Miss Emily Brown – Wire Wood Wind
Record Label: Self Released
Release Date: March 13th, 2012

Everyone has that one component within a piece of music that they’re able to gravitate towards more than any other. It can be as simple as drawing an audience in with lovely high-rising vocal harmonies, or it could all depend on whether the primary songwriter is able to captivate and utterly absorb their listener within the themes and topics that their lyrics touch upon. For me personally, I happen to fall firmly into the latter category. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate the countless other facets that go into crafting a beautiful track or a captivating full-length, but the ability to weave a compelling narrative, to recount a distant memory, or even to create a track that embraces the art of a fictional scenario is what I’m often unequivocally drawn towards. Thankfully, there are independent artists such as the lovely, Emily Millard (who performs under the moniker of Miss Emily Brown), that place an enormous amount of emphasis and attention to detail within every individual lyric they put to paper. At times her words are cloaked in metaphorical wordplay, and at other times they’re alarmingly direct and intent upon wounding, yet when you also factor in the poetic flair, the inventive instrumentation, and the fleeting traces of nostalgic melancholy found in even her earliest recordings, it becomes clear that Millard’s tracks are as inviting as they are beautifully and thoughtfully written.
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MISS EMILY BROWN | Back to the Woods

March 8, 2012 at 8:36 pm Leave a comment

The ever-elegant voiced Miss Emily Brown will be releasing a new EP, “Wire Wood Wind”, on March 13. It’s a sort of way to raise money to acquire a new autoharp after her heirloom was stolen. The new experimental record is a collaboration with Martyn Heyne (Efterklang, Gyda Valtysdottir) — who if based on the wanderlust single, “Back to the Woods”, provides a textured sonic sound as accompaniment to Emily’s satiny swaying. If we take the album title and the opening lyrics of the single,“Back to the woods, the spell has been broken …”, there’s a sense this record could be an escape into a more solitary, personal sound. “Back to the Woods” feels like the beautiful melding of natural elements with electronic soundscaping. Emily’s emotive singing style and soul-searching autoharp chords melt like icing over the top of a dark tremor, twittering electronics, and sonar-like reverb. It’s a stunningly moving combination, that teems with fragility under it’s calming veneer. If you pre-order the album now (before March 22) you can get your copy signed by Miss Emily Brown herself. Click here to go to her website for more details. She’s just set up atwitter account, so be sure to follow her there and at facebook. You can stream “Back to the Woods” courtesy of CBCMusic’s website here. Note: Photo from artist’s official website, taken by Orion Cleasby. – David D. Robbins Jr. 

Miss Emily Brown: In Technicolor
By Nereida Fernandes (February 2010)

Miss Emily Brown’s sophomore album is perfectly represented by its title and the lace doily pictured on the front cover. As her tracks weave in and out of complementary musical styles, vivid yet delicate colours of sound, emanating from a fiddle, an Autoharp and a pianet, are superimposed over one another, resulting in a decadent effect. The lo-fi electronic pop, reminiscent of Frou Frou on opener “Septuagesima,” is an unexpected welcome. Then there’s the Norah Jones-like title track and the music box merry-go-round of “To Make Love Stay,” all of them bound by the same sweet, tuneful voice. Based in Iroquois, ON, Miss Brown invites us to explore her family history with lyrics inspired by her grandmother’s WWII journal. The songwriting concept is brilliant and one for which she was granted funding by the Canada Council for the Arts. Ironically, In Technicolor is so compelling vocally, and sonically, with its eclectic mix of instrumentation, that it somewhat eclipses her eloquent poetry. But that just means you have something else to focus on by the billionth listen ― hardly a drawback.
(Independent)

This week’s feature: Miss Emily Brown February 2, 2010

Miss Emily Brown, In Technicolour (Self-released)WHO

Vancouver Island folkie songstress.

DISCOGRAPHY

Part Of You Pours Out of Me (Self-released, 2008)
In Technicolour (Self-released, 2010)

IN A NUTSHELL

In Technicolour is a gorgeous, adventurous masterpiece.

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North by East West : In Technicolor

Miss Emily Brown: In Technicolor

The sophomore LP of Miss Emily Brown was inspired by the discovery of her grandmothers World War 2 journal and it is awash with simple phrases and a gorgeous tapestry of music. Her arraignments are usually superficially simple with undertones of something much deeper. It is as if she touches on a deep rooted nerve that most of us did not know we had.

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Miss Emily Brown has accomplished a feat of marrying history and plain old-fashioned story telling into a compelling and delicately assembled package of distinctive folk-pop ear candies. In Technicolor is a genuinely impressive achievement.

– Amanda Putz, CBC Radio

IN TECHNICOLOR | Miss Emily Brown

January 23, 2010 at 4:11 am 2 comments

LOOKING BACK: MISS EMILY BROWN
Words by David D. Robbins Jr. ©
Album: In Technicolor •  Release Date: Jan. 18, 2010

Miss Emily Brown has done something wonderfully beyond music on her sophomore album, “In Technicolor”. She has given voice to the dead. If there’s one thing to take away from this inventive album it’s this: There’s a whole world of beauty and wisdom to be gleaned from people whose very lives are their legacies. And yes, the past is prologue.

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Little Miss awesome

i(heart)music June 10, 2009

There’s something deeply unsettling about Part of You Pours Out Of Me, the debut album from Miss Emily Brown. Even though she’s got a gorgeous voice, the way she backs it up with slightly out-of-tune autoharps and ghostly-sounding music boxes makes it seem like you’re listening to some relic from a place other than this world. Throw in the fact she has a predilection for making baroque-tinged jazz-folk (see “She’s a Ghost In The House“), and you’ve got a reciple for one creepy album.

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