November 27, 2023 • 34 mins
Originally from Knoxville, TN, she has grown from small stages to the biggest in country music, The Grand Ole Opry. And not just once, this guest has played The Opry 17 times! After working with country icon Blake Shelton on the Voice, she went on to release some original music the past few years. In a full circle moment, her original music landed her on the Back To The Honky Tonk Tour Presented by Kubota in 2024 with Blake Shelton! She put out a full length album, "Can’t Hide Country," this fall that include collaborations with Ricky Skaggs and Vince Gill. We talk about all of this so come join me and our next guest.... Emily Ann Roberts.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think that it's really important for people in this
industry to be honest about how long it can take.
You know, I thought that I was ready for this
opportunity eight years ago, and now I look back and
I'm like, thank you Lord, this opportunity did knock come
eight years ago because I was most definitely not ready.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
What is up, guys, Chris Rudeger. We are back on
the six to one to five House podcast. We have
a very special guest originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, in the
studio today, and she just put out an album. I'm
so pumper going to talk about it. I also found
out she's friends with Blake Shelton and friends, so much
so that she's going on tour, the Back to the
Honky Talk Tour that's happening. We're going to have to
(00:54):
talk about that. Also, I guess she knows Ricky Skaggs
and Vince Kill. She seems like the cool kid in
Nashville that I am not. So I'm really just here
to talk about how I can become friends with her.
Please welcome this amazing artist, miss Emily Ann Roberts.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Oh thank you for having me. You made me sound
a lot cooler. Than I am so thank you for
that intro.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Of course, the one part I didn't mention that I
should have is that you've played the Grand Old Opry
seventeen times now too, I have.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
That's pretty cool, that is right, I will say, that's
very cool.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, that is crazy to even think about, because that's
everybody's dream, Like I mean, that's a country music dream
come true, dreams to play, Yeah, to play the Aubry
even once.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
So, yeah, when did you first play?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I played in twenty seventeen and it was October thirteenth,
twenty seventeen. I'll probably never forget it. Yeah, And this
is a really cool story. You know. I was so
nervous to be there, and I tried to just soak
up every minute and it went by so fast. But
I tell you, Ricky Skaggs, you mentioned he actually met
(01:59):
him when I was on the voice, and he stayed
in touch with me, and he introduced me to the
audience for the very first time at the Grand Ole Opry,
which was like so cool to have him welcome me
to the stage.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
For the first time.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And so I sang my three songs, and then afterwards
he came to my dressing room, and he had a
little sheet of paper that had like bullet points about me.
It was like Emily and Roberts season nine of the Voice,
you know, new songs stuck on me and you out
now all these different little bullet points to say to
the crowd. And he came in. He congratulated me and
(02:35):
told me he was proud of me. And he handed
me that little piece of paper that he had been
reading off of and he wrote, Emily. He said, I'm
so proud of you. This is just the first of many,
Love your Ricky.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Is that not amazing?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Tell me, friend, Yes, I have.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
That, and we've made copies of that piece of paper
just in case I were to lose it, because I
was just blown away because I thought like, oh my goodness, Like.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I had to pinch myself.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
This is crazy.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
This is my life.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I just sang at the opry and Ricky just said
first of many, love your Ricky.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I'm like, my Ricky, that is you.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
That is amazing, is precious.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, this is.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Really you've gone on. I mean you've done it now
seventeen times. Do you still get nervous when you play?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yes? And I want to ask somebody who's done it?
Like I need to ask Ricky or somebody who's there.
All the time, I'm like, does this ever get like
does it ever feel normal? Because I bet it never
gets old, but does it ever feel normal?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Like every single time.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
That I am there, I think like, Okay, I've done
this plenty of times before. I should not have butterflies
in my stomach. I should not be scared to have
to walk out on that stage. Like I don't really
get nervous anymore on stage, but I always get nervous
at the Grand Ole Opry. It just feels, well, there's
so much history there. Oh my gosh, I know. And
when they're introducing me every time, I'm like me, are
(03:54):
they sure me? Like it's me on the Obrey. It's
just wild. It's it's a very real feeling, and it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
The part of that I love, too is there's this
culture of like continuing to pass down the baton to
the next, you know, class of artists, and Ricky's obviously a.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Legend in his own right and now welcoming you.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
There also Blake Shelton, who you clearly have a great
relationship with and are going on tour, Like I love
to see this just the different generations of country music
continue to evolve.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I do want to talk.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
About the Blake tour and Blake situation because I think
it probably started from when you first met him, which
was on the Voice, right, or had you met him,
pryor No.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So I met him for the first time when I
was on the Voice that was back in twenty fifteen,
and I had never met anybody famous before in my
entire life. And I went on the show and he
turned his chair around and I picked to be on
his team. And I was so nervous to work with
him because, like I said, I've never been round anybody famous,
and I thought, like, what if he acts famous?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Right, you know, like what if he acts like Kopie do?
And I don't know how to talk to him, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
But I was so comfortable around him because he is
so normal, Like he is just so down to earth,
and he reminds me of just like my redneck uncle,
Like yeah, I mean, he's just a mess and a
hoot to be around. And so we were able to
meet then, and he was so supportive when I got
(05:23):
off the show, which so many people, you know, wonder
do these coaches really like care you know, And I
can't speak for everybody, but I can speak for Blake.
I mean, he helped me so much and has continued
to support me.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
That was eight years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, that's amazing that you guys still stay in touch
and he's still a mentor now going on the road.
I just love to hear what people are genuine dudes
outside of like the camera and the Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, you know, I know, because I mean, Colle, that's all,
you know. It makes everybody feel more comfortable when you're
just normal and real. And I just love that he
is that way because he don't have to be. I mean,
he is so accomplished and so successful, and if he
wanted to act like he was the thing, he could,
(06:11):
but he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
And that's really that's really cool, and.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I was thankful that I was able to like that
was my first experience with a successful person in this
business because it, like I guess, taught me, like Emily,
no matter what happens, no matter where you go in
this career, like you're just a person, right, you know, You're.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Just a girl.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
You're just a girl from East Tennessee, and you can't
lose that. And he's just a boy from Oklahoma and
and that comes out and everything he does, and so yes,
I get to go on the road with him. I know.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
That's so amazing. How many dates are us plating?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Seventeen dates.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
It'll be into February through the all of March, and
we're going to a bunch of places I've never been before.
We're going to Canada, I know part of Canada.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
We're going to Edmonton, Calgary, and Saskatoon. Am I saying
that right? That's exactly how much?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I also don't know how it's pronounced. So I'm looking
in the studio to see if any of these the
producers know any better.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
And I'm getting some nods, So maybe you're right.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
That's how you'd sound it out. If you're trying to
sound it sounds right to me. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Are you most excited for Canada? Are there other US cities?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Gosh, No, I'm really excited for Texas.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
We're playing in Austin at the Moody Center and so
that's going to be really cool. And I'm excited to
go to California. We're doing a bunch out there. I'm
a little bumm that there's nothing close to home because
a lot of my friends and family are like, okay,
so which show do we come to? But a lot
(07:46):
of folks are going to travel. My mom and daddy
are going to get to come to some of the dates.
So family road trip, I know, totally road trip. I
cannot wait. I have been working towards something like this
for so long, and you know, when I got off
the voice, this is the crazy thing.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I was just seventeen years old and I thought that
I was ready. Then that was eight years ago.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
You know, And I think that it's really important for
people in this industry to be honest about how long
it can take to get to where you want to
get to. And I mean, gosh, I've still got such
a long road ahead of me. But you know, I
thought that I was ready for this opportunity eight years ago,
and now I look back and I'm like, thank you Lord,
(08:30):
this opportunity did not come eight years ago because I
was most definitely not ready.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So well, I think I think you're being humble. I
think you might have been ready eight years ago. But
I do really appreciate you saying that because for a
lot of people that listen and are maybe following you
or eye. There's this perception of like the overnight success.
You show up in Nashville or La wherever it is,
and you blow up, and maybe some people do online,
but it's not always how it seems. I mean there's
years for you songwriting and recording and finding your band
(09:00):
and like also just networking and meeting people, right, you
got you have to nurture those relationships. And I think,
like it's it really is a ten year town. You know,
it doesn't and everyone's story is different. But I think
you're in a great place and it's cool to see
somebody like you who's as hard working and as talented
as you are. Finally, you know, be given one of
many opportunities to come with Blake. I want to talk
a little bit because you mentioned your families come on
(09:21):
the road with you, families from Knoxville. Yes, are you
big Tennessee Volunteers fan?
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, I'm a big Tennessee volunteer fan.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So what's what's the situation with college football? You think
we're gonna we're gonna make the top.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Age You a Tennessee Volunteers fan. Well, so here's a
fun fact for you.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I did not grow up in Knoxville, but my aunt
was best friends with Pat Summit.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
They were neighbors, stop it. So I used to go
to a lot of.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Basketball games and then I've now since become a somewhat
of a bandwagon Tennessee football fan as well.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Pat Summit was an angel, a legend, a legend.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I got to honor Pat Summit at in Nayland Stadium
with the Pride of the South Lane Band. We sang
Tennessee Waltz and Amazing Grace to honor her.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
That is amazing.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
That was one of the coolest moments of my entire life. Yes,
I'm a huge Tennessee fans. Go I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I was born in ninety eight, which was the last
year that we won the national championship.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Is that what it's called?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Thanks, Okay, I'll let my like, I love to watch
you T football, love to watch you T basketball. But
I'll tell you what, I'm not a sporty girl. Other
than that, I just sit back and watch it. I'm like, oh,
this is cool. But I grew up like watching that
every single Saturday. My dad is a huge UT fan,
(10:40):
and we didn't get to go to games a lot
because it was expensive. And there was one game that
I got to go to as a young girl, and
my daddy took me early so we could see the
band come through and all the boys go into the
stadium and I just remember thinking this is the coolest
thing ever, and then being able to watch the game
(11:01):
and we were playing Georgia and we were up in
the first half, and then my daddy said, if we
win this game. They were wearing gray jerseys that day.
He said, if we win this game, I'll buy you
one of those great jerseys.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And I thought like, oh my gosh. And we lost.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And so I'll tell you my whole life as a
UT fan. I would rather lose as a UT fan
than win. Is anything else, but it is. It has
been a roller coaster my whole life, and that's okay.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
But I do think that we're onto something great.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I think that last week's game we pulled out a
good old win against Kentucky, and I think that there
are good things ahead of us.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
But it does keep you on your toes.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
It does. And this is a hot top ag and
I might get some flak for this, but I feel
like in.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Nashville there's this big Georgia movement up here right now.
All these songwriters from Georgia and let's just say There're
music is fantastic. I support you, John Langston, Rayfold or
whoever it is. And then there's a bunch of people
from Alabama coming up here now and that's great. But like,
give me the Tennessee pride. You know you're right, Like,
let's get into the mix. It's no longer just a
(12:14):
Georgia Alabama situation here, like Tennessee is a part of.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
This for real, for real. For so many years we
have not been, though, but we are. We beat Alabama
last year and I hate that we lost this year,
but we've always got next year.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
My husband is an Alabama fan, unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Ooh is that cause a little bit of tension in
the household?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yes, especially on the third Saturday in October.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah. I told him we were out on the road.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I was actually playing a gig up in Maryland on
the Saturday that we were playing, and I was like,
if we lose and y'all win, we have to sleep
in separate beds tonight. He was like no, and I
was like yes, And then we lost and we didn't
sleep in separate beds, but I threatened that I care bet, yeah,
because I'm like, he gets so competitive and he's he
(13:05):
grew up in East Tennessee, but he's not like an
Alabama Bandwagon fan.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
His mom and daddy were born and raised in Alabama.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
All their parents and grandparents are Alabama people, and they
moved for work. So he was raised every Saturday watching
Alabama football. That's just like all he's ever known. So
I don't hold it against him, or at least I
don't try to. But yeah, on that game day, there's
definitely some tension in our house.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
There has to be, but that makes for good competition, right. Well, look,
here's the deal. We got so much to talk about.
We're gonna be right back on the six and five
Hours podcast and we're gonna get into more music and
Emily and R Roberts, what is up, guys. We are back.
I am here with Emily and Roberts in the studio.
You just put out an album and we got to
talk about it because this thing, top to bottom is fantastic.
It's been out for a couple a couple of months now,
(13:53):
that September, Yes, and I got to say I love
a whole lot a little, but just because I've seen
it on my TikTok and Instagram so much and I
can I you know, I now know the words and
I kind of got this little dance thing that I.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Do with it.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh but there's some other songs on this album that
are fantastic that I want to talk about as well.
What was the process like recording this album?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Oh my goodness, Well, it wasn't anything like I intentionally
sat down.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I was like, okay, and now I want to start
my record.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I mean, I've been in town for eight years and
there are songs on this project that I wrote back
in twenty seventeen, and then there are songs on this
project that I wrote just a couple months before we
cut it. So it has been a journey and all
of the songs are from different parts of my journey.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
But when we actually went in and started.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Recording, I got to work with Trent Willman as my producer,
and he is just precious. He is a ten out
of ten guy and a huge answered prayer to me
in my life and in my career because I was
waiting for the right producer for so long. You know,
my music is is probably more on the country side
(15:03):
of country music. It's definitely not pop country. And when
I first got to town, Kelsey Vallerini had just blown
up and Marin had just blown up, and like pop
country was like the thing that was thing, it was
the cool thing, and everybody was like, hey, what you're
writing is cool, but it doesn't fit with what's going
(15:23):
on in country music right now. And that was really
hard on me because, for a little bit, I tried
to chase a sound that people told me would work.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I was going to say, did you feel pressured to
kind of follow oh shoe, Yeah, of you know some
of these stars that were rising, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And I think that, like to a degree, a bunch
of artists probably go through that when they see stuff
that's working so well for other folks, and it might
be tempting to think, like, Okay, maybe if I model
myself a little bit after what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Then maybe I'll be successful too.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
But the truth is is, I think that if you
following what someone else has already done, you're already behind.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
You're kind of playing this constant chase.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Like this catchup yeah, And at the end of the day,
the product you're gonna get, I don't think is believable
if you're not just being authentic, you know, if you're
not being real to the music that you want to make,
and if you don't believe in it, how are you
going to get anyone else to believe in it?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
So that was definitely a journey.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And I worked with a bunch of different producers that
like tried to take who I was and also fit
it into like modern pop country music, and they did
a great job at what they were trying to do.
But Trent was the first one to come along and say, like,
I think that this is great just as it is,
(16:50):
and I don't think that it's a disadvantage that you
don't sound like everyone else.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
I think it's actually a huge asset and advantage. Yeah,
it was. It was incredible to hear.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, So he just believed in me and believed in
the product as it was, instead of trying to say, like, yeah,
I think I could spreuce this up and change it
and make it fit some kind of agenda and so anyways,
that was a huge.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Just missing peace of the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
And so he jumped in and we went into the
studio and we cut six songs and actually a whole
Lot of Little was the first song I ever wrote
with Trent. We not bad for a first right, not
bad for a first rite. Yeah, it's crazy. This feels
like such a Nashville story to me. We met and
then he after our first meeting, he was like, I
(17:38):
would love to work with you. Let me know what
you need. Who do you want to write with? I
want to write with you, Like, let's get a date together.
So the next day he was like, I'm writing with
my buddy Jeremy Spilman out at my house. He was like,
you want to come? And I was like sure. So
the next day I go to his house. We write
a whole lot a little and then the next day
he met with my team and my team was basically like,
(18:00):
all right, let's do this thing. And I mean just
in a matter of three days, I went from thinking
like what am I doing? How am I going to
get to the other side of this? And you know,
like how am I going to get my music out?
How am I gonna record the music the way that
I wanted to? Like everything was up in the air,
And three days later, now I've got a plan.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
You know what I'm saying. Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
I always ask artists this when you left that room,
because first off, A Whole Lot a Little is a
fantastic song, first song on the album and just had
a tremendous amount of success. When you wrote that song,
did you leave the room like, yeah, that's the one,
like I got it, or was it still a process
with like recording, you know, like, when do you know
that you have your song?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Okay, Well, I loved the song when I left the
room because it's super blue, grassy, and I believed in
it a lot. But I played it for some of
my band and they kind of gave me mixed feelings.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And I was like, Okay, well maybe it's not that cool,
like I thought it was really cool.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
But I'll tell you when I knew that song was
special was when we took it out on the road
and started playing it live and I saw real people
like light up. And I still see that every single
time I play this song, the whole energy in the
room changes.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
It's just one of those songs that has so much energy.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I think that it's infectious, like other people just start
to tap their toes and have a fun time with us.
And so that's been the biggest telltale sign for me
and my music is seeing how people outside of the
industry connect to it, because they're the ones who are
really changing our lives. Like they're the ones who are
(19:36):
streaming the music, they're the ones who are buying the records,
who are buying the tickets, and so if they're loving it,
then that's a really good sign.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Well, I love that you. I love that you're listening
to your fans. So I think that's a big part
of it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And you know, like you said, all aspects of the
business now are it's about what people want to hear,
and then they're the ones they're going to show up
when you're on.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
The road with with Blake.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, when you were putting out this project, you know,
I think there's so many things that an artist has
to do. Now we're going to create world where there's
all these social media apps and there's still radio, and
then there's you know, photo shoots and press and all
this stuff.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
It's a lot for an artist to handle.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
How have you been able to kind of manage it all?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Oh, what a question. It is a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
It's a lot, and I'm still trying to be disciplined
with my time and manage my time wisely, because you
do feel pulled in all different directions, because I truly
believe the biggest form of promoting our music is us
(20:41):
getting it out online in the form of TikTok's reels,
YouTube shorts, all that stuff. I mean, I'll tell you
a whole lot of little changed everything for me because
we took a video in a cornfield. My guitar player
got his iPhone out, took a video of me and
my girls in my band singing a whole lot a
little and I posted it online and within twenty four
(21:04):
hours it was over two million views, And then posted
it the day it came out and it's over seven
million views up.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
But that wasn't because of some expensive, fancy marketing plan
or push you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
It was natural. I mean, you were in a cornfield,
you said, hey, we're going to post this. This is
just a normal post. Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
It wasn't anything like fancy you or And that's something
that is a little bit It's incredible that we as
like artists have the opportunity to get our art out
there in such a simple and real way. But it's
also a little bit maddening because Obviously, we can't control
what's going to pop off and what doesn't. And I
(21:50):
am a planner and I love to be able to
say like, Okay, we're going to do this, and then
we're gonna do this, then we're gonna do this, and
all of this is going to come together to help
promote this this body of work.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
But yeah, it's an interesting time.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You have to be a really stinking hard worker, and
you have to do things that you might not have
thought you have to do. I mean, I spend so
much of my week editing videos. Okay, if you had
asked me two years ago what I was spending most
of my week doing, it wouldn't have been that. Like,
(22:24):
my world and my work has changed and evolved so much.
And I know that social media might not be like
everybody's favorite thing, but I try to tell all of
my friends who are trying to get their music out there,
I'm like, you have to do it. You just have
to do it, and you don't have to overthink it.
But get your art and your music or whatever your
(22:46):
product is. Just get it online, you know, and try
to be creative and authentic and genuine about the way
that you were promoting it, But I mean something that
I'm trying to do now is I'm trying to, like
I said, just have days. I have days where I write,
(23:06):
and i have days where I'm saying, okay, today I'm
filming content.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And then I have days where I'm doing more.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Of the business in things and making sure that we're
all set to go back out on the road on
the weekends. And then of course that I'm out on
the road. And that's a whole different part of my job.
But it definitely requires a lot of your time and
a bunch of different types of work to keep this
thing moving.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's crazy one hundred. There's more things thrown at you.
But I think you made a couple of really good points,
which is one being balanced and having a schedule. I
think that's something that a lot of us as artists
can benefit from. I think the other part that's important,
as you said, still being authentic with your post. I
think one of the things is crazy is maddening such
(23:55):
a great word for it, because I think we're all
online and we're seeing a lot of people get the
success that they deserve, and then a lot of people
that kind of jump a few ladders quickly and I
think that's when things get very frustrating, because you've put
what eight ten years of hard work into something and
this is your moment. And I think just staying true
to what your art is and yourself and knowing that
(24:17):
there's going to be a time for you, as hard
as it might be right now with the cloudiness of
social media, is still so important and I love that
this album represents that for you in your work. I
want to talk about Ricky Skaggs and then scale on
this song.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
What was it like working with two legends?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Oh my goodness?
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Okay, so yes, So we have Ricky Skaggs of n
Skille on one of the tracks on the album.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
It's called Still Searching, and it is wild.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Every single time I hear that song or we talk
about it. The fact that I have their voices on
my album is crazy. Of course, I talked about Ricky earlier.
I've known him since the voice. When I was on
the show you got to if you made it to
the final four, everybody got to have a performance with
(25:11):
one of their biggest inspirations, and so they had Ricky
out and we sang together, and he stayed in touch
with me and has just been a sweet friend through
the years.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
He has been so sweet.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
And then thence I've actually never met, but I hope
I get to meet him one day. I hope I
get to sing this live with them one day. But
I've never met him. But my guitar player actually knows him,
and he was able to reach out to him to
see if he would put his voice on the song.
(25:44):
And actually, that song, Still Searching is the only song
on the record that I didn't write. It was an
outside song that was pitched to me from Jerry Sally
and I've been writing with him for years, and he
played me the song and I was just blown away
by the sentiment of this song. And it's talking about
(26:05):
a woman who is looking for the right man in
her life to you know, fall in love with and marry.
And she talks about how she's still search him for
someone who's search him for someone like her. And it
talks about being patient, and it talks about, you know,
is there anyone out there who's looking for anyone like me?
And I am in a happy, wonderful marriage. But when
(26:29):
I heard that song, I related to it so much
from like my career standpoint, because that's exactly how I felt.
I felt like, is there anyone out there who is
looking for what I bring to the table, you know,
is there anyone who believes in what I believe in
and the type of music that I want to make?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And so I absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
And on the demo that he played me, Ricky and
Vince were doing the bgbs. So after I heard them
on the song, I was like, well, if I cut
the song, I have to get them on, Like, I
can't unhear that. I have to get them on my
song too. You already, yes, they did. You can't cut
them out.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Honestly, if they hadn't been on that demo, I don't
know if I would have ever had the guts to
be like, hey, let's try to get Vincent Ricky on this.
But the song is it's probably it's probably at least
fifteen years old.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
It's an old, older song.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And so IRIE shout to Ricky and uh, he said
that he would love to do it, and he sent
me the sweetest text. He said, you know what would
be fun if we could all get together at the
Grand Ole Opry one night and sing this live. And
I was like, you know, Ricky, that would pretty much
make my whole life.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
A few things around my schedule maybe to make that work.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
So that's next on the bucket list. I want to
make that happen.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Maybe that's will be the eighteenth time at the ground,
ye for you, wouldn't that be.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
A good that'd be a good cleration.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
That's amazing. Well, I love I love the song.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I think it's amazing that those guys are are on it.
They really do do help that, you know. I mean
the song, your voice sounds great on it, but having
them in the background for ye. And I hope that
you get to meet Vince Skill me too, and then
I hope that you invite me, said, I can meet
vins Skill.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
A great deal, thank you.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
I'll take that. I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, Hey, we got to play a quick game here
because we got our friends at Ariat who give us
some amazing product, and we do the second called rapid
fire questions, very simple, sixty seconds on the clock. I'm
just going to throw you some questions. First thing that
comes to mind, you spell it out, all right, don't
think too hard now, all right, We've got some people
that have thought too hard and it doesn't go very well.
But I feel like you're gonna be good at this question.
(28:35):
That's all right, sixty seconds on the clock.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Let's go. What would be a dream venue for you
to play at?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
The one the red is Red Rocks.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
It is Red Rocks. There you go.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Somebody that you could collaborate with that you haven't yet,
Dolly Parton. I like that answer. Are you a talker
or a texter talker like that? A favorite fast food
place Taco Mall? Really, somebody else i'd talk about. We're
going to get back that. Are you col baseball cap
or cowgirl cap?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Baseball cap?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
I like baseball caps too. I see you have boots on.
What's your favorite type of boot?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I can't choose. I love them all. These are lanes,
so we'll go with lane.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
There you go, and let's see last question right now?
What is something? What's one place in the world that
you could go to that you haven't been yet.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I've not been a lot of places. I want to
go too. I want to go to Hawaii.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Really, I just got back from Hawaii. It is amazing.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yes, Oh my gosh, I want to go so bad.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Well, next time I invite you. Hawhai is the spot
you should you should tour in Hawaii.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
That's what you do.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Hey, Blake Shelon, can we get the tour over to Hawaii?
That was I believe sixty seconds. That even might have
been like forty five seconds. That was pretty fast.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Matt. You got to you got a timer in there.
Matt's our producer.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
We got to run that back and figure out what
I think that was a forty five second clip right there,
So you actually might be the fastest.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Oh, I love that. That means I'm the winner, right
it does?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Good.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Actually, I'm now thinking about this on the spot, but
I think we're going to create a leader board of
all the guests on the podcast, and then right now
you'd be.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
At the top.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Oh good, that makes me handy.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Don't don't get too complacent. We have some other episodes,
but you're looking pretty good right now. Well, Hey, it's
been awesome having you in here. I'm so excited about
this record for you. I'm excited about the tour you. Uh,
anything else that you know is upcoming that we can
look forward to.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Oh gosh, Well, we're about to shoot some new music
videos for some of the songs off of the new album,
which I'm really thrilled about. So there's some cool stuff
coming out. And then of course the tour. If anybody
listening is located in some of these places, we're hitting
a lot of them. We're gonna be all over the place.
(30:44):
So check out my website because I'd love to see
y'all out on the road because it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Be so good.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And then another cool thing that people can follow along
with me is I have a homepage that I have
with my husband called sasser House.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
You have a YouTube channel, right, okay.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yes, So we have a YouTube channel, and then we
have an Instagram and a TikTok It's called Sassar House.
And my husband refinishes furniture and builds furniture and does.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
A lot of like diy stuff.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
And then I love all things homemaking.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I love to make decor and I crochet and I
do all kinds of stuff for our home.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
And then I love to cook and I love to
make a house a home.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
And so we just bought our first house a year
ago and we have documented all of the things we're.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Doing to fix it up. Yeah, and just kind of
our lives.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And so that's been a really fun thing for people
to follow and It's been fun for us to document
because we're able to connect with other folks and get
ideas and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So that's called Sassar House.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So Sassa house and you can find that off of
your website and it's link. Is it linked to your
socials as well? Okay, cool, I want to check that out.
That's really cool. Congratulations on purchasing your first house. Where
is your house?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
We are outside of nash Mill out towards More towards
Knoxville where I'm from, just down forty and so we
love being.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Outside of town.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
It's probably like a little bit private and comforting. You
don't have to deal with all the Broadway and yeah,
midtown traffic, yeah exists.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
It's really quiet. You can hear the birds sing.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
As somebody that lives like a stone's throw from Broadway,
I can hear, you know, the one hundred and eighty
seventh rendition of wagon Wheel every night before that.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
I envy that.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So that's amazing. And is it are you do you?
Are you partnered with like Southern Made Tees? Is that
I did?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
So? I did something with them last year. Actually we
did a whole t shirt line. But that's another fun
thing to talk about. I work with them a lot
on designing my merch and I have so much cute merch.
If I do say so myself, it doesn't look like March.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
It's cute.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
It's like it's like a it's apparel. It's apparel. It's
apparel and all of that is. I'm an online store.
We have so much cute stuff. We've got bandanas with
chickens on them, which you might not thing sounds cute,
but it is.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
I'm now thinking that might be a Christmas gift.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yes, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
And we're about to have vinyl for had Country. They'll
be available on my online store, and then all kinds
of hats, T shirt stickers and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
So I love that.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
See the cool part is, you know, it's not just
the music, but it's also I love that you have
a channel with your husband for some of the stuff
you're working on, as well as a real apparel line.
Like I think it's cool and I hope that. I
hope that you continue to crosh it with your music,
but I also hope that you build up an amazing
apparel brand and that looks like you're an entrepreneur, you know, Oh.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Gosh, I've turned into one for sure. You want to
figure out how to make money.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
So I think I think we all have you know,
here in Nashville as artists. But thanks for you know,
for taking the time out of your day coming here,
only Roberts. This has been It's been so fun. I
love these conversations because I just get to know more
about everyone's and what they've been up to, and I
can't wait to catch a show of yours. I recommend
all of you go here Emily live because she is
(34:06):
fantastic with her band, and you go to stream the
record right to get those numbers up, you.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Know, yeah, absolutely check it out.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Heck yeah. Well, thanks guys, and we'll be back next week.
I think that it's really important for people in this
industry to be honest about how long it can take.
You know, I thought that I was ready for this
opportunity eight years ago, and now I look back and
I'm like, thank you Lord, this opportunity did knock come
eight years ago because I was most definitely not ready.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
What is up, guys, Chris Rudeger. We are back on
the six to one to five House podcast. We have
a very special guest originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, in the
studio today, and she just put out an album. I'm
so pumper going to talk about it. I also found
out she's friends with Blake Shelton and friends, so much
so that she's going on tour, the Back to the
Honky Talk Tour that's happening. We're going to have to
(00:54):
talk about that. Also, I guess she knows Ricky Skaggs
and Vince Kill. She seems like the cool kid in
Nashville that I am not. So I'm really just here
to talk about how I can become friends with her.
Please welcome this amazing artist, miss Emily Ann Roberts.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Oh thank you for having me. You made me sound
a lot cooler. Than I am so thank you for
that intro.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Of course, the one part I didn't mention that I
should have is that you've played the Grand Old Opry
seventeen times now too, I have.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
That's pretty cool, that is right, I will say, that's
very cool.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, that is crazy to even think about, because that's
everybody's dream, Like I mean, that's a country music dream
come true, dreams to play, Yeah, to play the Aubry
even once.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
So, yeah, when did you first play?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I played in twenty seventeen and it was October thirteenth,
twenty seventeen. I'll probably never forget it. Yeah, And this
is a really cool story. You know. I was so
nervous to be there, and I tried to just soak
up every minute and it went by so fast. But
I tell you, Ricky Skaggs, you mentioned he actually met
(01:59):
him when I was on the voice, and he stayed
in touch with me, and he introduced me to the
audience for the very first time at the Grand Ole Opry,
which was like so cool to have him welcome me
to the stage.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
For the first time.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And so I sang my three songs, and then afterwards
he came to my dressing room, and he had a
little sheet of paper that had like bullet points about me.
It was like Emily and Roberts season nine of the Voice,
you know, new songs stuck on me and you out
now all these different little bullet points to say to
the crowd. And he came in. He congratulated me and
(02:35):
told me he was proud of me. And he handed
me that little piece of paper that he had been
reading off of and he wrote, Emily. He said, I'm
so proud of you. This is just the first of many,
Love your Ricky.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Is that not amazing?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Tell me, friend, Yes, I have.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
That, and we've made copies of that piece of paper
just in case I were to lose it, because I
was just blown away because I thought like, oh my goodness, Like.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I had to pinch myself.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
This is crazy.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
This is my life.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I just sang at the opry and Ricky just said
first of many, love your Ricky.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I'm like, my Ricky, that is you.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
That is amazing, is precious.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, this is.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Really you've gone on. I mean you've done it now
seventeen times. Do you still get nervous when you play?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yes? And I want to ask somebody who's done it?
Like I need to ask Ricky or somebody who's there.
All the time, I'm like, does this ever get like
does it ever feel normal? Because I bet it never
gets old, but does it ever feel normal?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Like every single time.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
That I am there, I think like, Okay, I've done
this plenty of times before. I should not have butterflies
in my stomach. I should not be scared to have
to walk out on that stage. Like I don't really
get nervous anymore on stage, but I always get nervous
at the Grand Ole Opry. It just feels, well, there's
so much history there. Oh my gosh, I know. And
when they're introducing me every time, I'm like me, are
(03:54):
they sure me? Like it's me on the Obrey. It's
just wild. It's it's a very real feeling, and it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
The part of that I love, too is there's this
culture of like continuing to pass down the baton to
the next, you know, class of artists, and Ricky's obviously a.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Legend in his own right and now welcoming you.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
There also Blake Shelton, who you clearly have a great
relationship with and are going on tour, Like I love
to see this just the different generations of country music
continue to evolve.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I do want to talk.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
About the Blake tour and Blake situation because I think
it probably started from when you first met him, which
was on the Voice, right, or had you met him,
pryor No.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So I met him for the first time when I
was on the Voice that was back in twenty fifteen,
and I had never met anybody famous before in my
entire life. And I went on the show and he
turned his chair around and I picked to be on
his team. And I was so nervous to work with
him because, like I said, I've never been round anybody famous,
and I thought, like, what if he acts famous?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Right, you know, like what if he acts like Kopie do?
And I don't know how to talk to him, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
But I was so comfortable around him because he is
so normal, Like he is just so down to earth,
and he reminds me of just like my redneck uncle,
Like yeah, I mean, he's just a mess and a
hoot to be around. And so we were able to
meet then, and he was so supportive when I got
(05:23):
off the show, which so many people, you know, wonder
do these coaches really like care you know, And I
can't speak for everybody, but I can speak for Blake.
I mean, he helped me so much and has continued
to support me.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
That was eight years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, that's amazing that you guys still stay in touch
and he's still a mentor now going on the road.
I just love to hear what people are genuine dudes
outside of like the camera and the Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, you know, I know, because I mean, Colle, that's all,
you know. It makes everybody feel more comfortable when you're
just normal and real. And I just love that he
is that way because he don't have to be. I mean,
he is so accomplished and so successful, and if he
wanted to act like he was the thing, he could,
(06:11):
but he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
And that's really that's really cool, and.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I was thankful that I was able to like that
was my first experience with a successful person in this
business because it, like I guess, taught me, like Emily,
no matter what happens, no matter where you go in
this career, like you're just a person, right, you know, You're.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Just a girl.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
You're just a girl from East Tennessee, and you can't
lose that. And he's just a boy from Oklahoma and
and that comes out and everything he does, and so yes,
I get to go on the road with him. I know.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
That's so amazing. How many dates are us plating?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Seventeen dates.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
It'll be into February through the all of March, and
we're going to a bunch of places I've never been before.
We're going to Canada, I know part of Canada.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
We're going to Edmonton, Calgary, and Saskatoon. Am I saying
that right? That's exactly how much?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I also don't know how it's pronounced. So I'm looking
in the studio to see if any of these the
producers know any better.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
And I'm getting some nods, So maybe you're right.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
That's how you'd sound it out. If you're trying to
sound it sounds right to me. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Are you most excited for Canada? Are there other US cities?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Gosh, No, I'm really excited for Texas.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
We're playing in Austin at the Moody Center and so
that's going to be really cool. And I'm excited to
go to California. We're doing a bunch out there. I'm
a little bumm that there's nothing close to home because
a lot of my friends and family are like, okay,
so which show do we come to? But a lot
(07:46):
of folks are going to travel. My mom and daddy
are going to get to come to some of the dates.
So family road trip, I know, totally road trip. I
cannot wait. I have been working towards something like this
for so long, and you know, when I got off
the voice, this is the crazy thing.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I was just seventeen years old and I thought that
I was ready. Then that was eight years ago.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
You know, And I think that it's really important for
people in this industry to be honest about how long
it can take to get to where you want to
get to. And I mean, gosh, I've still got such
a long road ahead of me. But you know, I
thought that I was ready for this opportunity eight years ago,
and now I look back and I'm like, thank you Lord,
(08:30):
this opportunity did not come eight years ago because I
was most definitely not ready.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So well, I think I think you're being humble. I
think you might have been ready eight years ago. But
I do really appreciate you saying that because for a
lot of people that listen and are maybe following you
or eye. There's this perception of like the overnight success.
You show up in Nashville or La wherever it is,
and you blow up, and maybe some people do online,
but it's not always how it seems. I mean there's
years for you songwriting and recording and finding your band
(09:00):
and like also just networking and meeting people, right, you
got you have to nurture those relationships. And I think,
like it's it really is a ten year town. You know,
it doesn't and everyone's story is different. But I think
you're in a great place and it's cool to see
somebody like you who's as hard working and as talented
as you are. Finally, you know, be given one of
many opportunities to come with Blake. I want to talk
a little bit because you mentioned your families come on
(09:21):
the road with you, families from Knoxville. Yes, are you
big Tennessee Volunteers fan?
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, I'm a big Tennessee volunteer fan.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So what's what's the situation with college football? You think
we're gonna we're gonna make the top.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Age You a Tennessee Volunteers fan. Well, so here's a
fun fact for you.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I did not grow up in Knoxville, but my aunt
was best friends with Pat Summit.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
They were neighbors, stop it. So I used to go
to a lot of.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Basketball games and then I've now since become a somewhat
of a bandwagon Tennessee football fan as well.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Pat Summit was an angel, a legend, a legend.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I got to honor Pat Summit at in Nayland Stadium
with the Pride of the South Lane Band. We sang
Tennessee Waltz and Amazing Grace to honor her.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
That is amazing.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
That was one of the coolest moments of my entire life. Yes,
I'm a huge Tennessee fans. Go I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I was born in ninety eight, which was the last
year that we won the national championship.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Is that what it's called?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Thanks, Okay, I'll let my like, I love to watch
you T football, love to watch you T basketball. But
I'll tell you what, I'm not a sporty girl. Other
than that, I just sit back and watch it. I'm like, oh,
this is cool. But I grew up like watching that
every single Saturday. My dad is a huge UT fan,
(10:40):
and we didn't get to go to games a lot
because it was expensive. And there was one game that
I got to go to as a young girl, and
my daddy took me early so we could see the
band come through and all the boys go into the
stadium and I just remember thinking this is the coolest
thing ever, and then being able to watch the game
(11:01):
and we were playing Georgia and we were up in
the first half, and then my daddy said, if we
win this game. They were wearing gray jerseys that day.
He said, if we win this game, I'll buy you
one of those great jerseys.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And I thought like, oh my gosh. And we lost.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And so I'll tell you my whole life as a
UT fan. I would rather lose as a UT fan
than win. Is anything else, but it is. It has
been a roller coaster my whole life, and that's okay.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
But I do think that we're onto something great.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I think that last week's game we pulled out a
good old win against Kentucky, and I think that there
are good things ahead of us.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
But it does keep you on your toes.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
It does. And this is a hot top ag and
I might get some flak for this, but I feel
like in.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Nashville there's this big Georgia movement up here right now.
All these songwriters from Georgia and let's just say There're
music is fantastic. I support you, John Langston, Rayfold or
whoever it is. And then there's a bunch of people
from Alabama coming up here now and that's great. But like,
give me the Tennessee pride. You know you're right, Like,
let's get into the mix. It's no longer just a
(12:14):
Georgia Alabama situation here, like Tennessee is a part of.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
This for real, for real. For so many years we
have not been, though, but we are. We beat Alabama
last year and I hate that we lost this year,
but we've always got next year.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
My husband is an Alabama fan, unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Ooh is that cause a little bit of tension in
the household?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yes, especially on the third Saturday in October.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah. I told him we were out on the road.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I was actually playing a gig up in Maryland on
the Saturday that we were playing, and I was like,
if we lose and y'all win, we have to sleep
in separate beds tonight. He was like no, and I
was like yes, And then we lost and we didn't
sleep in separate beds, but I threatened that I care bet, yeah,
because I'm like, he gets so competitive and he's he
(13:05):
grew up in East Tennessee, but he's not like an
Alabama Bandwagon fan.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
His mom and daddy were born and raised in Alabama.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
All their parents and grandparents are Alabama people, and they
moved for work. So he was raised every Saturday watching
Alabama football. That's just like all he's ever known. So
I don't hold it against him, or at least I
don't try to. But yeah, on that game day, there's
definitely some tension in our house.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
There has to be, but that makes for good competition, right. Well, look,
here's the deal. We got so much to talk about.
We're gonna be right back on the six and five
Hours podcast and we're gonna get into more music and
Emily and R Roberts, what is up, guys. We are back.
I am here with Emily and Roberts in the studio.
You just put out an album and we got to
talk about it because this thing, top to bottom is fantastic.
It's been out for a couple a couple of months now,
(13:53):
that September, Yes, and I got to say I love
a whole lot a little, but just because I've seen
it on my TikTok and Instagram so much and I
can I you know, I now know the words and
I kind of got this little dance thing that I.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Do with it.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh but there's some other songs on this album that
are fantastic that I want to talk about as well.
What was the process like recording this album?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Oh my goodness, Well, it wasn't anything like I intentionally
sat down.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I was like, okay, and now I want to start
my record.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I mean, I've been in town for eight years and
there are songs on this project that I wrote back
in twenty seventeen, and then there are songs on this
project that I wrote just a couple months before we
cut it. So it has been a journey and all
of the songs are from different parts of my journey.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
But when we actually went in and started.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Recording, I got to work with Trent Willman as my producer,
and he is just precious. He is a ten out
of ten guy and a huge answered prayer to me
in my life and in my career because I was
waiting for the right producer for so long. You know,
my music is is probably more on the country side
(15:03):
of country music. It's definitely not pop country. And when
I first got to town, Kelsey Vallerini had just blown
up and Marin had just blown up, and like pop
country was like the thing that was thing, it was
the cool thing, and everybody was like, hey, what you're
writing is cool, but it doesn't fit with what's going
(15:23):
on in country music right now. And that was really
hard on me because, for a little bit, I tried
to chase a sound that people told me would work.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I was going to say, did you feel pressured to
kind of follow oh shoe, Yeah, of you know some
of these stars that were rising, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And I think that, like to a degree, a bunch
of artists probably go through that when they see stuff
that's working so well for other folks, and it might
be tempting to think, like, Okay, maybe if I model
myself a little bit after what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Then maybe I'll be successful too.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
But the truth is is, I think that if you
following what someone else has already done, you're already behind.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
You're kind of playing this constant chase.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Like this catchup yeah, And at the end of the day,
the product you're gonna get, I don't think is believable
if you're not just being authentic, you know, if you're
not being real to the music that you want to make,
and if you don't believe in it, how are you
going to get anyone else to believe in it?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
So that was definitely a journey.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And I worked with a bunch of different producers that
like tried to take who I was and also fit
it into like modern pop country music, and they did
a great job at what they were trying to do.
But Trent was the first one to come along and say, like,
I think that this is great just as it is,
(16:50):
and I don't think that it's a disadvantage that you
don't sound like everyone else.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
I think it's actually a huge asset and advantage. Yeah,
it was. It was incredible to hear.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, So he just believed in me and believed in
the product as it was, instead of trying to say, like, yeah,
I think I could spreuce this up and change it
and make it fit some kind of agenda and so anyways,
that was a huge.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Just missing peace of the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
And so he jumped in and we went into the
studio and we cut six songs and actually a whole
Lot of Little was the first song I ever wrote
with Trent. We not bad for a first right, not
bad for a first rite. Yeah, it's crazy. This feels
like such a Nashville story to me. We met and
then he after our first meeting, he was like, I
(17:38):
would love to work with you. Let me know what
you need. Who do you want to write with? I
want to write with you, Like, let's get a date together.
So the next day he was like, I'm writing with
my buddy Jeremy Spilman out at my house. He was like,
you want to come? And I was like sure. So
the next day I go to his house. We write
a whole lot a little and then the next day
he met with my team and my team was basically like,
(18:00):
all right, let's do this thing. And I mean just
in a matter of three days, I went from thinking
like what am I doing? How am I going to
get to the other side of this? And you know,
like how am I going to get my music out?
How am I gonna record the music the way that
I wanted to? Like everything was up in the air,
And three days later, now I've got a plan.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
You know what I'm saying. Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
I always ask artists this when you left that room,
because first off, A Whole Lot a Little is a
fantastic song, first song on the album and just had
a tremendous amount of success. When you wrote that song,
did you leave the room like, yeah, that's the one,
like I got it, or was it still a process
with like recording, you know, like, when do you know
that you have your song?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Okay, Well, I loved the song when I left the
room because it's super blue, grassy, and I believed in
it a lot. But I played it for some of
my band and they kind of gave me mixed feelings.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And I was like, Okay, well maybe it's not that cool,
like I thought it was really cool.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
But I'll tell you when I knew that song was
special was when we took it out on the road
and started playing it live and I saw real people
like light up. And I still see that every single
time I play this song, the whole energy in the
room changes.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
It's just one of those songs that has so much energy.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I think that it's infectious, like other people just start
to tap their toes and have a fun time with us.
And so that's been the biggest telltale sign for me
and my music is seeing how people outside of the
industry connect to it, because they're the ones who are
really changing our lives. Like they're the ones who are
(19:36):
streaming the music, they're the ones who are buying the records,
who are buying the tickets, and so if they're loving it,
then that's a really good sign.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Well, I love that you. I love that you're listening
to your fans. So I think that's a big part
of it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And you know, like you said, all aspects of the
business now are it's about what people want to hear,
and then they're the ones they're going to show up
when you're on.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
The road with with Blake.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, when you were putting out this project, you know,
I think there's so many things that an artist has
to do. Now we're going to create world where there's
all these social media apps and there's still radio, and
then there's you know, photo shoots and press and all
this stuff.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
It's a lot for an artist to handle.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
How have you been able to kind of manage it all?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Oh, what a question. It is a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
It's a lot, and I'm still trying to be disciplined
with my time and manage my time wisely, because you
do feel pulled in all different directions, because I truly
believe the biggest form of promoting our music is us
(20:41):
getting it out online in the form of TikTok's reels,
YouTube shorts, all that stuff. I mean, I'll tell you
a whole lot of little changed everything for me because
we took a video in a cornfield. My guitar player
got his iPhone out, took a video of me and
my girls in my band singing a whole lot a
little and I posted it online and within twenty four
(21:04):
hours it was over two million views, And then posted
it the day it came out and it's over seven
million views up.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
But that wasn't because of some expensive, fancy marketing plan
or push you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
It was natural. I mean, you were in a cornfield,
you said, hey, we're going to post this. This is
just a normal post. Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
It wasn't anything like fancy you or And that's something
that is a little bit It's incredible that we as
like artists have the opportunity to get our art out
there in such a simple and real way. But it's
also a little bit maddening because Obviously, we can't control
what's going to pop off and what doesn't. And I
(21:50):
am a planner and I love to be able to
say like, Okay, we're going to do this, and then
we're gonna do this, then we're gonna do this, and
all of this is going to come together to help
promote this this body of work.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
But yeah, it's an interesting time.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You have to be a really stinking hard worker, and
you have to do things that you might not have
thought you have to do. I mean, I spend so
much of my week editing videos. Okay, if you had
asked me two years ago what I was spending most
of my week doing, it wouldn't have been that. Like,
(22:24):
my world and my work has changed and evolved so much.
And I know that social media might not be like
everybody's favorite thing, but I try to tell all of
my friends who are trying to get their music out there,
I'm like, you have to do it. You just have
to do it, and you don't have to overthink it.
But get your art and your music or whatever your
(22:46):
product is. Just get it online, you know, and try
to be creative and authentic and genuine about the way
that you were promoting it, But I mean something that
I'm trying to do now is I'm trying to, like
I said, just have days. I have days where I write,
(23:06):
and i have days where I'm saying, okay, today I'm
filming content.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And then I have days where I'm doing more.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Of the business in things and making sure that we're
all set to go back out on the road on
the weekends. And then of course that I'm out on
the road. And that's a whole different part of my job.
But it definitely requires a lot of your time and
a bunch of different types of work to keep this
thing moving.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's crazy one hundred. There's more things thrown at you.
But I think you made a couple of really good points,
which is one being balanced and having a schedule. I
think that's something that a lot of us as artists
can benefit from. I think the other part that's important,
as you said, still being authentic with your post. I
think one of the things is crazy is maddening such
(23:55):
a great word for it, because I think we're all
online and we're seeing a lot of people get the
success that they deserve, and then a lot of people
that kind of jump a few ladders quickly and I
think that's when things get very frustrating, because you've put
what eight ten years of hard work into something and
this is your moment. And I think just staying true
to what your art is and yourself and knowing that
(24:17):
there's going to be a time for you, as hard
as it might be right now with the cloudiness of
social media, is still so important and I love that
this album represents that for you in your work. I
want to talk about Ricky Skaggs and then scale on
this song.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
What was it like working with two legends?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Oh my goodness?
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Okay, so yes, So we have Ricky Skaggs of n
Skille on one of the tracks on the album.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
It's called Still Searching, and it is wild.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Every single time I hear that song or we talk
about it. The fact that I have their voices on
my album is crazy. Of course, I talked about Ricky earlier.
I've known him since the voice. When I was on
the show you got to if you made it to
the final four, everybody got to have a performance with
(25:11):
one of their biggest inspirations, and so they had Ricky
out and we sang together, and he stayed in touch
with me and has just been a sweet friend through
the years.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
He has been so sweet.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
And then thence I've actually never met, but I hope
I get to meet him one day. I hope I
get to sing this live with them one day. But
I've never met him. But my guitar player actually knows him,
and he was able to reach out to him to
see if he would put his voice on the song.
(25:44):
And actually, that song, Still Searching is the only song
on the record that I didn't write. It was an
outside song that was pitched to me from Jerry Sally
and I've been writing with him for years, and he
played me the song and I was just blown away
by the sentiment of this song. And it's talking about
(26:05):
a woman who is looking for the right man in
her life to you know, fall in love with and marry.
And she talks about how she's still search him for
someone who's search him for someone like her. And it
talks about being patient, and it talks about, you know,
is there anyone out there who's looking for anyone like me?
And I am in a happy, wonderful marriage. But when
(26:29):
I heard that song, I related to it so much
from like my career standpoint, because that's exactly how I felt.
I felt like, is there anyone out there who is
looking for what I bring to the table, you know,
is there anyone who believes in what I believe in
and the type of music that I want to make?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And so I absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
And on the demo that he played me, Ricky and
Vince were doing the bgbs. So after I heard them
on the song, I was like, well, if I cut
the song, I have to get them on, Like, I
can't unhear that. I have to get them on my
song too. You already, yes, they did. You can't cut
them out.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Honestly, if they hadn't been on that demo, I don't
know if I would have ever had the guts to
be like, hey, let's try to get Vincent Ricky on this.
But the song is it's probably it's probably at least
fifteen years old.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
It's an old, older song.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And so IRIE shout to Ricky and uh, he said
that he would love to do it, and he sent
me the sweetest text. He said, you know what would
be fun if we could all get together at the
Grand Ole Opry one night and sing this live. And
I was like, you know, Ricky, that would pretty much
make my whole life.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
A few things around my schedule maybe to make that work.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
So that's next on the bucket list. I want to
make that happen.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Maybe that's will be the eighteenth time at the ground,
ye for you, wouldn't that be.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
A good that'd be a good cleration.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
That's amazing. Well, I love I love the song.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I think it's amazing that those guys are are on it.
They really do do help that, you know. I mean
the song, your voice sounds great on it, but having
them in the background for ye. And I hope that
you get to meet Vince Skill me too, and then
I hope that you invite me, said, I can meet
vins Skill.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
A great deal, thank you.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
I'll take that. I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, Hey, we got to play a quick game here
because we got our friends at Ariat who give us
some amazing product, and we do the second called rapid
fire questions, very simple, sixty seconds on the clock. I'm
just going to throw you some questions. First thing that
comes to mind, you spell it out, all right, don't
think too hard now, all right, We've got some people
that have thought too hard and it doesn't go very well.
But I feel like you're gonna be good at this question.
(28:35):
That's all right, sixty seconds on the clock.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Let's go. What would be a dream venue for you
to play at?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
The one the red is Red Rocks.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
It is Red Rocks. There you go.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Somebody that you could collaborate with that you haven't yet,
Dolly Parton. I like that answer. Are you a talker
or a texter talker like that? A favorite fast food
place Taco Mall? Really, somebody else i'd talk about. We're
going to get back that. Are you col baseball cap
or cowgirl cap?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Baseball cap?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
I like baseball caps too. I see you have boots on.
What's your favorite type of boot?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I can't choose. I love them all. These are lanes,
so we'll go with lane.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
There you go, and let's see last question right now?
What is something? What's one place in the world that
you could go to that you haven't been yet.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I've not been a lot of places. I want to
go too. I want to go to Hawaii.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Really, I just got back from Hawaii. It is amazing.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yes, Oh my gosh, I want to go so bad.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Well, next time I invite you. Hawhai is the spot
you should you should tour in Hawaii.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
That's what you do.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Hey, Blake Shelon, can we get the tour over to Hawaii?
That was I believe sixty seconds. That even might have
been like forty five seconds. That was pretty fast.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Matt. You got to you got a timer in there.
Matt's our producer.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
We got to run that back and figure out what
I think that was a forty five second clip right there,
So you actually might be the fastest.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Oh, I love that. That means I'm the winner, right
it does?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Good.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Actually, I'm now thinking about this on the spot, but
I think we're going to create a leader board of
all the guests on the podcast, and then right now
you'd be.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
At the top.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Oh good, that makes me handy.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Don't don't get too complacent. We have some other episodes,
but you're looking pretty good right now. Well, Hey, it's
been awesome having you in here. I'm so excited about
this record for you. I'm excited about the tour you. Uh,
anything else that you know is upcoming that we can
look forward to.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Oh gosh, Well, we're about to shoot some new music
videos for some of the songs off of the new album,
which I'm really thrilled about. So there's some cool stuff
coming out. And then of course the tour. If anybody
listening is located in some of these places, we're hitting
a lot of them. We're gonna be all over the place.
(30:44):
So check out my website because I'd love to see
y'all out on the road because it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Be so good.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And then another cool thing that people can follow along
with me is I have a homepage that I have
with my husband called sasser House.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
You have a YouTube channel, right, okay.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yes, So we have a YouTube channel, and then we
have an Instagram and a TikTok It's called Sassar House.
And my husband refinishes furniture and builds furniture and does.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
A lot of like diy stuff.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
And then I love all things homemaking.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I love to make decor and I crochet and I
do all kinds of stuff for our home.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
And then I love to cook and I love to
make a house a home.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
And so we just bought our first house a year
ago and we have documented all of the things we're.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Doing to fix it up. Yeah, and just kind of
our lives.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And so that's been a really fun thing for people
to follow and It's been fun for us to document
because we're able to connect with other folks and get
ideas and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So that's called Sassar House.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So Sassa house and you can find that off of
your website and it's link. Is it linked to your
socials as well? Okay, cool, I want to check that out.
That's really cool. Congratulations on purchasing your first house. Where
is your house?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
We are outside of nash Mill out towards More towards
Knoxville where I'm from, just down forty and so we
love being.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Outside of town.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
It's probably like a little bit private and comforting. You
don't have to deal with all the Broadway and yeah,
midtown traffic, yeah exists.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
It's really quiet. You can hear the birds sing.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
As somebody that lives like a stone's throw from Broadway,
I can hear, you know, the one hundred and eighty
seventh rendition of wagon Wheel every night before that.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
I envy that.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So that's amazing. And is it are you do you?
Are you partnered with like Southern Made Tees? Is that
I did?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
So? I did something with them last year. Actually we
did a whole t shirt line. But that's another fun
thing to talk about. I work with them a lot
on designing my merch and I have so much cute merch.
If I do say so myself, it doesn't look like March.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
It's cute.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
It's like it's like a it's apparel. It's apparel. It's
apparel and all of that is. I'm an online store.
We have so much cute stuff. We've got bandanas with
chickens on them, which you might not thing sounds cute,
but it is.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
I'm now thinking that might be a Christmas gift.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yes, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
And we're about to have vinyl for had Country. They'll
be available on my online store, and then all kinds
of hats, T shirt stickers and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
So I love that.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
See the cool part is, you know, it's not just
the music, but it's also I love that you have
a channel with your husband for some of the stuff
you're working on, as well as a real apparel line.
Like I think it's cool and I hope that. I
hope that you continue to crosh it with your music,
but I also hope that you build up an amazing
apparel brand and that looks like you're an entrepreneur, you know, Oh.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Gosh, I've turned into one for sure. You want to
figure out how to make money.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
So I think I think we all have you know,
here in Nashville as artists. But thanks for you know,
for taking the time out of your day coming here,
only Roberts. This has been It's been so fun. I
love these conversations because I just get to know more
about everyone's and what they've been up to, and I
can't wait to catch a show of yours. I recommend
all of you go here Emily live because she is
(34:06):
fantastic with her band, and you go to stream the
record right to get those numbers up, you.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Know, yeah, absolutely check it out.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Heck yeah. Well, thanks guys, and we'll be back next week.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.