Donnie & Joe Emerson Release First New Songs In Over 30 Years

In 1979, Donnie and Joe Emerson, two young brothers from Fruitland, Washington, released a deeply obscure album called Dreamin’ Wild. It took a long, long time for that record to find an audience, but it happened. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and Dâm-Funk covered the Emerson brothers’ song “Baby” in 2012, and Light In The Attic reissued Dreamin’ Wild. The original “Baby” became an underground hit. Last year, Casey Affleck Donnie Emerson and Walton Goggins played Joe in the biopic Dreamin’ Wild. Now, Donnie and Joe Emerson are finally releasing some new music.

According to a press release, the Bodos Band/Dap-Kings member Thomas Brenneck recorded a couple of Donnie and Joe Emerson songs at an impromptu Donnie and Joe Emerson session at his Dunham Studios in New York more than a decade ago. It was summer 2013, and the Emerson brothers had just played a show at the Mercury Lounge. Donne Emerson wrote two songs, the loping and nostalgic blue-eyed soul jams “Searching” and “Finally Found Someone,” and Brenneck recorded them with a scrappy sense of grace. Now, those two songs are coming out on a 7″ from Light In The Attic, and they’re the first new Donnie and Joe Emerson songs in more than 30 years.

The “Searching” b/w “Finally Found Someone” single arrives just as Donnie Emerson and his wife and collaborator Nancy Sophia get ready to head out on a West Coast tour, where they’ll play those Dreamin’ Wild songs. Below, check out “Searching,” “Finally Found Someone,” and the Donnie Emerson/Nancy Sophia dates.

TOUR DATES:
10/08 – Seattle, WA @ The Rabbit Box
10/15 – San Francisco, CA @ 4 Star Theater
10/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
10/21 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
11/08 – Portland, OR @ Turn! Turn! Turn!

“Searching” b/w “Finally Found Someone” is out now on Light In The Attic. Donnie Emerson and Nancy Sophia will also do a Q&A at a 10/11 Dreamin’ Wild screening at Portland’s Hollywood Theatre.