​Miss Emily (from the album The Medicine

​Miss Emily (from the album The Medicine

​Miss Emily (from the album The Medicine available on Gypsy Soul Records) (by Brian Rock)
Award winning Canadian Blues artist, Miss Emily, dispenses hard truths with a spoonful of sugar on her fourth album, The Medicine. Singing about heartbreak, addiction, and the loss of loved ones, she tempers her Blues with a call for us to come together to support each other. Part Janiva Magness and part Southern Avenue, Miss Emily sings with a fiery intensity that’s both haunting and healing.
She declares her independence from bad relationships on the full throttle Memphis Soul of “My Freedom”. Recalling the turmoil of her ex-lover in acapella fury, she declares ‘there ain’t no use in looking back when the past is dark and reckless’. A funky bass line and pounding drums soon echo the intensity of her emotion. Singing ‘there were moments when I swear I feel your breath upon my neck’ Miss Emily admits that she’s still haunted by the past. Continuing she sings ‘a positive demeanor allows me to move forward’. A pulsing Hammond organ heralds a surging optimism as she sings ‘I believe in where I’m going ‘cause I can see how far I’ve come’. Resolving to ‘forgive but don’t forget’, Miss Emily takes control of her life by realizing ‘I was the one who held the key to my freedom’. The soulful rhythms testify to a new found confidence born from overcoming hardship.
Singing straight from the heart on “You Make Believe”, Miss Emily pours out the pain of a relationship based more on expectations than reality. “Running Again” incorporates staccato Funk rhythms to bemoan the cycles of hope and heartbreak. She offers up her heart in the tender “Maybe”. Turning from the pain of chasing love to the pain of losing a loved one, Miss Emily sheds a tear for those who succumb to addiction on the haunting title track. Singing about the slow descent into addiction, she moans ‘you took the medicine till the medicine took you’. Dealing with loss of another kind, she recounts a historic tragedy from 1866 in “Smith’s Bay Drowning”. Like “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, she recounts the shipwreck in heartbreaking detail. Knowing that nothing in life is guaranteed, she offers words of advice to a future generation on the touching “Solid Ground”. Singing again of remembrance, Miss Emily delivers a heart piercing musical memento in the event of her absence. Channeling Nina Simone and Etta James, Miss Emily presents “Remember This Song” by combining haunting Jazz and Blues rhythms as she pleads ‘I want this to move you. I want this to sooth you. I want you to sing along. remember this song’. Reflecting on life’s trials and tribulations with “Stand Together, Band Together” she realizes life’s load is much easier when shared. Fusing Blues, Soul, and Gospel, she sings a hymn to community, ‘you can learn to love or you can learn to hate. It takes more than one man to move that weight’. Offering no exceptions for political prejudices, she hammers the point home stating ‘politics aside, we are equal souls in the eyes of Time. It takes more than one star to light that sky’. It’s a rallying cry that’s so important, and so often ignored. Miss Emily delivers the message with urgency and intensity. Unequivocally, she declares that if you hate someone because of their politics, you are the problem. For some that may be hard medicine to take, but hopefully, Miss Emily’s powerful, poignant voice helps that medicine go down and soften even the hardest of hearts. (by Brian Rock)
Listen and buy the music of Miss Emily from AMAZON
Please go to the Miss Emily website for more purchase and artist information