It’s been a heaven of a year for Ohioan and now-Nashvillian country artist Emily Miller, as she released an empowering debut EP, They Say, a day before her Feb. 19 birthday this year and has kept a busy gig schedule since. Miller’s confidently honed, Reba-meets-Swift vocals (with a little Nancy Wilson and Alannah Myles sprinkled in) pairs with an alternative/country accompaniment on the release out of Nashville’s Dark River Studios.
The reaffirming “Avaline” introduces Miller as banjo and slide guitar (sounding similar to Lazlo Bane’s “Superman,” the Scrubs theme song) are emphasized and mixed over the rest of the standard country instrumentation for a poppy, mid-tempo composition. “Avaline” recounts a young lady with promise at her church steps, a young lady with beauty and intelligence, a choir singer and proud churchgoer, possessing confidence in opportunities she won’t let pass her by. But more so, someone who has found her own Prince Charming, there, as well.
So, Miller’s “Prince Charming,” follows in a similarly sweet fashion emphasizing the strummed acoustic guitar over the banjo while Miller opens up about prayers made as a young girl, listing hopes of eventually meeting a decent Christian man.
Well, “Momma Calls Me Trouble” seems to be when Prince Charming came over to Miller 20 years later to say he’d pay to watch her dance. There’s a clever hook in the chorus lyric here, but nothing too fancy when it comes to the mid-tempo, country-pop backing.
“Dear Lonely” is another of They Say’s acoustic-led slow jams, with Miller remaining vigilant in a letter written to Lonely, or lonesomeness.
If there’s an actual sass-track, it’s Miller’s dump song, “Take the Trash Out,” an anti-deadbeat anthem set to a spurring roadhouse jam, with Miller, the queen of the household, belting it out.
Miller saved tribute to her grandmother for her ultimate, country-ballad title track, “They Say,” about a woman—Miller’s Eastern Kentucky matriarch—whose presence on this earth showed her the value of determination and strength (and sass) in a proud, Southern, Christian woman. Miller sings of missing her friend, teacher and grandmother, revealing the true inspiration for the EP, up to the last soothing, slide guitar notes.
Find Emily Miller’s debut EP They Say across the icons on Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Pandora, iHeart and Deezer. Physical copies (autographed, too) can be found through emilymillerofficial.com. Miller’s been paying her dues around Nashville, frequenting Broadway’s Redneck Riviera, The Stage on Broadway, and Ole Red BNA (inside the Nashville International Airport), as well as the brewery/distillery circuit. Catch an upcoming appearance at Star Spangled Brewery in Clarksville on Oct. 15, with East Tennessee appearances also on the schedule this month. Locally, Emily Miller will perform at Hank’s in Murfreesboro, on Sunday, Oct. 16, at 5 p.m. She performs about 200 shows a year, according to her sites.
