Emily Woodill, a 2011 Edwardsburg High School graduate who performs under the stage name Emilee Allan, returns to Elkhart’s Lerner Theater for a CD release concert Jan. 28. Doors open at 7 p.m.

She opened for George Jones in October at the Lerner, which invited her to return to showcase her debut CD that will be available at the concert and which she will sign after her show.

Emilee co-wrote eight songs on the CD, which became available Christmas Day on CDBaby, an independent music site, and iTunes.

It is available for listening on her website, www.emileeallan.com.

She recorded at the Sound Kitchen in Nashville with producer Kent Wells.

Emilee has been singing locally for the last two years accompanied on guitar by Nathan Miles, from Fireside in Edwardsburg and Riverfront Cafe and the amphitheater in Niles to Pitt Stop and Villa Macri in Granger, Ind., and Harrison Landing and Dad’s Place in Elkhart, Ind.

She sang the national anthem twice this past summer at South Bend Silver Hawks baseball games.

Emilee has been performing since age 8, when her influences were Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks. She moved to Nashville in November with her older sister, Amanda, 24 (they also have an older brother, 26, who lives in Plano, Texas)  to pursue her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter.

A lifelong Edwardsburg resident who always lived in the same house, Emilee’s glad to have her sister for moral support when she gets “a little homesick.”

She performed at 12 and Porter in Tennessee recently to showcase her recording.

In 2008, while performing with the Young Americans as a freshman in Niles, she was selected to present one of her original songs, “Today is the Day,” which cinched for her what she wanted to do after graduation.

Emilee, who won’t turn 19 until June 18, is the daughter of David and Cathy Woodill. Her stage name combines her parents’ middle names.

We caught up with Emilee Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, she was meeting with a producer to see about touring with or opening for other artists.

“One day, if I do make it, I hope” to let her powerful voice range beyond country, which she initially embraced for its “emotional” wallop as a vehicle to tell a story. She initially resisted writing love songs, but some listeners found those tunes too depressing. Her favorite track on her self-titled debut is “Crazy Ride,” perhaps because she’s on one. Songs “pop into my head,” like “Wrong for Me.”

She’s learning to play guitar. Her musical influences today run more to Sugarland, Carrie Underwood, Norah Jones and Ingrid Michaelson, although her love of music  extends to such oldies as The Beatles and Bill Withers.

At The Lerner she plans to cover Twain’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” which an older audience associates with AC/DC.

A listener can imagine the Grammy-winning Underwood, winner of the fourth season of “American Idol” out of Oklahoma in 2005 and singer of “Before He Cheats,” performing “Don’t Touch Me There.”

Did Emilee consider auditioning for “American Idol” or other such shows which sprang up in imitation?

Two years ago, when she was 16, “Idol” came to Chicago and they were about to leave when it was realized Emilee was four days too young.

She took it as a “sign. I’m meant to take a different route” to stardom because, in hindsight, it can mean young artists relinquishing control.

While it might seem easier to break out with all the internet options to expose wider audiences to music that supplanted traditional record deals, “It’s also made the playing field large” and filled with vocalists convinced “I’ve got something different.”

In her spare time, Emilee enjoys being outdoors, whether snow skiing, biking or playing tennis with her sister.
Opening for her at the Lerner will be South of Somewhere, the duo of Matt Toliver and Jason Curtis.