Emma King's journey in music from Hull to Nashville now brings her to Tockwith

"It'll be on the village playing field, only a few minutes from where I live," says Emma, who is from Hull originally and has returned from her American sojourn to record and launch her self-titled debut album.

This weekend she will be airing her songs of anger, loss and optimism from her ten-track album, ahead of its release on May 27 through emmaking.com after signing a deal with Absolute in London for distribution via Universal/Sony.

"I always knew I wanted to finish the album living back home in Yorkshire and to release it at home," says Emma, who has a home studio but recorded her pop, soul and roots songs at Snap Studios in London and mastered the record at Abbey Road.

"Abbey Road is one of those iconic places you hear about and I thought 'why not finish it there' as I was so proud of the record and we wanted it to be finished in the best possible way in the best possible studio. It was kind of cool to have started the record at Sun Studios in Memphis and completed it at Abbey Road."

Emma's one and only day in those famous studios in Memphis, Tennessee will linger in her memory. "We got to use vintage tape machines, Elvis’s old microphone and Jerry Lee Lewis’s piano. Amazing!" she says.

Emma King: "Being in Nashville really did help my songwriting"

"I'm still nipping myself that it happened. It was one of my last experiences before I came home. I'd always visited it as a museum, being a Johnny Cash and Elvis fan, but to be able to record the early demos there was sensational, doing the songs as simply as possible., and of course the chance to sing into Elvis's microphone was the highlight."

Emma had begun singing professionally at the age of 12. "Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was singing in pubs and clubs, not just in Yorkshire, to my parents' horror, and I also did a lot of musicals with the youth theatre at Hull Truck," she says. "It was just one of those things; I always knew I wanted to sing – and my Mum used to sing around the house, Annie Lennox and Fleetwood Mac songs, which started me off."

Emma was on the verge of starting a musical theatre course at Hull College when her burgeoning talent took her to BIMM, the British and Irish Modern Music Institute at Brighton, on a scholarship supported by James Brown’s god-daughter Carleen Anderson, of Brand New Heavies fame.

"She took over for five lessons and she told me so many good things to do and things not to do, like not shouting," she says. "To be given that scholarship, when probably I wouldn't otherwise have been able to afford to go, was fantastic."

Emma loved her days at BIMM."What was special was being able to play with other musicians and having time to learn the song-writing process, whereas in Hull there weren't a lot of opportunities at the time, though there are more now," she says.

She spread her wings singing in Britain and Europe and then made her self-funded move to Nashville. "I wasn't old enough to be served a drink as I was 20, but I knew I really seriously wanted to go there as I was a big fan of Nashville and Memphis, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley," she says.

Initially Emma made three or four trips to Nashville to put in the groundwork, show she was willing to strive hard to make progress, and work a couple of jobs too, before signing to PLC Records after her fourth visit.

"I did everything, from working in ASDA to working in an accountants' office to then go on to make music," she says. "Being in Nashville really did help my songwriting and I started travelling to Memphis too, the city next door," she says.

Emma King: "Everything I set out to do I'd done"

Emma went on to work with Grammy Award-winning engineers such as Chas Sandford, Milan Bogdan and Aaron Swihart. "I met them all in Nashville, doing writing sessions and working with incredible people in different studios," she says. "I did a lot of writing, a lot of recording, a lot of travelling, but we didn't release anything because I wanted to be 100 per cent satisfied with the songs."

That moment has come. The PLC deal may have fallen fallow, but in its stead comes the Absolute deal and a set of songs that reflect Emma's progression. "This album is like a snapshot of the past five years living in America," she says. "It represents my journey over those five years, especially in the music industry, where it's a rollercoaster ride, 24:7.

"I loved the way Nashville changed at night; it's a very beautiful, pristine place by day, then suddenly at night the whisky flares up and it becomes a devil city, a bit like York...or Hull!"

Emma knew leaving Nashville would be a great loss to her, but on the other hand, she sensed there would be a new beginning with new possibilities. "I definitely felt after five years of living there that everything I set out to do I'd done," she says.

"But five years is a long time to be away from your family and it felt right to come home and show everyone what I'd been doing for five years, and the best way to do that is to release an album here, though I'll still travel to America to perform.".

On such songs as Devil City, All The Other Fools, Baby You Don't Mean Nothing and Over & Out, Emma "tries to be as honest as possible in reflecting on the people I've met and the places I've been". "The most important song to me on there is (Let's Hope) Tomorrow Is A Better Day because it's good to have a positive message," she says.

Emma will promote the album on a BBC radio tour in June and July, performing live in studios across the country. "You have to bring your A game to that situation but I like that pressure and the chance to chat about what I'm doing," she says.

First, however, Emma will be in action at Tockwith Festival on Saturday, when the music will flow from 12 noon to 11pm. For more details on the music line-up and festival tickets, visit tockwithfestivals.co.uk