Here's the scoop...
The record is a marked departure from her previous full-length, 2022’s acclaimed On the Ranch. Whereas that effort saw Nenni uproot herself to lend a hand – and write – while assisting at a ranch in southern Colorado, Drive & Cry drops the listener smack in the middle of her boisterous and bustling Nashville world. The album kicks off with “Get to Know Ya,” a honky-tonk rave-up that celebrates the end of the work day and the beginning of a music-filled, come-what-may night. Nenni busts out her biggest hoops, jumps into the jeans she can “really only stand up in,” and heads to the local bar. “Play ‘til the sun’ll come / when the daylight’s done,” she sings as the instrumental accompaniment races in step behind her.
From there, Nenni leads into “Greatest Hits,” a pedal-steel-inflected Dolly Parton-style number in which she tips her hat to underground honky-tonk venue Santa’s Pub, a dive bar squeezed inside a double-wide trailer that has become her home-away-from-home in Nashville. “When I first came to town, I was 21 and singing at clubs with folks who were twice my age,” Nenni recalls of moving to Music City from her native California. “Then a buddy of mine said, ‘There's a place where people are making this music that are actually your age, and where you'd really fit in.’ And that was Santa’s Pub. It’s where I learned that music doesn't have to be perfect – everybody is just having fun and there’s no judgment. You can show up however you're feeling that night, have a good time and be surrounded by friends.”
You can get tickets for Emily Nenni's Toronto show at the Drake Hotel Underground on May 17 via Ticketmaster right here. Watch Emily perform her version of Terry Allen's "Amarillo Highway" and a few more clips below.
