Hartland Grad to Debut CD With Thursday Concert

Growing up, Emily Rooker remembers her mother telling her stories about her late father, a musician who had habit of never going anywhere without his beloved guitar.

Now the 2011 Hartland High School grad will be playing her own as she debuts her first album Late Night Secrets 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Howell Opera House.

“My grandparents actually just gave me his old guitar, and so it's like I’ve come full circle with him,” Emily said. “It’s like I have a tangible piece of him which is really cool because, I don’t really remember him at all. … I have a piece of my soul that is just from him.”

The 18-year-old began performing at age 8 — a year after her father died — but she didn't think about recording an album until her sophomore year in high school when family friend and producer Scott Lee approached her with the opportunity to record an album at his studio, Jammin' Beatle Music.

After two years of trying off and on, however, Emily says she still felt unsure of her talent until one day she realized the importance of music to her life and that finishing the album was something important to her.

“I just realized that I play piano and guitar every day, I sing every day, I’m always writing,” Emily said. “So I was just like, why have I been putting this on the backburner when it’s something I love so much? It was kind of like this 'aha' moment.”

Since that 'aha' moment, Emily took about four months to finally complete the album that is full of songs that represent her, her life, her experiences and one song in particular, “Halfway to Nowhere,” which represents Hartland. (Click here for a link to an MP3 of the song).

“I love Hartland and I cultivated myself in Hartland,” Emily said. “Hartland is where all these songs take place so to think that a place could give me that is really cool because this CD is something I love a lot and is something I’m really proud of.”

Thursday's event also serves as something of a going away party as well because she's leaving later this month to attend Boston University to study music.

"It's my best friend's last day in Hartland and he will be playing there," Emily said. "So it's good-bye to him, too. It will be emotional."

And the decision to pursue music wasn't an easy one to make.

“At first I wasn’t going to do music at all because I was going to do something that was practical. I was going to do something that could get me a job,” Emily said. “And then, my mom and my boyfriend were like, ‘That’s stupid. You do what you love and hope you can make a difference in the world by doing that.’”

One aspect of her life, which isn’t in her lyrics however, are her feelings about the man who gave her the gift of music.

“There is no eloquent way to describe how I feel about him,” Emily said, although she does admit that music is where she feels a strong connection with her late father.

“Every day I can see how much I’m like my mom ‘cause I’m with her all the time,” she said. “So what I’m able to feel, whenever I’m playing music or writing songs, I know that it was the same. It’s something so deep in me that I’m just happy that I have the connection with him.”