Vincent Neil Emerson (2023)

One Liner: Texas singer-songwriter taking cues from Townes and sounding great.

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - country, Americana, singer-songwriter
Home: Fort Worth

Sunday

Thoughts:  Fully entertaining new iteration of the Texas singer/songwriter genre.  His voice matches it too - fine, but nothing special.  Like, no one is ever going to give Robert Earl Keen or Townes Van Zandt an award for their singing voice - it's all about the lyrics.  He kinda sounds like Steve Earle's son (RIP).

He was raised out in East Texas - actually in Van Zandt County, of all places - and says that Townes was his inspiration to become a musician.  At one point, he hooked up with Canadian singer/songwriter Colter Wall (who I really am unfamiliar with, but who is playing on Friday at the Fest), and that helped launch him into a slightly more elevated realm of fame.  Rodney Crowell has worked with him on his albums, which is a good mentor to have as well.  Crowell low key rules.

"Learnin' to Drown" is about his father's suicide, which is a pretty tough one.  “My father killed himself/My mother hit the bar.”  When you know the subject of the song, just the tender entry into the track feels painfully raw.  This is the top track from his new album, with 1.3 million streams.

That is a legit damn song.  Pretty on its own, but when you listen to the words, it's a killer opening into some painful memories and how he's dealt with the paths his life has taken since.  And here's a terrible litany from a Texas Monthly article: "Emerson has weathered a lifetime’s worth of hardship in his 29 years: his father’s suicide, alcoholism, his little brother’s death in a house fire, dropping out of high school at age seventeen, homelessness, and a best friend’s killing in an argument over drugs."  Criminy.

Most of these tunes aren't quite so serious - "Willie Nelson's Wall" being a prime example of a fun little tune with clever lyrics.  "Letters on the Marquee" is great too - I love the line when he sings about the crowd demanding "another" David Alan Coe song, when he hasn't even played one.

Two albums - 2019's Fried Chicken & Evil Women, and 2021's Vincent Neil Emerson.  The second-biggest streamer is off of that first album, "25 & Wastin' Time."  5.6 million streams.

Sounds like some classic outlaw country.  Just ready for him to say "I guess I'll just sit here and drink."  Good little shuffling boogie.  Also, surprisingly high number of streams.  When this dude came to ACL a few years back, he had nothing that broke a million.

His top streamer is a single that he released in between the albums - "Road Runner" - with 6.7 million streams.

Hootenanny, baby.  Great driving tune.  He's released two singles recently, and they stay in this same lane of classic Americana stuff.  

I like this guy a lot.  I'll put his album into my queue for further listening for sure, and I'd go check out the show.