BY VERNON SCOTT
Everybody loves Emily Stanton. She has already become one of Idaho’s most popular live acts. And Stanton will get a chance to add to her fan base in the Wood River Valley on Saturday, Oct. 15, when she plays the legendary Whiskey Jacques' in Ketchum.
The statuesque blonde singer/songwriter has the face of an angel and the stage presence of a diva. Regularly touring the state to perform for capacity crowds with The Emily Stanton Band, she captivates with a wide range of R&B and soul classics, as well as new, original songs.
A Gem State native, Emily began life as a fiddler. She began performing bluegrass, country and traditional folk on stage when she was 6. She played the 2012 Winter Olympics as part of a group called Harmony Coral.
When she was 16, Stanton landed her first paid gig with a band called Redstone. And she was instantly hooked. Setting her sights on being a professional entertainer, she found that not only did she have a voice, she had a keen ear for music “the people were really into.”
Emily quickly developed a repertoire ranging from The Beatles to Guns N' Roses. She also realized that she had a gift for communicating with audiences. To see Emily Stanton live is to see a performer who is able to connect with a crowd, blending a unique persona of sweet sincerity and sultry soulfulness. A combination that, to quote one fan, is “irresistible.”
A journeyman singer, Emily played with many bands belting out crowd-pleasing cover tunes before realizing that she had a gift for writing, as well.
“Artists like Alanis Morissette released albums that were totally different than dance floor crazed music. It was like her own diary being sung by her,” she says. “This fascinated me. I wanted to write both ways! I wanted the dance floor ‘feel good’ song with the personal organic rawness of a young soul.”
Emily took to her piano and so far has nearly two dozen original songs to her credit. Drawn to “gritty, inner city, soul sounds” she has found a voice beyond her voice as a songwriter. While able to throw down a funky R&B tune with the best of them, Stanton is also able to plumb the depths of her humanity with gentle, plaintive songs, such as her original, devastating “Move Me.”
Her eponymous group, The Emily Stanton Band, is now a fixture in Idaho. Together for the last two years, they mesh not only as a tight musical unit but, as Stanton puts it, “My band mates are incredible, fun, professional people, they are the very best musicians I have had the opportunity to play music with. It’s the perfect storm when you have freedom as an artist to explore what is going on around you.”
Emily Stanton is what is familiarly known as “a comer.” As word of her prodigious talent spreads through Idaho and farther, she is an artist worth keeping on your radar. Talented, beautiful, committed and accessible, she has all the elements on stage that audiences love.
She’s moved from fiddling to country to rock to what she now finds to be her calling as an artist: “I have finally found my sound; I am a soul singer!”
EMILY STANTON BAND will play at Whiskey Jacques' in Ketchum from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. Cover is $5. It is advisable to get there early. Good tables and dancing space go quickly when Emily Stanton is in town.
Vernon Scott is an actor and screenwriter from Los Angeles who now calls Sun Valley home. He does a radio show on KDPI at 4 p.m. Fridays.