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Emily Hurd is featured on Outbound Radio |
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 Chicago-based songwriter Emily Hurd does not craft tunes for the faint of heart. The wordsmith's live performance showcases her breathtaking vocals, fearless lyrics, and unique piano, banjo, and ukulele musicianship. Attend one of her shows, and prepare to be swept up in her pianistic punch, vintage grooves, stunning arrangements, and memorable melodies. She is currently promoting her latest album, Long Lost Ghosts, out on January 1st of 2012. Originally from Rockford, Illinois, Hurd has been touring her native Midwest and both coasts of the U.S. for years. Hurd has developed a no-excuses performance savvy; what you hear is what she is. Well-traveled and well-versed, she is the quintessential indie national act, performing for growing pockets of loyal followers who revel in her clever rhymes and honest showmanship. Her supporters in the Southeastern states have started an annual event called “Emilyfest,” providing Hurd and her band with an open barn down in a holler of rural North Carolina. The big skies and high country grass at Emilyfest serve as the perfect backdrop for her fans to not only listen, but to lose themselves for a while in her one-of-a-kind lyrics. Backed by a band, Hurd blasts through her tunes with Joplinesque soul. She has shared the stage with Bettye Lavette, Ozomatli, and Irma Thomas, to name a few. On her own, she candidly roots her audience into her storytelling and storyselling, and has opened as a solo act for the likes of Roger McGuinn and Geoff Muldaur. As a child, Emily spent most of her upbringing immersed in music. She still counts Hoagie Carmichael, Kris Kristofferson, and Scott Joplin as her biggest musical influences. Through high school, culinary school, and later while getting her BA in Music Business from Columbia College in Chicago, Hurd developed a fondness for Lyle Lovett, John Prine, and Joni Mitchell. "Like most things, songwriting is more a function of being open than it is about skill," Hurd says. Assuming this to be true, her open nature has won her the praise of critics and judges internationally. Her song "The Likes Of You" was a winner in the 2009 International Songwriting Competition and the 2008 Unisong International Songwriting Contest, and "Make a Bed" was a finalist in the 2008 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. She has also placed in the Billboard Song Contest and was a finalist in NPR’s prestigious NewSong Contest. Her music has been played internationally on radio and television, including the hit TV series NCIS, which played her song “Help Me To Understand” last season. To say Hurd is prolific is understatement: Ghosts is her 8th studio album. Lush vocals, vibrant acoustic production, and tones of defiant optimism run through each song like prairie wildfire, echoing the uptempo balladry and intelligent anthems often linked to kindred troubadours Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle. All the tunes on the record were written on the ukulele and then performed on the vintage grand piano at Chicago’s King Size Sound Labs. The record features an all-star line-up of Chicago musicians: John Abbey (Robbie Fulks, Amy Speace), Darren Garvey (Cameron McGill and What Army, Miles Nielsen), Sue Demel (Sons of the Never Wrong, Come Sunday), and Maria McCullough (Sleepy Lou, Jonas Friddle). Her past discography includes: “Tins & Pins & Peppermints, 2010, "Daytime Fireflies," 2010, "A Cache In The Warehouse Floor," 2008, "Love In Flats," 2007, "Barefoot Session," 2006, "Potent One," 2006, and "Lines," 2005. |
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