If you don’t already know them, you should- Delta Rae is breaking grounds in the country music scene. Recently signed to the Valory Music Co., the six piece band is introducing their unique sound and gaining a huge following of fans. With their amazing debut single, ‘A Long And Happy Life,’ they are unstoppable. We recently had the chance to talk to Grant Emerson, bassist and percussionist for Delta Rae. When asked about the inspiration behind the debut single, he said they wanted to pay respect to some of their favorite southern authors. Emerson explained that Ian and Eric Hölljes of Delta Rae wrote the single and “by doing so they weaved in the titles of 4 books from them.” The song is titled ‘A Long And Happy Life’ which is from Reynolds Price, a professor of Ian Hölljes’ at Duke. The song has personal meaning and cleverly weaves in phrases from southern authors. Emerson noted that everyone should check out one of his favorites titled ‘Beach Music’ by Pat Conroy.
Considering over 70 songs for their debut EP, Emerson explained it was a long and careful process choosing which four to include on the EP. “We have a great team at Big Machine and Julian Raymond and Scott Borchetta both were very hands on in helping us. We’d write some songs and then we’d record them on our phones and then we would pick the best out of that and go to Nashville and demo them and see which ones sort of raised their hands and we picked the best out of that batch. And then we did that for about a year while we were touring we’d go to Nashville, record six songs a day, and then go back on the road. Then write some songs and come back until we got you know, a good batch.” The EP is such a perfect family of songs, and all of the bands hard work in demoing and writing paid off.
Delta Rae has a show coming up in Natick, Massachusetts at The Center for the Arts Natick (TCAN) on Thursday, May 25th from 8pm- 10:45pm. When asked what audiences can expect from the bands live performance, Emerson said “Well first they can expect that we love Massachusetts. I don’t know, there’s something about the Northeast…there’s a mutual sort of we get each other and we love each other. So we’ll definitely be excited…we’re passionate performers and there are four great singers in the band and its probably our favorite thing to do. It will be great storytelling, great songwriting and hopefully it will be a lot of fun and it will be a great escape to forget about work, come see a show, and have a good time.” Emerson said that when the band plays shows in Boston or around the area, there’s some sort of electric magic that they love.
Delta Rae is just starting up touring again and recently had the opportunity to perform at Tortuga Music Festival on a stage right by the beach. “It’s a great atmosphere because there’s people who love music and love the beach which I think a lot of people like, especially us. They’re also into conservation and spreading awareness about taking care of the planet and taking care of the ocean which is really great cause you can have fun and also know you’re having a positive impact on the planet.” Emerson said it was an amazing experience for the band to perform there and also come together after a radio tour and perform live again.
Speaking of radio tour, the band just wrapped up their radio tour. Emerson explained that the four singers of the band went on radio tour including Liz Hopkins, and Ian, Eric, and Brittany Hölljes. “It’s been going great, they’ve been meeting a lot of really sweet people round the country and meeting really cool people that work at the radio stations and you know they’re playing our song! We just had the song played in a local radio station near home yesterday!” Emerson said it’s always really nice and amazing to see the radios playing their music and they feel very blessed and lucky.
Now that radio tour is wrapped, the band is gearing up for their summer tour. Emerson said that for him, his favorite part of tour is getting to play live every night. His other favorite aspect of tour is that all six members of Delta Rae get to be together as one big family. They haven’t toured since the middle of December, so they are ready to get back out on the road and are so incredibly excited to meet and talk to their fans.
Delta Rae just announced that they will be having a promotion called Tickets For Teachers offering free tickets and onstage acknowledgement to teachers at shows. Emerson said the band is excited to meet educators and those inspired by educators on the tour. Education has roots and meaning to the band, “Liz, Mike, and myself were all teachers before we joined the band. Liz was a preschool teacher and Mike and I taught music lessons. Each one of us ran across teachers that have had lasting impacts on our lives and have been encouraging you know whether it be to continue writing or to be a performer or to be a singer or just you know being okay with expressing yourself and feeling confidence in us.” Britney Hölljes along with their manager Adam Schlossman had the idea for the promotion. It’s something the band has done in the past, but this is the first time they’ve been able to put a lot of power behind it and they’re stoked to be able to appreciate the teachers in our lives.
Delta Rae was recently signed to BMLG and highlighted as one of Rolling Stone’s 10 New Country Artists You Need To Know! As people start to get to know Delta Rae and what they stand for, Emerson said the biggest thing they want to convey is the storytelling and empathy behind their music. “We’re real big fans of storytelling. We’re all very compassionate people and we’re all very loving. We want to let people know that it’s okay to care about stuff cause I think in certain times in the climate of the world, sometimes empathy isn’t in the forefront of people’s minds and we just want to be a positive thing that’s out there that’s like ‘hey, we see you, we love you, we care about you.’”
Emerson plays bass, percussion, guitar, and cello for the band. He said that learning instruments for him is like ‘trial by fire.’ “Right now I can see a mandolin on my apartment floor and there’s an upright bass in my bedroom that I would love to spend time with and just get to know cause it’s always fun. It’s a different perspective and they’re always real fun to experiment on and hear new sounds and they can take you in different directions.”
Emerson said their songwriting and arranging works on a song by song basis. The majority of the songwriting starts with the brothers and Britney and a single instruments. Then they pan it out and see how it sounds and bring it to the four singers of the band to figure out harmonies. After that, they bring it to the rest of the band to get a backbone arrangement for the song. However he said sometimes their songwriting is spontaneous during a soundcheck, “following the muses” and seeing where it goes.