Today we’d like to introduce you to Emma Jo.
Hi Emma, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I got my first guitar from a late-night TV commercial that my dad bought on a whim. My mom raised me on country music and my dad raised me on rock and roll, especially Bruce Springsteen. I still describe my sound as the love child of Bruce Springsteen and Shania Twain. I put out my first acoustic album at fifteen, and through my teens I fronted a rock band called 49 Stones, and we played clubs all over Kansas City. That’s where I think I really learned how to hold a stage.
Then, in my twenties, my life got smaller. I married young, and the relationship turned out to be abusive. I spent years making myself quiet, and music took a back seat. In 2017 I lost my dad. The week after he died I wrote a song called “Your Story Isn’t Over Yet,” and it became the heart of my album Brave, which came out in 2018. It was the first time in years I’d told the truth in my music.
A couple of years later I left my marriage, and that was the real turning point. I went back to school and finished a master’s degree in history (I’m still a total history nerd). I started wearing what I wanted and saying what I wanted, and I wrote the songs I’d been too scared to write. Those songs became Girl Bandit, which I recorded in Nashville and released in 2023. It’s an album about surviving and taking your power back, and The Pitch named it a Best New Album finalist. The most meaningful part is still the messages I get from women who hear “Walk” or “Straight Into Mine” and recognize their own lives in them.
Since then I’ve played all over the Midwest, opened for Cody Jinks, and toured the Northeast with Juliet Hawkins on the Light the Way Tour, including shows in Brooklyn and Harlem. I’ve released “Trains Always Remind Me” and “Say Can You See,” and in 2025 I was named Best Singer by Missouri’s Best. I also play cocktail jazz and pop with pianist Paul Seiz as Pink Velvet. I host Songbird Support Group, a free community for female singer-songwriters, coach young artists, serve on the board of Band of Angels, and own a digital marketing agency.
Today I live in Kansas City with my husband Josh in a very colorful retro house we call the Chroma House.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Here’s the revised version, with the softer line and Craig added.
Definitely not a smooth road! The personal stuff (losing my dad, getting out of a bad marriage) shaped my music, but some of the hardest struggles came after I’d already found my voice again.
Girl Bandit took two years and pretty much my entire savings. Along the way, we lost my producer and co-writer, Craig Wilson, completely unexpectedly. He never got to see the album released. We’d had plans to keep writing together, and without him I felt a little aimless.
Then I had this amazing, joy-filled release show, and right after it I crashed. I’d done everything the industry tells you to do: post every day, devote yourself to TikTok, invest in your dreams. But I found out some people wouldn’t even listen to the record because they’d already decided I was a blonde wannabe influencer who’d paid her way into a Nashville studio. I’d been writing, recording, and gigging since I was fourteen, so that stung. I pulled back from social media for a couple of months and stewed in it.
What got me out was other women. My friend Jillian Riscoe texted me, basically, “Why aren’t you posting?! You just released an album!” Conversations with her and a few other women artists snapped me out of it. That experience is why I started Songbird Support Group. The music business is hard, and having women around you who get it makes all the difference.
The other ongoing challenge is the one every independent artist knows: balancing art and making a living. I’ve built a whole ecosystem of work, including performing, coaching, and my marketing agency, so the music can stay mine. Some seasons that means saying no to things. I’m learning to protect time for creating, not just performing.
The biggest lesson I’ve taken from all of it is that nobody else is going to hand you permission. You give it to yourself, and then you keep going.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an Americana singer-songwriter. My sound mixes gritty songwriting with glossy country shimmer. It’s very high heels and six shooters, haha. I perform solo, as a trio, and with a full band, so a show can be an intimate listening room one night and a loud dance hall the next. I keep it interesting! I also play cocktail jazz, soul, and pop with pianist Paul Seiz in our duo Pink Velvet, which is my excuse to dress up and play Hollywood for the night.
What I’m known for is storytelling, both in the songs and between them. My songs come from real life: surviving a bad relationship, losing my dad, falling in love again, and loving Kansas City. The stories I tell on stage are a big part of the show. People come up afterward to tell me which song was their story. I’m also a total history nerd with a master’s degree to prove it, and that definitely sneaks into the music. “Same Moon” started as a song to Galileo.
I’m most proud of the connection the music creates. I still get messages from women who heard “Walk” or “Straight Into Mine” while they were trying to find the courage to leave something unhealthy. That matters more to me than any award. On the record side, I’m proudest of “Twelve Steps,” the last song on Girl Bandit. My dad was in recovery for thirteen years and used to take me to open AA meetings when I was a kid. I built that song out of the language of those rooms, about starting over one step at a time. I wrote it with my mom, which makes it even more special to me.
What sets me apart, I think, is that I don’t separate the glam from the grit. I sing about real pain, and I do it wearing custom pink cowgirl boots. I want people to leave a show feeling lighter and a little braver than when they walked in, and to have had a really fun night along the way.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Just a few invitations!
If you’re a woman who writes songs, come find us at Songbird Support Group. It’s a community for female singer-songwriters that meets on Zoom and Instagram groups. We do songwriting prompts, peer feedback, and a lot of honest talk about the music business. It’s the group I wish I’d had when I was starting out. It’s invite only, so send me a DM if you’re interested.
I also write about living boldly, romanticizing your life, and reinventing yourself on my Substack, Glam & Grounded (glamandgrounded.substack.com). A song is done in 3 minutes, but the blog is where I get to tell the long versions of the stories.
And if you’re planning a wedding, hotel event, or cocktail party that needs a little old glamour, check out Pink Velvet, my duo with pianist Paul Seiz. (pinkvelvetkc.com)
You can find upcoming shows, music, and booking info at www.emmajo.rocks, and follow along on Instagram at @theemmajo. And if you see me out at a show, come say hi. Meeting people after the set is DEFINITELY my favorite part of the night.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://emmajo.rocks
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/theemmajo
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/emmajo
