{"id":8757,"date":"2020-05-04T13:38:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T17:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/08\/tour-on-hold-emily-scott-robinson-05-remains-thankful-for-recent-success\/"},"modified":"2022-11-06T18:24:46","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T23:24:46","slug":"tour-on-hold-emily-scott-robinson-05-remains-thankful-for-recent-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/tour-on-hold-emily-scott-robinson-05-remains-thankful-for-recent-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour on hold, Emily Scott Robinson ’09 remains thankful for recent success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Emily Scott Robinson \u201909 will perform a live concert through Furman’s official Instagram page<\/a> beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, in honor of the Furman class of 2020.<\/p>\n

“I am really genuinely so excited to talk to these students, especially the seniors, and play for them,” said Robinson, whose album \u201cTraveling Mercies\u201d landed on Rolling Stone\u2019s list of the Top 40 Country and Americana Albums of 2019.<\/a><\/p>\n

Like other artists, Robinson has embraced virtual technology as a way to continue to perform after the novel COVID-19 virus stopped her tour in its tracks earlier this year. Though at the time there were only 20 documented deaths in the U.S. caused by disease, when she was readying for her March 8 show in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, there was a palpable sense of unease in the music world that the distant threat of the novel coronavirus wasn\u2019t seeming quite so distant.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven then, we were starting to not touch people at the merch (merchandise) table,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cIt seems hard for me to imagine this now, but I used to shake hands and hug and was doing that for the first week or two of the tour. And then as news was spreading about the coronavirus, it became like, hey, we\u2019ll do an elbow bump or we\u2019ll just say \u2018hi,\u2019 but we\u2019re going to keep a bit of a distance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson was on the road in support of \u201cTraveling Mercies\u201d and seemed to be turning a big corner in her career. But as she prepared to board a plane bound for home in Flagstaff, Arizona, there was a feeling a much larger corner was looming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last flight we took we were obsessively washing our hands in the airport,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cMy husband and I looked at each other, and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t think things are going to be normal for quite a while.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She was right. The Wisconsin gig turned out to be her last as venues began cancelling show after show. In a matter of days, concerts that would have taken Robinson through Greenville and then Europe were put on hold as the world ground to a halt in an effort to thwart the spread of a disease that has now killed more than 245,000 people.<\/p>\n

As is the case for almost all professional musicians, live performances account for the overwhelming majority of Robinson\u2019s income \u2013 more than 70% she estimates \u2013 but she nonetheless considers herself fortunate to have been able to finish the first leg of a tour that had started in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really lucky I made a chunk of money, and we can pay our bills for the foreseeable future,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of my musician friends are not so lucky. We don\u2019t have anybody on our payroll, but there are bigger musicians who have full teams and bands, who have a lot more responsibility for other people. Which I think is legitimately scary for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson has never been in more demand thanks to a sophomore album\u00a0Stereogum included as one of The 10 Best Country Albums of 2019<\/a>. Robinson is \u201ca writer who could evoke the empathy of Patty Griffin,\u201d Rolling Stone wrote, while also comparing her to Richard Thompson and Brandy Clark.<\/p>\n