Vincent Neil Emerson has become a staple among folk and country music
fans nationwide, celebrated for his honest tales of life on the road,
heartbreak, and struggles of all sorts. His first LP, Fried Chicken &
Evil Women, from 2019, established him as a refreshing voice in the
modern country music landscape. The songs from that first album were
charming and playful songs, but didn't reveal the entirety of
Emerson's story. On his brilliant new album, The Golden Crystal
Kingdom, Emerson transcends the role of a honky-tonk country singer
and becomes a chronicler of his history. The album is a bold
continuation of the story he tells on Vincent Neil Emerson, with songs
like the title track exploring the feelings he was left with after his
days spent playing in Texas honky-tonks and dancehalls, and the track
"The Time of The Rambler," inspired by the early days of living in his
car and busking on the streets. He was born and partly raised in East
Texas, around his Choctaw-Apache family, and spent most of his life
moving around the state. Raised by a single mother, he lost his father
to suicide when he was nine. Emerson dealt with those feelings of
abandonment and loss on his self-titled album, with the track
"Learning to Drown" in particular. His grandmother and grandfather
brought the family to Texas when Emerson's mother was a child, leaving
their ancestral Choctaw-Apache homelands in Louisiana behind to try
and build a better life for themselves and their children. Emerson
always identified with his Native American roots, but it wasn't until
2021's self-titled album that he examined and tried to shed light on
the devastating history of his tribe with the song "Ballad of the
Choctaw Apache." Sonically, The Golden Crystal Kingdom finds Emerson
expanding his scope into rock and roll territory, tapping into the
storied sounds of folk music gone electric, and following in the
footsteps of artists like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. On the album,
Emerson retains his diamond-sharp storytelling while imbuing the work
with a freewheeling rock and roll aesthetic, creating an album as fun
as his live shows and as cathartic as his previous work. With
production from Shooter Jennings, Emerson wanted to establish some
sounds as touchstones but emphasized following his own intuition for
the aesthetics of his record. "I didn't really want to model this
record after anybody else's music, but I've been heavily influenced by
a lot of old rock and roll music from the sixties and seventies
singer-songwriter music," Emerson explains. The album wasn't
necessarily created as an opposing force to the country and folk
sounds his fans have come to expect, but he did want to make a record
that showcased another side of himself as a writer. He also leaned on
friends and collaborators like Jennings, Steve Earle, and Rodney
Crowell to help him flesh out this album. Emerson has been able to
call these one-time heroes friends and mentors, and it is these
relationships that have helped the songwriter find his confidence in
writing about his personal history and standing up for the causes he
believes in. Emerson wrote "Man From Uvalde" after the horrific and
tragic mass shooting in the city of Uvalde, Texas, and he was
initially hesitant to include the track on The Golden Crystal Kingdom.
"It's a daunting thing to try to dive into social issues in
songwriting because I wasn't sure how people would really take it,"
Emerson says. "I recorded a rough demo version of the song, and I sent
it to Steve \[Earle\]. I just wanted to get his thoughts on it and see
if it was worth anything. He got back to me, and he said he really
liked the song and thought it was great. He gave me a few ideas and
ways to look at the subject differently, and it really helped me
finish the song. That encouragement gave me the confidence to include
it on the album." The Golden Crystal Kingdom also pays tribute to some
of the peers Emerson cut his teeth with in the music scene. He covers
the Charley Crockett song, "Time of the Cottonwood Trees," and is
quick to pay tribute to his labelmate and dear friend Colter Wall.
"Those two had my back since day one. They've been some of my biggest
supporters, and they've always inspired me to write better songs and
encouraged me to pursue this," Emerson reflects. "Especially at a time
when I was starting out and I didn't really have a lot of
encouragement or even self-confidence to do this, they were always
there for me." As a kid who grew up in a trailer with a single mother,
went through bouts of homelessness as a young man, and grinded through
countless shows to get where he's at, Vincent Neil Emerson is never
quick to praise his own work ethic. He always refers to the friends,
family members, and collaborators who have shown their faith in his
vision. But humility doesn't mean Emerson isn't one of the hardest
working, most talented songwriters to emerge from the alt-country
underground in years. His style is one of a kind, and his ability to
blend tales of the everyman with tributes to his past, present, and
future make him a peerless songwriter. On The Golden Crystal Kingdom,
Vincent Neil Emerson carries on the torch of his singer-songwriter
forebears while infusing the legacy with his unique and thrilling
point of view. All ages
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24/08/2025 Last update