(Not a) Naive Melody: this must be the place for songstress Emily Stilwell
“I don’t sound like I look—people say that to me all the time,” Emily Stilwell explains when asked how such a big-volume, bluesy vocal delivery can arrive from such a diminutive stature.
Talking over a noon-hour coffee and pastry last month at Fountain City Coffee, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter discusses both her musical inspirations and inhibitors in an unassuming, full-disclosure fashion—a refreshing blend of humility, honesty and artistic purity—shortly before her shift at Whitewater Express a couple blocks away begins. “Right now, my life is rafting, yoga and music,” she says. “It’s a weird blend, but it’s nice to stay busy, especially since that with yoga and music you can’t ever tell how much money you’re going to bring home each month.”
In late spring, Stilwell spent a month in an immersion program in India to obtain her yoga teaching certification and currently leads classes at the UP! Factory on Wynnton Road in Midtown. “I’ve put my energy into the yoga thing for right now,” she says. “I’ve never sought out success with music—it’s always been more for pleasure. I feel like I sacrificed a lot with my music in that I’ve refused to do something that felt unnatural, something that was done just to find success. Lots of people like my music but still you have to find your audience. When it’s not something mainstream, it can be hard for the audience to sort through. But they do show up and they do remember you whenever it resonates.”
An engaging hybrid of jazz, blues and folk with a classical flair, Stilwell’s music—typically performed under the name Lady of the Lake in both solo and group formats—has earned an audience in both Columbus and her native Atlanta area. Hailing from Stockbridge, roughly a 30-minute drive southeast of downtown Atlanta, her first musical memories come from age six, when she began “messing around on an old upright piano” in a household where her mother would play the occasional hymnal and her father’s love of soul and funk music inspired him to pick up guitar when she was 12. Stilwell is classically trained on piano by virtue of private lessons taken from ages six to 18, knows guitar from playing with her father, and credits her uncle’s love of old records by Dean Martin and Little Anthony and the Imperials.
“My vocal technique is definitely from that period,” Stilwell says of the vintage R&B, cool crooning stylings of those aforementioned artists. “It’s different and weird. My approach depends on the style of song I’m singing. I envision a specific artist in the back of my mind and feel out how they would sing the song. If I’m singing the blues, I’ll picture Big Mama Thornton and picture how she did it.”
This dichotomy reveals itself in the two places where Stilwell regularly gigs in Atlanta. She performs at neo-hippie haven Smith’s Olde Bar, competes in the open mic hosted at acoustic/folk mecca Eddie’s Attica (“I usually place in the top three but they’ve never passed the baton to me as winner”), and sings at iconic blues venue Northside Tavern with local legend Mudcat during his weekly Wednesday night slot. “He’s the classic bluesman, always kinda wasted,” she says of Mudcat. “I’ve been sitting in with him since I was 18. It’s never rehearsed—probably would be a lot cleaner if so—but it’s always a great time.”
Stilwell moved to Columbus four years ago to pursue a relationship with a guy that soon went sour. Nevertheless, she’s made a home and found a supportive musical community here. “It’s so cozy and welcoming here,” Stilwell says. “The musicians are so well educated and talented but also accessible to work with and are willing and excited to do so.”
In addition to Jesse Shelby (Magnetic Musos, and producer of Stilwell’s efforts at the Loft Recoding Studio) and others, Stilwell credits pianist and composer Donald Tipton as a mentor.
“She’s a marvelous talent and consummate musician,” Tipton says of Stilwell in a brief phone interview. “Emily’s a wonderful classical pianist, though I think she prefers to be singing and playing guitar as part of the live-music experience. She’s the queen of sultry, steamy ballads with a voicer that’s warm, thick and melodic. She’s going to do well.
Counting roughly 20 original songs in her repertoire, Stilwell plans to continue releasing her material as singles online, as both audio streams and artful concept videos. Present in the here and now, however, she’s focused on how her music feels.
“Whenever I perform a song well all the way through and it connects with the audience, it leaves me feeling like I’m floating,” she says. “It feels so good when you see a song light up in their eyes because you know you leave them floating, too.”
by Frank Etheridge
PHOTOS BY MIKE NOEL