Nashville-based songwriter Emily Hines has signed to Keeled Scales. Today she releases her new single “Cowgirl Suit.”
A self-described chronically-sincere farm girl, Hines grew up on a farm in rural Ohio before moving to Nashville where she played in other songwriters’ projects before recording her own songs on a 4-track cassette recorder.
“I wrote ‘Cowgirl Suit’ when I was in-between farm jobs, pretty fresh out of college. I was working at a local food co-op and seeing someone who wasn’t seeing me. Everything felt precarious and precious. The lyrics are a long list of things I was too scared to say at the time.”
Hines worked with producer Henry Park. Together they drew inspiration from acts like Duster, Laura Marling, and Karen Dalton to record simply and add layers one at a time. She writes, “This was the recording that inspired me to make an album. I had already recorded a few songs with Henry, but when we made this one, we felt validated in our vision. The base of every song we made is a live-take recorded on the cassette. We wanted the recordings to be organic and honest. This is the simplest production on the record, but it guided everything else we made. Something in the drum machine, the tape, and the imperfections came together to create a vulnerable yet dynamic sound. We set out to make a body of work to match it.”
She plays two shows in Nashville next week. On Monday, February 24 she’ll play The End and on Thursday, February 27 she’ll open for Esther Rose and Twain at the Blue Room.
She’ll play March 12 in Austin, Texas as part of the Keeled Scales / First Date Touring day party at Chess Club.