Meet Emery Major: The MIC Mag's May 2025 Musician of the Month
- Stefani M.C. Janelli
- May 2
- 3 min read
Meet Emery Major:
Emery Major makes music that feels like a deep breath in the mountains and a late-night drive through the city. With a gift for storytelling and a voice that draws you in, he blends folk tradition with modern pop sensibility in a way that’s both comforting and current. Describing his style as "glass half-folk," whether he’s on stage at a legendary venue or playing an intimate Nashville writers' round, Emery’s songs offer snapshots of life, love, and the places that shape us—all delivered with sincerity and heart.
This May, The MIC Mag is celebrating Emery Major as our Musician of the Month!
Genre: Folk-Pop
Solo Artist
Fun Facts: "Ooh!
I love being outdoors. I rafted the Grand Canyon this past October for 3 weeks. I love to mountain bike, hike, camp, etc.
If I could only eat one type of cuisine for the rest of my life it would be Mexican food.
I am lactose intolerant, which makes the above fact sort of a bummer.
My desert island record would be Mercury Falling by Sting.
I learned to play guitar because a girl I liked in High School thought I already knew how to play, and asked me to accompany her at the talent show. (She ended up backing out last minute)"
What makes Emery Major stand out?
"I really care about the community I'm building around my music, and I want everyone to have a unique experience that makes them leave saying, 'man, I'm so glad I was there.'"
What is Emery Major most known for?
"I hope to be known as a facilitator of hope and humor. I love cracking jokes and telling funny stories in my sets while also balancing the realness of life - heartbreak, failures, etc. Most of my lyrics toe that line. I want people who leave my shows to take with them a little sense of optimism."
What has Emery Major been working on?
"Farsick," a song about going out far, and finding where you belong.
I had just moved to Nashville from NYC after a disorienting breakup and needed to make myself whole again, so I holed up in a tiny house in the mountains. I read about the German word "fernweh" earlier that day in a magazine at a truck stop. It's generally equated with wanderlust, but literally translated means "far sickness", or a homesickness for a place you've never been. That's what I had been searching for - the place that finally felt like home. It wasn't NYC... was it Nashville? Was it back in Colorado? Was it somewhere else entirely? So on that cool autumn evening in the North Carolina Mountains, I put that into music. A song for those who are searching for themselves, their people, and their place in this world."
"Being a musician is about connecting with and moving people. There’s this exhibit in the Nashville Adventure Science Center that shows how sound waves can physically move matter around. As musicians, we create sound out of silence, and in doing so we literally move the world on a molecular level. Throw in words or phrases that connect with or move people’s emotions, and you’ve got magic." - Emery Major
Do you have any advice for other aspiring independent musicians?:
"I'd say I'm still aspiring, so something that helps me is this quote/concept that keeps getting passed around on Instagram. It's cheesy, but makes me take stock about where I am, where I've been, and where I started: 'Maybe you don't see your progress because you are always raising the bar. Take a moment to look back, you have already achieved things you once thought were impossible.'"
Listen to "Farsick" here
