SPOTLIGHT: Emily Nenni Steps Out with Newfound Confidence on ‘Movin’ Shoes’

Editor's Note: Emily Nenni, whose new LP Movin' Shoes comes out today via New West, is No Depression's Spotlight Artist for May 2026. Read more about this up-and-coming singer-songwriter and stay tuned for more from her all month long.

It took Emily Nenni four days to get from her home in Nashville, Tennessee to Austin, Texas where her rhythm section lives, and finally to Seattle, Washington for the first stop of their latest tour. Even after pulling 12 to 14 hours a day in a van with her band, she arrived wrapped in a sense of ease and contentment.  

The open road often symbolizes freedom, possibility, an uninterrupted opportunity for self-discovery. Nenni, however, embarked westward with much of that already in tow, her focus resharpened and her direction forward clearer than ever. 

“I am genuinely just glad to be here, glad to be doing it,” the alt-country singer-songwriter says the morning after her feet finally hit pavement in the Emerald City. To be able to do what she loves, she says, “It makes me happy.”

That same sense of pure satisfaction and unflinching fulfillment is bottled on her new album, Movin’ Shoes. Her fourth full-length offering, and follow-up to 2024’s Drive & Cry, the 13-track collection finds Nenni at her most uninhibited and self-assured — a state that, in the past few years, has been especially hard-earned.

“I've been doing a lot of self-work,” she says. Where her last album tackled themes surrounding change – cleaning house and making room to come into her own – Movin’ Shoes sees Nenni settling into that space, opening up, speaking her mind, and putting her personal evolution into action.

“I've spent a lot of time with myself and my thoughts,” she explains of a recent season of growth, “and I am really trying to dissect how I'm communicating with people and also talking to myself.”

Time Alone

Just as Nenni experimented with solo writing the majority of Drive & Cry, she set out to do the same with Movin’ Shoes. She spent the winter months in isolation, with just her guitar and her dog by her side, taking time with her thoughts and allowing herself to feel all that was needed in order to bring this album to life. For her, this has become a necessary practice.

“When you are writing such personal songs, it's – a lot of the time – about subjects, or maybe conversations that you would want to have, but you don't know how to have them, or it's more comfortable to just write it out and not say it directly,” she explains. “This is also how I am able to organize my thoughts, because I am a heavily emotional person, so when I feel all these things, I really need to organize them before I have the actual conversation face-to-face.”

In turn, she considers this time alone to be sacred. She says, “It's been really good, for the last of couple records, to write it all out and really think about even things that are so old that have just been sitting in my brain and in my chest for so long that I finally was like, ‘Okay, let's tackle this now.’”

As Nenni rifled through some 30 years of experiences, digging up life lessons, reconciling with the past, and finding the beauty in imperfection, what was born from this season of solitude was a fruitful period of understanding and self-discovery.

As a result, Movin’ Shoes is liberating and fearless, filled with songs that shrug societal expectations, leave behind the demands of money and fame, and shed old worries in favor of compassion, patience, and self-respect. Throughout the collection, Nenni unburdens herself to bring forth weightless works of heart.

Rather than criticizing her body as she’s done in the past, Nenni exercises self-acceptance in “Livin’ In Shame,” asking herself in the glimmering tune,

Every body is different each time
Every curve and scar is one of a kind
Never saw a size or shape I didn’t like
So why the wasted years being so cruel to mine?

In the album’s sneaking Southern soul anthem, “Not A Winner,” she rejects the rat race, finding joy, not in finery, but in doing what she loves. Against pillowy rhythms and polished keys, she proudly croons,

I am not a winner
My sights ain’t set on gold or silver
 I’m more a glad participator
And fond of what I do.

At times, her words are warm and charming. She may be protective over her time away from the road on the bright “Home With My Dog” and, in the rollicking “Good Ma’am,”she dares her critics to catch her out on the town with their same, tired lines, but she seems to sing it all with a wink and smile.

Other moments find her earnest and unyielding. She demands to have her feelings acknowledged in the bleary-eyed waltz, “You Only Said It To Hurt Me,” and there is power in the pleas that bleed into the rich, horn-swept ballad, “What Have I Done Wrong.”

“Although the title is like, ‘Oh, poor me’,” she describes of the latter track, “I actually am worthy of being understood and heard.”

Meant For Everyone

Nenni believes her listeners deserve the same respect. Having spent her early career making a name for herself throughout the watering holes of Music City, she’s witnessed situations turn sour in spaces that should be meant for everyone.

“Now that I am in my early 30s and thinking back on the first 10 years that I spent in Nashville at the honky tonks and bars, it is such a great community. But sometimes things can just go wrong,” she says. She penned the album’s title track as a reminder that all are welcome on the dance floor, warning , “Anybody’s interfering with your groove / Tell ‘em who they can come talk to.”

As she explains, “With ‘Movin’ Shoes,’ I just want to remind people to respect each other, and also look out for yourself, and look out for each other.”

These 13 tracks came to life in Memphis, Tennessee, at Grammy-winning producer-engineer Matt Ross-Spang’s studio, Southern Grooves. While still under the production of longtime collaborator John James Tourville (The Deslondes), this marked Nenni’s first time recording an album outside of Nashville. She, however, quickly felt at home, this new setting helping to usher in a fresh sound.

Throughout this album, Nenni textures her usual honky tonk tendencies with the humidity of Southern rock, the silkiness of soul, the slinkiness of funk, and the grit of barroom country. Taking pages from Aretha Franklin and Linda Ronstadt seems to be nothing new for Nenni, but her myriad of influences truly shines across this release.

“Those sounds have always been a part of my writing,” she begins, “but I think for this record…I wasn't afraid to get out of that box that I was comfortable in, that I knew some people enjoyed. And I wasn't afraid to be like, ‘Okay, well, if someone doesn't like this, because it sounds a little different, that's okay.’ It's okay. I like it. I'm having fun with it.”

By venturing outside of musical lines, Nenni set her sound free. The inclusion of luminous horns uplifts a number like the no-nonsense “Yes It Hurt.” With a pulse of harmonica and punch of keys, the resolute “Take My Money” is made all the more intense. “Honky Tonkin’,” with its holy-rolling rhythms and exalting strings, is transformed from a mere twang-filled tune into a fierce anthem in which rock, country, and soul collide.

She praises the musicians she got to record with – some of them previous players like bassist Alex Lyon and guitarist Jack Quiggins, and some of them new recruits like drummer Steve Potts and pianist Al Gamble – for helping to further her sound.

“I felt very comfortable and very supported by them,” she says, adding, “It wasn't as scary to step outside of that genre box that I've been in for a few records.”

Apprehension also slipped away when giving input during the recording process. 

“It's not like I wasn't given that opportunity in the past,” she explains, sharing how nerves tended to get in the way of her speaking up. This time around, however, proved differently, Nenni saying, “I felt really comfortable being like, ‘Hey, actually, let's do this.’” 

While personal growth is an ongoing process, all that Emily Nenni has cultivated and nurtured over the last several years has already flung wide the boundaries of her artistry. The confidence, candor, and overall perspective she has brought to Movin’ Shoes is striking, and it appears to be just the beginning.  

“I just want to make music,” Nenni says. “There's so much more to learn, and I want to keep creating. It's really special that we get to do this, you know?”

Emily Nenni’s Movin’ Shoes is out today via New West.