Emily Triggs is a bred-in-the-bones roots musician. In her debut album When Guinevere Went Under, the guitarist, singer-songwriter takes you on a journey through influences and experiences that have shaped her folk/roots sound. 

“I’m pushing the boundaries of what I consider folk – and bringing in influences I’ve had over the years,” she says. Those influences span the Deep South with the likes of Lead Belly, through Texas blues, strains from the Appalachian Mountains to her early years in French Canada.

A regular performer at family gatherings and parties since she was small enough to fit inside a guitar case, Emily’s natural talent was honed in Hemmingford, Quebec. Her mother, Louise Demers Triggs was a dancer in the folk troupe Les Feux-Follets. Her father, Stanley Triggs, was a folk singer in the 1960s and has songs that can be found within Smithsonian Folkways.

The youngest of five growing up in a mix of English and French culture, it was in living room jam sessions with local and visiting musicians that Emily learned the history and art of lyrical composition and performance. By age eleven she was playing guitar, writing songs and performing.

Music was her calling. Emily studied music at Montreal’s Dawson College, then headed south to Elkins, West Virginia. There she studied a minor in music and immersed herself in the Appalachian folk music culture. Calgary was the next stop where she has broken more than a few guitar strings as a solo performer, along with singing as the sweet side of the House Doctors, or as one of the seraphs in Magnolia Buckskin.

As a songwriter, her philosophy is simple: all of life's experiences, for better or worse, can be mined for the raw materials of a good song - hence her mantra of “no regrets”. She is an observer of the world around us.

”I’ll hear someone’s story and think, ‘Man, how was that for you. I feel for people, and it really is a release to be able to let it out through my art,” she says.

Emily shares stories through her songs with an endearing simplicity and emotional depth. With a pure and true vocal, complementing a solid base of undeniably roots music composition, Emily engages the listener. Her music grips the heart and elevates the soul. Her songs are double edged, unapologetic and a unique sound in the genre of folk/roots.

Emily has been singing festivals, clubs and coffee houses and has become known as an established singer songwriter. She has been a member of Calgary-based bands: “The House Doctors", "The Fallen Angel Band", “June Gloom” and “Magnolia Buckskin”. 

photo by Erika Rosenbaum