THE (MUSICAL) GENERATION GAME:

Loretta and Emmy play

THE (MUSICAL) GENERATION GAME:

Norman Warwick finds music for all ages

Age is just a number! This old phrase is as accurate as ever, especially when it comes to creativity. In fact, many artists have improved as they’ve aged. Today we look at four musicians who produced some of their best music after the age of 60.

That Johnny Cash was able to produce a handful of great albums in his very final years will surely elongate his legacy and the fact that those albums impressed both a life-long fan like me and a babe in arms like my then thirty year old son speaks volumes of the relevance of the career of Johnny Cash.

Notwithstanding the brilliance and massive impact of his early years I think I could argue a case, too,  that even Bob Dylan´s best work is being heard now, in his professorial years.

I also remember how much I used to tease my wife, then my girlfriend, because she so much loved the early hits of Cliff Richard. It was my guilty secret that I liked The Young Ones and Summer Holiday and certainly Travellin´ Light, but to be honest it wasn´t until the era of Miss You Nights and Wired For Sound that I really took him seriously.

Who, though, from today´s young contemporary stars might still be producing relevant music in their pensionable years?

Born with country music in her blood, thanks to her grandmother Loretta Lynn,  Emmy Russell always seemed destined to perform on stage. Like many before her, the singer struggled with her own identity when trying to find her footing. And while she competed on American Idol, ultimately being voted off, the singer used that moment to not only find herself but also to find  her voice. Releasing songs like “Skinny”, Russell continues to make a name for herself in the music industry. Proving that she could succeed outside of American Idol, the singer recently crossed a massive milestone on Spotify. 

Revolving around the perfect body and how many will do whatever it takes to be ´perfect´, Skinny garnered a great deal of praise from fans. And continuing to support her dreams of stardom, Russell recently celebrated her song passing 1 million streams on Spotify. Even The Song House shared a special performance from Russell, who struggled to get through the song at that time. 

Signalling thousands of likes fans congratulated Russell, showering her with love and praise for performing such a raw song. Discussing her inspiration behind the hit, she said, “I started getting a little bit sick and I was like, ‘Why am I not keeping any of my food down?’ And I think a part of it was the eating disorder in high school, but then the damage that happens to your body and it just happened again. Then I started seeing results from me getting sick, and then it just spun out of control. I felt a lot of shame. I was like, ‘I’m serving God. I’m in Brazil. Why is this coming back?’”

Detailing her life into the spotlight, Russell continued, “I struggled a lot with physical beauty image pressures and social media. I kind of grew up in the spotlight and so I was always very image-conscious.”

No longer struggling with the disorder, Russell hoped her song would help others as she insisted, “You can only really succeed when you’re truly yourself.” She added, “I showed up, no makeup, my red hair, my natural color. And just got on the piano and I was like, ‘Oh, Emmy works. My true self is OK. People relate to that.’”

Her grandmother, Loretta Lynn (left), released a ton of country classics earlier in her career. That being said, she really proved that she could make fantastic music well into her 70s. The fact that she could even sing as well as she did in her 70s is commendable. 

In 2004 the country legend, Loretta Lynn, paired up with Jack White (formerly of The White Stripes) to produce a joyful, inspiring album entitled Van Lear Rose. The album achieved its aim of simply refreshing Lynn´s classic country sounds of her early career and bringing that voice to a new era.

When I´m up there in a few years time will somebody please send me a postcard from down here to tell me whether or not Emmy Russell goes on to enjoy such longevity. It could well be in the genes!

Acknowledgments

The primary sources for this piece was published in Songfacts. Authors and Titles have been attributed in our text wherever possible.

Images employed have been taken from on line sites only where  categorised as  images free to use.

For a more comprehensive detail of our attribution policy see our for reference only post on 7^th April 2023  entitled Aspirations And Attributions.

We urge our readers to enjoy the wider reading such excellent publications have to offer.