Vincent Neil Emerson Announces New Shooter Jennings-Produced Album
Vincent Neil Emerson is helping to fill a very vital space and legacy in American songwriting as a native Texan stepping into the void created by the loss of legacy writers such as Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. Thoughtful but engaging, with a sound that borrows from rock as well as country, he’s fun to see live, but is also valuable as a wordsmith.
Following up his 2021 self-titled album, Vincent Neil Emerson has now solicited the services of Shooter Jennings to produce his latest effort called The Golden Crystal Kingdom out on November 10th. The name might be fantastical, but this is not a kid’s record. Instead, Emerson is digging deep into his Choctaw-Apache roots to tell stories inspired by his heritage.
You hear and see this on the album’s debut song and video, “Little Wolf’s Invincible Yellow Medicine Paint.” It stars Native American bareback horse race champion Sharmaine Weed, and was shot on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming by Mike Vanata of YouTube Channel Western AF fame.
“The story was, basically, that a medicine man was tasked with motivating warriors to go into battle—they were going up against a bunch of white men with guns, and they knew they were going to die if they went into battle—and he came up with this special paint, this yellow medicine paint, and said, ‘If you wear this into battle, you’ll be invincible. No arrow can pierce you. No bullet can pierce you,’” Emerson says.
With the Native American themes in his music, this also gives Emerson a bit of a Western texture. But he says the album’s approach is very much inspired by folk rock legends like Leon Russell and Link Wray. The tuning of the new song uses a Neil Young-style D modal approach.
Vincent Neil Emerson is also one of the beneficiaries of his label La Honda Records partnering with RCA recently ahead of the release of fellow label mate Colter Wall’s album Little Songs. This gives the La Honda roster an independent spirit and flexibility, but a bigger level of support behind them.
The Golden Crystal Kingdom is now available for pre-order/pre-save.
TRACK LIST:
1. Time of the Rambler
2. The Golden Crystal Kingdom
3. Time of the Cottonwood Trees
4. I’ll Meet You in Montana
5. Hang Your Head Down Low
6. Cod’ine
7. Blackland Prairies
8. On the Banks of the Old Guadalupe
9. The Man From Uvalde
10. Voices (On the Spanish Isle)
11. Clover on the Hillside
12. Little Wolf’s Invincible Yellow Medicine Paint
This story has been updated.
September 21, 2023 @ 12:52 pm
Looking forward to this.
Saw him recently and surprisingly he didn’t play one song from his eponymous-named recent album, which was a bummer as it’s great.
September 21, 2023 @ 1:24 pm
Peculiar. I wonder why. Usually when artists don’t hold an album of theirs in high regard, they’ll play few if any of its songs in concert. That can’t possibly be the case, as you said, it’s a great album.
September 22, 2023 @ 10:32 am
It was a real head scratcher, believe me. I think he was trying out new songs, but damn, I really like that album too, and was dying to hear Texas Moon!
September 21, 2023 @ 1:11 pm
Shooter has been on an absolute roll with garlic butter these last few years as a producer.
September 21, 2023 @ 1:33 pm
Road Runner was not an album. It was one song with Colter doing guest vocals. VNE had no albums in 2020. We released the full length records Fried Chicken and Evil Women in 2019 and Self-Titled in 2021.
September 21, 2023 @ 4:16 pm
Sorry, it’s been fixed.
September 21, 2023 @ 2:14 pm
Just two notes.
Vinyl pre-order is not up yet, just a few indie stores as of writing – other than that just the new song digitally.
VNE’s last album was “Vincent Neil Emerson”. Road Runner was a non-album song released only as a promo extra flexible 7′ and digital.
Thanks for promoting this gem of an artists. Rips almost as hard as Jeremy Pinnell.
September 21, 2023 @ 2:40 pm
Also looking forward to this. And native american bareback horse racing is an absolutely EPIC sport.
September 21, 2023 @ 3:11 pm
Man, and that comes just days after BJ announced the new American Aquarium album would be produced by Shooter as well.
He got a ton of grief over the Turnpike album, but it’s the only blemish on that resume so far, and clearly didn’t impact demand for his services. Good for him!
VNE gets a Shooter album and Post Malone wearing his merch. Great year of exposure, all around.
September 21, 2023 @ 5:39 pm
I’m not the first to say it, but this TT album gets better with each listen. Is it their best? Doesn’t seem so today but ask me again next year.
I didn’t even like the title track the first time I heard it. A few weeks later it sounds almost like a hillbilly homage to Tangled Up in Blue (the album). I don’t think that’s what they were going for, but that’s the connection I am making.
September 21, 2023 @ 8:48 pm
*Blood on the Tracks. Doh!
September 22, 2023 @ 5:30 am
Oh, I love the album, and have probably been through it cover to cover 30 times in the last month.
But, I love it because it’s Turnpike. I’m still not a fan of the way it was mixed because it strayed from what I recognize as “their sound”. I think a lot of people felt the same.
September 21, 2023 @ 7:02 pm
Where is he receiving a ton of grief and why is it a blemish?
I was skeptical but thought he did a good job on that.
September 22, 2023 @ 5:45 am
Most of what I saw were just in music nerd corners of the internet. The comment section on the SCM review was not very kind. I griped as well.
I don’t judge it anywhere near as harshly as I did on first listen. But, I would still hope that the reception left the impression that what’s good for Kelsey Waldon isn’t universally good for a band with a cult following like Turnpike.
I only say “blemish” because I feel like everything else he’s produced has had rave reviews – for both him and the band. Hopefully this VNE album is another tally in that column.
September 22, 2023 @ 4:49 am
I’m genuinely impressed by this guy. Emerson is the real deal. This song is a WOW! I’ve paid a little bit of attention to him up to this point, but I think he’s really hit his stride and the writing is great, I appreciate that Trig is making comparisons to Guy Clark. I’m also hearing a bit of Billy Joe Shaver in him as well. To me, when I sit back and take the whole package in, I feel like VNE is has a genuine authenticity and originality to offer, and that’s refreshing. Great stuff, I’m all in.
September 22, 2023 @ 6:14 am
I absolutely loved Fried Chicken and Evil Women when it came out with some nice honky tonk sound. Was a little disappointed though with the stripped down self titled album, though it has grown on me. Was hoping for return to the honky tonk for this album, but if the single is an indication, it seems Emerson is taking another left turn. I do like this song though, and I’m interested in seeing how the rest of the album shakes out.
September 22, 2023 @ 7:03 am
Fried Chicken and Evil Women gets played on our record player once a week. VNE seems like an awesome dude and I’m really happy for his long term health he seems to have dropped a few pounds. God knows I should too.
September 22, 2023 @ 7:13 am
I can’t tell for certain based on the song titles, but its good to see an album with no love songs. I’ll have to put this guy in the rotation.
September 22, 2023 @ 11:08 am
Can’t say I’m shocked at the producer Shooter has become considering he grew up around music and the grand majority of his albums were produced by Dave Cobb. But, it truly has been an amazing thing to see (and listen to), and it really feels like it’s his true calling in music. It’s gotten to the point where I check out every album he produces which I don’t really often do for producers, pretty much reserved for only him, Sturgill, and Cobb. This is an exciting pairing, very interested to see what he can do with VNE’s unique sound.
September 22, 2023 @ 11:45 am
Love his music!
September 22, 2023 @ 2:56 pm
I saw Vincent open up for Charlie Crockett last year. After the show he came out into the crowd and took to the time to meet people who were still filtering out. He’s genuine guy and a great performer. I’ll be a fan for life.
September 22, 2023 @ 3:57 pm
I love him, my nephews see him in Austin whenever they can and say he’s a super nice guy. We play his stuff all the time, love this new one!
September 22, 2023 @ 7:41 pm
Hopefully, Shooter improved from his botched Turnpile release.
That was his biggest blunder since XXX.
September 23, 2023 @ 5:28 am
Bareback at a gallop is very tough. Thigh and core has to be like steel. Multiple bareback racers is asking for trouble. They race bareback in Italy, many horses finish without riders, it’s total madness.
Approved.