Emily Elbert - the kid is all right
 by Cliff Garber  ·  1 March 2008

Emily fools you. You look at her, you think you’re looking at an ordinary 16-year-old.

For one thing, she’s a lot older than 16. She’s gotta be at least 18, 19 — she’s a freshman at Berklee, after all. Then she gets up on stage, folds her legs under her on her chair, and starts singing. No, wait — she’ll talk a little first. Not like a performer with a tried-and-true bag of lines, but like a friend or classmate. She’ll tell you about her first recording, made in the park, with airplanes on the soundtrack. Or she’ll tell you she’s in the mood to “funk up” the next song — get ready. But you can’t really get ready because you think you’re looking at an ordinary teenager with a guitar. She starts playing and you have to clean your glasses and wipe out your ears because you think you’re hearing, oh, Madeleine Peyroux or Norah Jones or someone who’s had years to assimilate a lot of styles, and you’re not — it’s this kid who plays a guitar like it’s a part of her body and slides all around her songs with a supple, sweet but raspy voice you didn’t think they issued to teenagers. Another thing — she’s singing her own songs. Yeah, they’re about things like love and moods and vibes, but there’s nothing corny or adolescent about them; they’re coming from the same place the voice and the guitar playing’s coming from — a place called Original Talent.

Okay, she played a couple Beatles tunes. They were the best interpretations I ever heard.

Go listen to Emily.

Photo: Neale Eckstein

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