Emily Clair serves up a double shot of 100-proof heartbreak with her intoxicating and intimate new videos for Me Or The Whiskey and The Sobering Truth — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
Raw, unedited and captured live off the floor, the two tenderly powerful ballads are the latest highlights from the Kingston country singer-songwriter’s debut EP Stripped. Featuring bare-bones versions of Clair’s catalogue of seven striking singles, the disc was recorded at Hamilton’s Catherine North Studios and produced by CMAO-nominated Shawn Moore. A full slate of videos by Roadhouse Productions captured the complete recording process.
Discussing Me Or The Whiskey, Clair recalls: “I co-wrote this song with Alex Seier on my very first writing trip to Nashville. I was terrified going into this write because I had never written with someone before! In a writers’ room that is where you can’t exactly hide your secrets, because those secrets from the heart create good, honest music. Three hours later, I came out with an incredible song that quickly became everyone’s favourite. This song was the medicine that got me over my first real heartbreak and a really hard time in my life. It also kicked things off for me … Performing this song live off the floor and bringing it back to life one last time was bittersweet — it brought back a lot of hurtful memories, but it’s the song that always reminds me of how far I’ve come and how much I have grown as an artist and a person today.”
On The Sobering Truth, Clair says, “This one was described to me as a ‘hauntingly beautiful song’ from an industry person that I really admire, and I will never forget that compliment. It’s my most streamed song to date, and I think it really gave my listeners all of ‘the feels’. I had this title floating around for the longest time, and nobody wanted to write it with me. As an artist, I’m always trying to find unique titles that stray away from your typical ones. I’ve always tried to think of clever song titles, to draw the listener in so that they just have to know what the song is about! I brought The Sobering Truth into a write with Shawn Moore, whom I had never written with before, we worked together so naturally. Little did I know that Shawn would quickly become my producer.”
As her third release of 2021 — following singles Drive Me Home and Limousine — Stripped is another milestone for Clair, who has seen four consecutive singles reach the top 40. Me Or The Whiskey and The Sobering Truth also made the semi-finals of the Unsigned Only Music Competition. These songs, along with Come Home, Running on Empty and Bad Habits, make up the EP.
While she is in the early stages of recording an album of original material, Clair says Stripped is the perfect way to close this chapter of her career. “My goal in this industry it to create music that is genuine and will forever remain true to my roots. The process of re-visiting four years of music to create this EP a gift I can look back and remember all of the accomplishments and milestones I’ve paved so far with these recordings.”
Watch the videos for Me Or The Whiskey (Stripped) and The Sobering Truth (Stripped) above, listen to the Stripped EP below, and find Emily Clair at her website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
