mom” feels as much Ballerini telling her mom that these traditional values aren’t healthy, as it is her apo...
Atwood Magazine •

Introducing Sydney Quiseng: Echosmith’s Frontwoman on Her New Solo Career - Atwood Magazine

There is a beauty in the lyrics not being too specific, which is something that is perhaps Quiseng’s signature in her songwriting from writing for her band Echosmith.

Quiseng was born and raised in Southern California where she formed the band Echosmith with her brothers and c0wrote the triple-platinum-hit “Cool Kids”, which launched the band into touring the world and writing three albums, the third of which was released last year. Quiseng is now embarking on her own solo career.

Writing and...
Medium •

Why telling stories is important in cyber security: part two

Jen Easterly, the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), recently did a keynote speech at the mWISE Conference from Mandiant. The keynote’s address main message was to talk about the Secure By Design initiative, which the US and the UK governments are aiming to embed across those companies making software. Secure By Design means that software products and capabilities have been designed to be foundationally secure.However, what struck me about this keynote, and...
Medium •

Why telling stories is important in cyber security: part one

I love stories, be they books, records, poetry or film.I passionately believe that storytelling, even in a corporate, non-artistic setting, is powerful. Telling stories, particularly real ones, can move people to change their behaviours, their views and even, dare I say it, their aspirations.I said previously you need to give people a reason WHY they should do things differently or make change, storytelling is the most impactful WHY.Good stories and storytelling put the reader in the writers pla...
Atwood Magazine •

Nerina Pallot Reminds Us What It Is to Be Human on “Regrets” - Atwood Magazine

“I got regrets, and so do you,” sings Nerina Pallot as the closing lyric to her brand new single “Regrets” off her upcoming album, A Psalm for Emily Salvi, due out on November 1st. The line brings you back to earth with a crash, because it is true for every human who has ever existed on this sphere we call Earth. We are told that regrets are not a good thing to have and are things to be avoided at all costs, but what if, regrets are an inevitable part of the fabric of being human, just like hear...
Medium •

Cyber Security Tabletop Exercises: How to make your communications successful during a cyber-attack

In my previous role, I sat in on Cyber Security Tabletop Exercises. If you haven’t heard of a Tabletop Exercise, they can take various formats, from very informal to a simulation of a cyber-attack.Tabletop Exercises are usually run by the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and their team and will include senior leaders. Each leader should represent a part of your organisation. This is important as each part will use different systems and have a certain function. You want each part of your...
Medium •

Is the fan era over?

It has now become clear that you can no longer be a fan of an artist and their music. You now have to fully invested in everything in the artist says and does, and when you’re called upon, become a rabid defender of that artist even if it involves you issuing death threats, doxing and bullying someone off a platform. Fans having given rise to the Stans.According an NPR article, the term ‘stan’ “was first coined in 2000 when Eminem dropped a twisted allegory in a song called ‘Stan’, about a man w...
Medium •

What makes cyber security communications successful?

The profile of cyber security is increasing in the media, but it is still largely seen as a realm for IT professionals and people who are technically minded. This is partly because we, the public, have relied on big organisations and government to protect us, and two, because we in the industry have created a language that excludes rather includes people.With this increase in visibility, comes the responsibility of telling convincing and accessible cyber security stories and communications.Using...
Atwood Magazine •

Review: Cut! Maren Morris Slows It Down With New EP ‘Intermission,’ Exploring Identity Through Song - Atwood Magazine

From her debut album Hero to her wildly successful Girl and her last record Humble Quest, you know a Maren Morris song immediately. Her music is made for vast venues and long car rides with the windows rolled down and the volume up high.

Having seen her live, I can attest to her larger-than-life stage presence and her powerful vocals that are one third country, one third pop and one third R’n’B. She’s all in or nothing, and the same can be said for her politics. She took on Ted Cruz, Donald Tru...
Atwood Magazine •

Caitlyn Smith Lays Bare Her Fears in “Mother of Three” - Atwood Magazine

Deeply vulnerable, unapologetically honest, tragically bittersweet, are all words that could describe country singer/songwriter Caitlyn Smith’s new single, “Mother of Three.” Smith dives deep into the relentlessness struggle that is to be working artist and a human.

“I drink so much coffee that my hands are shaking; my mind’s doing cartwheels and just keeps replaying; the script that I’ve written, damn good piece of fiction; but it’s killing my dreams and it’s clouding my vision,” Smith sings o...
Atwood Magazine •

Interview: Karley Scott Collins Discusses Her New Heavy Metal Influenced EP, ‘Write One’ - Atwood Magazine

Write One (via Sony Music), the second EP from singer/songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Karley Scott Collins, is that exquisite effortless blend of country and rock music, all told through the lens of a twenty-something woman navigating love, life, and loss in the South and in the music industry.

The cover of Write One sees Collins standing with her back to you in cowboy boots, her profile visible with her eyes downcast, her snake black electric guitar facing towards the camera an...
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