Barker didn't return to the scene until 2003, when she released Maid in England, which came after six years of writing that were interrupted by two pregnancies and her husband's untimely illness, which he eventually succumbed to months after the album's release. Music then became an education for Barker, and she enrolled in a Music Technology course at de Montfort University. Almost a decade after she departed Poozies in 2006 she returned to the lineup for a series of shows, stepping in for the pregnant Eilidh Shaw, and a year later rejoined the band permanently. Once she had completed her studies, Barker began the Joni Mitchell Project with pianist Glenn Hughes, which featured songs from the repertoire of Joni Mitchell. In 2010 they released Conversation: The Joni Tapes, Vol.1, and she went on to work intermittently on several projects, including Genfan Barker with American guitarist Vicki Genfen, Buck Barker with multi-instrumentalist Keith Buck, and Barker Son with her son Dillon Wakeford. She suffered a period of ill health in 2013, and during this time she was encouraged by her family to audition for the BBC program The Voice.
In 2014 Barker appeared on the show's blind audition singing Nina Simone's Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, where she impressed coach Tom Jones and was selected to go through to the next round. She progressed through the stages with performances of Dionne Warwick's Walk on By and Bee Gees' To Love Somebody on her road to the show's final. Despite a wonderful duet of Walking in Memphis with mentor Tom Jones, and a version of Olly Murs' Dear Darlin, which entered the U.K. Top 40 Singles chart, Barker lost out to eventual winner Jermain Jackman. ~ Scott Kerr, Rovi