Take a look at most country music performers these days and you’ll find, by and large, they’re a reflection of their fan base. Just ask the Dixie Chicks - politically right-leaning, conservative, god fearing folk - nothing wrong with any of this, just an observed generalization.
Enter Emily Herring and her 2006 self-released My Tears Will Be Relieved. From the opening track, “What Will I Do?” where Herring tries to reconcile sexuality with religion to “Has Country Gone to Hell?” with such lines as “Where’s our country/When a chick in Dixie/Can’t even speak her mind/The Pope is out to warn us/Michael Moore has too much to write.” Herring wears her politics on her sleeve. She’s left leaning and she pretty much dares you to say anything about it.
Herring also breaks from the country music stereotype where the gals sing songs about their men, even if it’s cheating songs, and the guys are left with the supposed tough talking “Whiskey for my men and beer for my horses” lines. Herring is a gal with moxie and it comes through in her music. She’s closer to Hank Williams in her lyrics and delivery (check out track #9 “By Heaven”) then she is to Shania Twain. Her lyrics pull more from the everyman’s life experience and are arraigned in such a manner that most of us can relate to. I don’t know much about “What Happens in Mexico,” from Toby Keith’s “Stays in Mexico” but I certainly understand “Well I’m blue/Oh you lied/You weren’t true” from Herring’s “Blues in the Key of C#minor"
Herring graduated from the University of North Texas with a degree in music composition, it was during her time there that she began to break away from the typical collegiate studies and focus more on the music of her roots – country, folk, and blues. My Tears Will Be Relieved relishes in all these styles as Herring easily floats between the different but similar genres for an effecting album that will please fans of each type.
Herring was invited to play this year’s Mid-Point Music Festival (MPMF) Sept. 23. She’ll be playing a series of dates beginning in Portland, Ore., Sept. 12, making her way towards Cincinnati home of the MPMF. In the meantime, get over to her myspace page and pick up a copy of this disc!
Article comments
1 - Anna Creech
Thanks for the review! She sounds interesting. I'll definitely have to check her out.