The residents of Oxford come and go, but the small town they once called home never leaves their hearts.
Emily Marchbanks-Glover grew up on “the best street in America” — South 11th Street, mere feet from the Square. The daughter of Dick and Mary Beth Marchbanks, Emily grew up in a smaller Oxford, before Walmart or anything around it existed when everyone literally knew everyone and talked to their neighbors while grocery shopping at Kroger.
After getting her music business degree from Middle Tennessee State University, Emilie moved to Nashville to work in the country music scene. But even after making the leap across the state line to the Volunteer state, Emilie never forgot her home.
“I love Oxford. I’ve been in Nashville I guess 20 years, but whenever someone asks where I’m from, it’s always Oxford,” Emilie said. “I love Nashville, too, but it’s not home. Oxford is always home.”
After interning in a few places, Emilie landed at Fitzgerald-Hartley, an artist management company, and worked there for years, learning the ropes of the industry and meeting many good artists and friends.
“It was great,” Emilie said. “I learned a ton of stuff and got to work with a ton of great people, but then it was time to move on. I’m getting to be 40 this year, so it’s time to do something different.”
Recently, Emilie began managing country music sensation Brandy Clark, who was recently nominated for Best New Artist and won Best New Song at the Country Music Awards.
Despite only about 37,000 people owning a copy of Clark’s self-published album, her fame grew, and Emilie said this year’s CMAs was the most important of all she’s attended in her time in Nashville.
“This was the most special so far to me because of the artist,” Emilie said. “Brandy is so outside the box. She’s had a lot of success as a songwriter for other artists, but as an artist, she’s older, she’s openly gay, she sings about more real life things. Major labels in Nashville shied away because it was so far outside of the box.”
While she didn’t win Best New Artist, Emilie said she did land a contract with Warner Brothers Studios in Los Angeles and will be working with Alan Jackson on his 25th anniversary tour in January. For now, Clark can be seen in the remaining few dates of Eric Church’s tour as well.
Now, Clark and Emilie will work to re-release the self-published album and begin work on a new one. But for now, Emilie’s mind is occupied by the thought of the holiday season and returning to her family and Oxford.
“I can’t wait to be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Emilie said. “My sister lives in Charleston, and she’s always like ‘Why don’t you come to Charleston for Christmas?’ but Christmas is not Christmas unless it’s Oxford. I’m still heartbroken, as I’m sure everyone is, over the Auburn game. I’ve gone from the bitterness to the sadness to…let us have State because that’s going to be our Super Bowl.”
Emilie as of now hasn’t managed to find Egg Bowl tickets yet, but don’t be surprised if you see her and her family Groving away the final Saturday of the season, enjoying the new and old that Oxford has to offer.
“What I love about Oxford is basically the same as the reason we’re talking — because an old, old, dear friend of mine posted something on Facebook about the CMAs, and then another old friend of mine was like, ‘You know what? Someone needs to do a story about you,’ ” Emilie said. “I haven’t seen Chris (Northern) in years, but we grew up together on that fabulous South 11th Street, and it’s that kind of friendship. I’m sure every town has it, but I like to think it’s a special thing growing up where I grew up. I love everything about Oxford. It’s not the Oxford I grew up in, but the one I grew up in wasn’t the one my dad grew up in. It’s still special to everyone.”
Amelia Camurati is editor-in-chief of HottyToddy.com and can be reached at amelia.camurati@hottytoddy.com.
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