Premiere: The acoustic serenity of Emily King’s ‘First Time’ will make you feel again

Amid the lingering gray days of winter in a pandemic, it’s tempting to slip into the arms of nostalgia and sweeter days past.

Take it from Emily King, the New York R&B songstress whose pair of shows last February at Hollywood Forever’s Masonic Temple still have us swooning. Her arresting voice and songwriting have earned her a third Grammy nomination, this time for the powerful track “See Me,” penned in response to last year’s Black Lives Matter protests.

Ahead of the Grammy Awards on March 14, KCRW is pleased to premiere King’s latest song “First Time,” a gentle ballad laid over sparse acoustic production, courtesy King and longtime D’Angelo engineer Ben Kane. The track supersedes time and genre, with King’s voice and lyrics cutting to the chase of human experience — a welcome reminder that behind our weary and weathered exteriors, tenderness is just a memory (or song) away.

“It really comes from a place of loneliness and wanting to go back to that moment where you felt the most loved, and finding peace within those memories,” she tells KCRW.

The track, due out March 5 via ATO, is the first single from King’s forthcoming acoustic EP.

Listen to the premiere of Emily King’s “First Time” below.