I was expecting the best when I made my way to the Ready Room for New York neosoulstress Emily King’s first trip to the STL. She’s been in the game for 10 years – so long that one of her songs was actually my Myspace profile theme song. For the life of me I don’t know how she managed to have a whole decade long career without stopping through. I’ll tell you what though…she will most certainly be back with the warm reception she received from our city. She was not ready for it and was almost moved to tears at hello. I was disappointed that she didn’t have a full band, but who knew complete life could be given with two guitars, a beat machine and a microphone. Anyway, the folks loved her so that one thirsty, glowstick carrying fan kept inserting herself into the show during Emily’s talking transitions. You know a city loves you when somebody volunteers to do your taxes from the audience. The audience got tired of her shenanigans really quickly, but Emily handled with grace, and threw down as far as the actual set. Ninety-five percent of y’all probably haven’t heard of Emily before now, which is probably why she was downright in shock when she saw most of the seats filled with folks determined to make the show a sing-a-long…and they knew all of the words. That ninety minutes of acoustic neo-soul gave me everything I’ve been missing and maybe even a bit more since India.Arie has been hovered into her little anti-tour crypt. Emily also let us know that she signed a new record deal, so maybe she can get the distribution and exposure she deserves.
