CANCELLED: SESAC Presents: In The Round with Emily Rose, Brett Sheroky, Ana Cristina Cash & Blanco Brown

Emily Rose has a voice reminiscent of Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Natalie Maines. Hers is a voice that invites listeners in with every word sung. She is a retro-hued country singer, who focuses on the true grit of the songs she sings. Ask Emily who some of her favorite artists are and she reels off names like Patty Loveless, Wade Bowen, Linda Ronstadt, Charlie Rich, Sheryl Crow, and Kacey Musgraves. 

Since the 2019 release of her debut single, “My Way Home,” Emily has released two EPs, The Heart and Wings, along with a handful of singles, including “Go to the Moon,” “Dance in the Kitchen,” “Windshield,” “Hey Child,” and “Love’s Gonna Find You.” The title track of The Heart EP stayed in the Top 10 of Spotify’s New Boots playlist for several weeks, while “Version of Me” peaked at #56 on the MusicRow chart in late 2021. With each release, Emily has gained momentum with country music fans and the industry alike, receiving praise from CMT, Billboard, Rolling Stone, MusicRow, The Boot, American Songwriter, All Access, and others. Her version of the Lennon/McCartney chestnut, “Golden Slumbers,” is a fan favorite.

“There’s a fresh new voice in country music, Emily Rose, and I really like her new EP,” said NPR Music’s Ann Powers on the weekly show All Songs Considered.

Emily grew up in Flemington, NJ, where she was the youngest member of a Conway Twitty tribute band. “I was this little girl singing songs made famous by Conway Twitty,” says Emily, reflecting on her formative years. “I knew the songs from my parents, but really, I was too young to fully understand the words I was singing. Still, it was Conway Twitty!” Pausing for a few seconds, Emily adds, “That was such an important part of my life. It set me on my musical path.” Upon graduating high school in 2012, Emily moved to Nashville.

Arriving in the capital of country music at the age of 18, Emily’s mission was simple: write, write, write. “I focused on my songwriting, writing every day—which is something I still do. I write by myself as well as with many Nashville-based songwriters and artists,” explains Emily. Along the way, Emily signed with performance rights organization SESAC—and began honing her own sound as a recording artist. In 2019, Emily launched her own label imprint, The Growing Rose Recording Company. In the years since, Emily’s music has been featured in the PBS documentary, “Fast-Forward: Look Into Your Future,” and several episodes of MTV’s “Teen Mom.”

Since the arrival of her first baby at the tail end of 2021, Emily has focused on being a mom, wife, and songwriter. She is now readying her debut album, “Welcome to Motherhood,” which is scheduled for a Spring 2025 release. For Mother’s Day 2024, she teased the album with the release of the single, “Babies Don’t Keep.” She followed this with the twang-filled “Messy” and the motherhood anthem “Mouths to Feed.”

For Emily, it always comes down to the songs. “I don’t sing anything I cannot relate to,” she explains. “I am proud of who I am and want to show the world my true self. What really gets to me is when I can feel what a singer is feeling—that’s what I want people to feel when they hear me sing. And hopefully, my lyrics and songs will inspire one or two people along the way.”

Pausing, she adds, "Hearing other people’s stories, and realizing I was not alone in my postpartum journey, helped me get through all the changes in my life since becoming a mother. I cannot wait to see how these new songs connect with others. Hopefully, they will help others heal and move forward, like they did for me."

A native of Belleville, IL, writer/artist, Brett Sheroky moved to Nashville in 2009. Working as a speech therapist by day, Brett spent over a decade on the outside of the music scene focusing on the craft of songwriting. That disciplined approach paid off in 2020 when Brett signed his first publishing deal with SeaGayle Music. Within the first year of his deal, Brett had songs recorded by major artists Granger Smith and Blake Shelton. In 2022, Brett landed his first radio single with Matt Stell's "Man Made" as well as 2022 American Idol winner Noah Thompson's "One Day Tonight.”

While finding success as a songwriter, Brett has been making a name for himself as an artist as well. In early 2020, Brett caught the attention of Phil Vassar and was personally invited to be the opener on Phil's "Stripped Down Tour." Brett's songs and natural ability to engage and entertain an audience has since allowed him the opportunity for more supporting slots.

Ana Cristina Cash is a Nashville-based American singer-songwriter who was originally raised in Miami, Florida by her Cuban parents who moved to the United States in the early 1960s during the onset of the revolution. Growing up listening to a multitude of genres, Cash’s sound was influenced by an eclectic array of inspiration from Country, Pop, improvisational Jazz and Latin music. Writing directly from the heart, the singer-songwriter’s recordings exhibit a broad vocal range, spanning from an expressive and resonating contralto to a soaring coloratura soprano, otherwise known as the “whistle register.” Ana earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Florida International University and her master’s degree in creative writing and literature from Harvard University.

Blanco Brown knows a thing or two about turning a bitter experience into a sweet one.

In August 2020, Brown was hit head-on and nearly killed by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle. He endured multiple hours-long surgeries, a lengthy ICU stay, and months of rehabilitation therapy, during which he had to re-learn how to do everything from hold a microphone to walk.

“Not being able to do anything about it, and the other driver got to walk scot-free — I went to a bitter moment,” Brown admits. It’s an understandable reaction, but Brown knew he couldn’t wallow in it: “I had to let it go, let God, and keep the positivity in things,” he says.

To alter a cliché, Brown is taking lemons and making his Heartache & Lemonade EP. And he sees these four songs — and the other new tracks he’s got in his back pocket for release down the line — as an opportunity not to be wasted.

“It wasn’t by mistake, it was by the grace of God, that I actually got a second chance at life,” Brown continues. “That accident woke me up, and it made me want to do more and get more done in the space I’m in. With music, I get to lay my emotions on the line for eternity, so I take it real serious.”

Brown has worked as a songwriter and a producer within pop and hip-hop with acts including Fergie, Childish Gambino, Kane Brown, and Chris Brown, earning a Grammy nomination, but he made a name for himself in country music by blending classically country and traditionally hip-hop sounds, as well as the storytelling of both styles, into what he calls “TrailerTrap.” With his new music, he’s aiming to mix fresh sounds and impactful messages with the fun and sweetness of his biggest hits that have resulted in over two billion on demand audio streams: the platinum-certified #1 singles “The Git Up” — the viral hit that topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for 12 weeks and was the top-selling digital country song in the United States for 13 weeks with more than 1.4 billion audio streams and four billion video streams across platforms — and “Just the Way,” a collaboration with Parmalee that has earned more than 504 million on-demand streams.

“I’m always trying to take my sound to the next level,” says Brown, who draws inspiration from a vinyl collection that includes records from the 1940s onward. “I wanted these songs to be bright and lighthearted, but also at the same time, carry enough weight to impact listeners.”

Heartache & Lemonade accomplishes that goal in a variety of ways: the EP-opening “Energy” finds Brown in a tough emotional space but determined to turn things around, while the radio-ready “Sunshine Shine,” Brown explains, “is about being your own light and allowing yourself to grace the world with your greatness, being positive and influential, and being in a space that no one can dim your light.”

Nostalgia runs through the fiddle and steel–drenched “Tailgating in the Sun,” which reflects one part of the dichotomy of Brown’s childhood in Georgia. He grew up in Atlanta’s Bankhead neighborhood but spent summers with relatives in the small, rural town of Butler.

“‘Tailgating in the Sun’ takes me back to laying on the back of a long bed kicking it with my college sweetheart. I picture a beautiful day where the weather is just perfect, the truck’s started, the radio’s playing our favorite songs, there’s a cooler full of some cold ones and a lot of tailgating fun! We could hear the cheering from the stadium in the background, but I just got a touchdown!”

Brown reconnects with a familiar collaborator on Heartache & Lemonade: Parmalee’s Matt Thomas co-wrote the slow-burning “Good as It Gets,” in which Brown savors the moments he’s been given. After all, he truly knows they’re far from guaranteed.

“When it comes to this album, I gave it my all,” Brown says. “I didn’t know if I was gonna walk again; I didn’t know what life had for me. But the fact that I’m here in good mind and good heart and good spirit, and I can continue to create — I know that I have a purpose to serve.