//Limelight Spotlight: Erin McCarley//

August 27, 2008 by TJ
Filed under Limelight Spotlight

Nashville-based singer/songwriter Erin McCarley is being very misleading in the title track for her album Love, Save the Empty, being released on Universal Republic this fall. In the very first line she sings: “Little girls don’t know how to be sweet girls/Momma didn’t teach me,” When, in fact, she was raised in a happy home with both parents present. She and her older sister attended dance classes and enjoyed singing in choir. Her childhood was so happy that she says it gave her a very unrealistic view of the world.

Though misleading, McCarley is immensely convincing singing about the effects a lack of parental influence can have on a child. “Face down on top of your bed/ oh why did I give it up to you?” She shows the true strength of her songwriting by capturing a world she may not know personally but you’d never know that by listening. She credits her musical influences like Patty Griffin and Fiona Apple for helping to inspire and shape her writing. Not only does the lyric need to be good, but the delivery must be just as good. ”I get one line into one of their songs and I have to stop and write my own,” she says, “Their lyrics are that much more powerful because of the way they sing them.”

The slightly dark nature of some of her songs come across light and airy thanks to production by her partner in musical crime Jamie Kenney, who she met in San Diego when she moved from her native of Garland, Texas after graduating from college. Together, they carved out McCarley’s insanely melodic debut album. Her first single, “Pony (It’s OK),” uses her crafty songwriting and sultry voice, reminiscent of Norah Jones, to introduce the gifted ingenue to the world.

She blew the crowd away at SXSW this year and now you’ll get the chance to see what the industry is buzzing about. Erin will be traveling the country on the Hotel Cafe tour this fall. Check out the dates below:

Oct 9 2008 8:00P SoHo Restaurant Santa Barbara, California
Oct 10 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Los Angeles, California
Oct 11 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – House of Blues Anaheim, California
Oct 13 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – Belly Up Solana Beach, California
Oct 14 2008 8:00P Martini Ranch Phoenix, Arizona
Oct 16 2008 8:00P House of Blues Dallas, Texas
Oct 17 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – The Parish Room Austin, Texas
Oct 18 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – Meridian Red Room Houston, Texas
Oct 20 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – Work/Play Birmingham, Alabama
Oct 21 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – Exit/In Nashville, Tennessee
Oct 22 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – Variety Playhouse Atlanta, Georgia
Oct 23 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – Common Grounds Gainesville, Florida
Oct 25 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – Social Orlando, Florida
Oct 27 2008 8:00P Hotel Cafe Tour – Cat¹s Cradle Charlotte, North Carolina

Check out “Pony (It’s OK)” below:

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