"Been disconnected / everything’s feeling so hectic," Emily Fehler muses, just within seconds of the song’s start. "Undertow" is the beginning of a tellingly honest vignette by a clever, talented musician. Under her Gold Child stage name, Emily has had her share of recognition with mentions from Rolling Stone (Top 200), NPR (Best New Music), Refinery29 (a media outlet which often focuses on artists empowering women), and Brooklyn Vegan. With its warm aura blending country and dreampop, the song is at once disarming and pleasant in its nostalgic overtones, with the dark folk elements bringing to mind powerful singer/songwriters like Angel Olsen or Neko Case.
The country-influenced instrumentation has been a driving force in developing her music since graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2012(She’s a self-professed student of country music’s golden era with a slight obsession with Patsy Cline and Emmylou Harris). That, plus the lyrical content in "Undertow," paints a picture of a musician interested in taking American roots music to new places and the courage to face any personal demons she gets dealt by life – in this single’s case, a problem with anxiety: "Gotta get to the right time and place someday," leads to the chorus that carries Gold Child’s message: "So emotional / lost all my control / slipping in slow motion down this waterfall / stuck in the undertow."
With tonight’s show at Baby’s All Right, Emily Fehler will have her chance to share long-awaited material. Additonally the self-titled debut album, will be released digitally on Friday, August 9th. – Susan Moon