A little girl with a big voice

Photo courtesy of EmiSunshine EmiSunshine at the Grand Ole Opry.
Photo courtesy of EmiSunshine EmiSunshine at the Grand Ole Opry.

The Dogwood Festival will have a new up-and-coming music guest -- a Americana phenomena that will bring chill bumps when she belts out her soulful songs -- 10-year-old EmiSunshine and, her band, the Rain.

At just 10, EmiSunshine has "gone viral," been a guest on the Today Show and has played on the stage that her Americana heroes once graced at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

At age 9, she was discovered at a show at the Sweetwater Flea Market in Tennessee singing a soulful version of Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel No. 6." She can be heard belting out lyrics without a microphone to excited shoppers.

One would be remiss not to mention her version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" and Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." They are worth a listen to truly understand the magnitude of this pint-sized folk singer's voice.

Songs by Parton, Cash, June Carter Cash and Buddy Miller are her driving force that she has emulated since she began singing at 4 years old.

"I love the writing and their voices and their storytelling," EmiSunshine said, in her deep Tennessee twang.

She doesn't just perform cover songs of her heroes, she also writes (with the help of her mother) songs of her own, while strumming a ukulele, a mandolin and what she recently started to learn to play -- an acoustic guitar.

"She writes all her own songs," her mother Alisha Hamilton said in a phone interview. "She and I wrote 'Little Black Bird' -- she started that one and brought me in."

Many of her songs are written while they are on tour, and are often about the people EmiSunshine has encountered along the way.

"She says to me, remember that man we met, well, I been thinking about his life," her mother Alisha Hamilton said. "Then she writes what she thinks their life is like and makes a song."

EmiSunshine, born Emilie Sunshine Hamilton, has always loved music. Even when she was a baby, she favored a specific sound, Alisha said.

"Music affected her when she was a baby -- it affected her moods," she said. "If it was solemn or sad she was joyful and attentive. When she got to where she could talk she would say 'Again, Again.'"

By age 4, she was belting out songs with conviction.

EmiSunshine isn't just a singer -- she's a full-fledged entertainer. Her shows are packed full of jokes, and punchlines directed toward her bandmates, which include her father -- Randall "Big Diddy" Hamilton, Bobby "Uncle Bobby" Hill, Johnathon "Brother John" Letner and Lucas Garner. She is surprisingly funny, but that wasn't always the case.

Alisha joked that before her comedy blossomed, she wasn't funny at all. "We used to joke around the house and say 'don't ever become a comedienne,'" Alisha said.

After listening to shows by June Carter Cash and Minnie Pearl, EmiSunshine picked up a few tricks of the trade, which she shares at her shows.

"I love the reaction I get from the crowd," EmiSunshine said. "I used to not talk as much as I do on stage -- I've gotten a little more comfortable -- I was a little shy, but I am not like that anymore."

Her confidence has also encouraged a slew of children to play music, too.

"I get so many messages and people come up to shows and tell me that she inspired their kids to pick up instruments," Alisha said. "That, as a mother, is amazing."

When EmiSunshine isn't writing songs or playing shows, she is just like any other kid -- she rides her bike, draws, goes shopping (at thrift stores -- the girl's got style) and plays with her animals -- three pot-bellied pigs, chickens, turkeys and two birds.

EmiSunshine and the Rain will perform a free show at the Dogwood Festival from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 25, in City Park.

General News on 04/22/2015