Emily Nenni

Emily Nenni on Saturday, May 2 at The Wayfarer in Costa Mesa, CA!

Whenever Emily Nenni is onstage, she welcomes everybody to the dancefloor. The California-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter wants the honkytonk to be a place of escape, where fans can shed their troubles for a few hours and feel safe and free. "You can have trouble whenever you mix late hours and alcohol," she says. "I've been in bad situations before, and I've tried to learn from those experiences. But it's heartbreaking that some people don't feel safe or don't feel like they're allowed to exist in this world. So I'm always watching the dancefloor and making sure everybody's being respectful." Or, as she sings on the supremely funky title track to her new album Movin' Shoes, "Here's where you dress for you and dance the way that you want to."

Movin Shoes is an album about how we treat each other and how we treat ourselves-whether we're at the honkytonk or not-and Nenni writes and sings like someone who has seen enough shit go down that she's not going to allow any more, at least not on her watch. "When I was writing these songs, I was thinking about just how hard it is to live in this world," she says. "How are we leaving our mark in this world? How are we interacting with other people and with ourselves, too? Pain is part of the human experience. The world is so scary, but there's so much beauty to it. And so much of that beauty comes from how we treat each other and ourselves. That's the album's entire message."

These are lessons she's learned from some of her favorite artists, from Aretha Franklin to Stevie Wonder, and her new songs reflect these influences that extend beyond the honkytonk. "This isn't strictly honkytonk like my former records, even though it's still all the same influences," Nenni explains. "I'm just drawing from more artists and genres than I have in the past." Confident in its touchstones and compassionate in its insights, Movin' Shoes eloquently and wryly blends southern soul from Memphis and Muscle Shoals with southern rock from Macon and outlaw country from Austin. These songs percolate with new sounds, like the bluesy Rhodes organ that kicks off the title track and the Lone Star harmonica that weaves throughout her bluesy cover of Paul Simon's "Tenderness."

She cites Sly Stone and Linda Ronstadt's Motown covers as specific influences, but the old styles sound fresh and current because her personality and charisma come through in every note. Especially on some of the darker tunes, Nenni found strength in her heroes. With its piercing blasts of Stax horns and weeping pedal steel, "What Have I Done Wrong" pleads for empathy and patience: "Please believe I'm trying," she sings. "I'm faulty by design." In addition to some of her most incisive lyrics, the song also features one of her most powerful, soulful vocal performances. "I wasn't trying to sing like Aretha-who could possibly do that?!-but I was thinking of her and her power and her confidence. I've heard so many songs that have lifted me out of something and made me feel like I'm not alone."

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