| Emily Herring |
Imagine if you will a movie or a television series centred around a popular small town Country Music Venue which happens to be above an auto repair shop. The person running both would spark somebody’s wreck of a pick-up truck back to life then give a knowing wink and a smile to camera before wiping their hands on an oily towel and dashing upstairs to entertain an adoring audience with great original songs.
Were such a scenario to exist that central character would be Emily Herring.
“I like working with my hands. I like the challenge” she told me about her occasional role as a motor mechanic. “Being able to find the problem and get something running again is very satisfying.”
I wondered how the satisfaction of fixing an engine compared to that of having written a good song and it seems, for Emily at least, they are very different feelings.
| Emily Herring |
The only child of a single Mom, the teenage Herring did not find making friends in High School easy. Her days were spent blending into the background and avoiding social contact, her evenings were occupied with writing what she describes as heartfelt poems. “I guess I was trying to appear intellectual but probably only managed pretentious” she told me with a chuckle.
Poetry is still the basis of her song writing; lyrics must come first in the process, Emily admits she finds it virtually impossible to compose a chord sequence at the same time. Going back to the comparison of job satisfaction, “Like most song writers when I finish a song I think it’s great” she explained, “but then a couple of days later the doubts start to hit and maybe it isn’t so good, and then you get through that and think no it’s an okay song and I should let people hear it.” So fixing cars gives a more immediate, finite, buzz.
Emily admires Radney Foster as a song writer and told me she has been obsessed with the writing skills of Paul Simon since her teenage years. “I do not have the ability to be disciplined about my writing. I can’t sit down and say today I am going to write a song, I will get an idea anywhere and have to put something on my phone to work with later. I’m so disorganised that if I used a notebook I would forget where I put the notebook and eventually have notebooks all over the house and still nothing would get finished.”
“Gliding” Emily Herring’s last album received strong critical acclaim but a contractual difference with her label prevented it realising its full potential, and the release itself was tinged with personal tragedy “My Mom passed away on the day we were mastering the album, and I have found it difficult to write since then.”
But while little progress has been made on her next album Emily is beginning to pick herself up and
has set herself an objective. “I can play classical guitar, I can read music charts but I have an irrational fear of improvisation which I really need to work to overcome.”
| Emily plays guitar |
An Ameripolitan Award nominee in 2015 Emily and her band are in demand at venues throughout Texas and neighbouring States for her unique Outlaw sound, described as “hard hitting, no nonsense country”. If any record company executives are reading this she is currently without a label which, in my personal opinion, is a travesty.
Going back to our country music venue above the auto repair shop; if Emily were to be in charge of such an establishment, having a conversation while the acts are on stage would be frowned upon. “It is disheartening (for an artist) to be putting out music you are proud of and good at and have people just ignore you.”
The more I think about that movie scenario the more I can see it working. Oh, and the star of the show would have a cute little rescue dog called Cass.
| Cass |
