Album Notes

When she lays down South American grooves on guitar, audiences are hard-pressed to tell that Emily Pinkerton is a native of the Midwest. Born and raised in Valparaiso, Indiana, her musical education carried her to Valparaíso, Chile, inspiring a decade of immersion in Latin American music. Her latest release weaves these two worlds together in a vibrant, transcontinental tapestry. Evocative, haunting vocals in Spanish and English soar above pulsating rhythms of Andean guitar and old-time banjo.

Emily’s neo-traditional compositions draw from twelve years of travel between the U.S. and Chile. She has studied with master musicians, including Alfonso Rubio, Patricia Chavarría and Pedro Yáñez, learning to perform traditional cueca, tonada and canto a lo poeta on guitar and guitarrón. Her latest songs, however, are part of an approach that moves beyond simply re-creating the music she loves. “This album is about stretching genres, rhythms and forms: seeing what happens when I fuse Etta Baker’s finger-picking patterns with rural Chilean guitar, or rework a traditional South American song on clawhammer banjo. In this sense, I’m shaping a sound that is rooted in Latin America, yet in the mingling of styles, becomes my own.”

Emily has toured North and South America, appearing at venues such as SXSW (TX), Sala América (Chile), Kamikaze (Peru), Tulane University (LA), The Space (CT), Makor (NY), Mulholland Nights (CA), Club Café (PA), and Cactus Café (TX). She has shared the stage with Stacy Phillips, Glen Velez, the Chieftains and Alejandro Escovedo, and is a former member of the award-winning, Austin-based band Divahn.