EMILY SCOTT ROBINSON, APPALACHIA

Before Emily Scott Robinson became a full time musician, she trained and worked as a social worker. That experience influences how she thinks about songwriting and what music can mean to other people.

“I want this record to be of service to people. I want it to reach them in ways that they need to be reached.”

On Appalachia, her fifth album, Robinson writes about divorce, death, displacement, and finding a way forward after loss. The album took shape over several years before coming into focus during sessions with Josh Kaufman at Dreamland Studios. Robinson was drawn to Kaufman’s use of space, and the arrangements on Appalachia are open and uncluttered, putting her voice and storytelling at the center. Songs like “Hymn for the Unholy” and “Time for Flowers” move toward collective loss and remembrance, shaped by Hurricane Helene and the deaths of close friends.

Robinson has said she wants the album to function as something useful, a source of reassurance, a place to rest, a reminder that people can lean on each other and keep going. Listening to Appalachia, I think she accomplishes exactly that. It’s a beautiful, deeply moving album about loss, but also about what comes after it.