Emily Scott Robinson Signs to Oh Boy, to Release ‘American Siren’

Photo: Cal & Aly

It’s been a long time coming for singer and songwriter Emily Scott Robinson, who won Saving Country Music’s Song of the Year in 2019 for “The Dress,” and was nominated for Album of the Year in 2019 as well, and for Song of the Year again in 2020 for the standalone single “The Time for Flowers.” Very highly regarded among the audience that knows her, hopefully that audience will be expanding dramatically after this good news.

Emily Scott Robinson has signed with Oh Boy Records originally founded by John Prine, and will release a new record called American Siren on October 29th. According to Robinson who had launched a Kickstarter for her new album and was ready to release it independently, John Prine’s son Jody Whelan heard the aforementioned “The Time For Flowers”—which resonated with both him and the Prine family (John passed away on April 7th, 2020)—and reached out to Robinson asking to help.

Now Emily Scott Robinson will finally have the resources behind her she deserves, including Oh By distributed by Thirty Tigers, and a top notch publicity team. “This is big,” she said to her fans. “Now is the time to grow and expand. I’m thrilled to be joining forces with Oh Boy Records to release ‘American Siren.’ I’m honored that I get to be part of John Prine’s legacy. And I am thrilled to tell you that you, my fans, were an integral part of this tremendous step in my music career.”

And most importantly, she’s got new music on the way.

“I think that the thread running through the album is those things that call to us, and how we can’t resist that call,” says Robinson. “It’s about the siren songs that come up through our lives. It is bigger and riskier and more expansive than my last collection. It feels like I wrote some songs that I’m going to grow into as I continue to perform them. They’re excavating some deeper stuff than I’ve touched on before, I think they will have a healing quality for people who listen.”

One of the new songs sees the story of Emily Scott Robinson come full circle. “Cheap Seats” was inspired by a John Prine and Bonnie Raitt performance at The Ryman in 2019, and is about a distracted waitress who is bound someday to realize her dreams.

“If you make music that you love that tells the truth, or that tells a story, everything emanates from what you have inside,” Robinson says. “I knew at the core that I love writing, I love telling stories and I love performing. I knew if I just kept doing that, even when I didn’t always know what the next step was, that it would continue to grow and that the people who were meant to be a part of that would find me.”

Also from the album and released already is the Celtic-inspired song “Old Gods” that features Alexa Rose and Abigail Dowd on harmony (see below). It was recorded in the church room at Echo Mountain Studio in Asheville, North Carolina, and produced like the rest of the album by Jason Richmond. Originally from Greensboro, NC, Emily now lives in Colorado. She won the Telluride Troubadour Contest at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2019.

American Siren immediately rockets up the list as one of the most anticipated releases in 2021, is now available for pre-order.

American Siren Track List:
1. Old Gods
2. Things You Learn The Hard Way
3. If Trouble Comes A Lookin’
4. Let ‘Em Burn
5. Cheap Seats
6. Hometown Hero
7. Lost Woman’s Prayer
8. Every Day In Faith
9. Lightning In A Bottle
10. Old North State

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