Country music star Ella Langley is “Choosin’ Texas,” specifically Fort Worth, as she brings her Dandelion tour to Dickies Arena this weekend. And a hometown girl is coming with her. “Getting to play in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is always really meaningful to me. I have so much histor y here and so much family here. It always grounds me back in all the love that it brought me,” musician Emma Lambiase told NBC 5. Lambiase grew up in Arlington and is a professional bass player. The musician currently plays with singer Gabriella Rose, and the group will open for Langley Saturday night at her sold-out concert. “Getting to come back to Fort Worth on this kind of tour with Ella, where there’s so much hype in the world right now around her and her music, is really, really exciting. It’s fun to kind of be a part of country music history in that way,” Lambiase said. Lambiase has been singing and performing since the age of nine. Getting a guitar in her hands was by chance. “Me and all of my girlfriends wanted to form a band in the fourth grade, but nobody wanted to play the bass, and I was kind of always in that position where I was like, oh, okay, I’ll just do it so we can make this happen. And so, I decided to play bass. And nobody wanted to sing either, and I was like, oh, I can sing. I’ll just sing so that we can so we can make the band happen. And then I just never stopped playing, so that was 20 years ago,” Lambiase said. As Lambiase talked about her journey, she credited her parents for the question they asked her in her senior year at Lamar High School. “My parents asked me if I was interested in studying music at all. And I didn’t really think of it as an option because, I don’t know, I’m a really practical person honestly, and it seemed a little silly. And so I just let myself consider it for a second and thought, yeah sure, I guess I’ll try and audition and was able to get into a university in Nashville to study bass, which was wonderful,” she said. Lambiase graduated from Belmont University with a Bachelor of Music in Commercial Music with a specialized focus on Electric Bass. She’s toured across the country many times over, filmed several TV appearances, and performed in venues from dive bars to arenas. She’s played or opened for artists that include Zach Bryan, Kesha, Cyndi Lauper, Panic at the Disco, The Who, and now Ella Langley and Kacey Musgraves in October for selected dates on the fellow Texan’s Middle of Nowhere Tour. “And really, it’s just been meeting one individual after another that’s gotten me one gig and then onto the next gig. Somebody saw me play at some random bar 10 years ago and referred me to somebody else,” she said. “It’s been this really beautiful way of experiencing friendship that’s like anybody I meet could be that next connection. Not just for me, but on the flip side, I could be the connection for somebody else too. So I think it’s a really beautiful way of moving through the world and that music is this beautiful currency in the way of grouping people.” Lambiase confidently says she’s “really, really good at the bass and finds no trouble at all in singing and playing,” but believes being someone who others want to be around is equally important. “I would never say that I’m the best bass player in the world or even the city I live in or even the tour I’m on necessarily. I think so much more important to that that I found in touring is the kind of person you’re able to be. It’s not always fun to be on the road. There’s a lot of annoying situations or frustrating situations to be in. But to be the kind of person who can still perform at their peak amidst a chaos of circumstances and also be someone you want to sit in a van with for 12 hours or just hang out in a tiny green room or deal with whatever is going on, I think is what sets me apart more than anything else,” she said. Lambiase admits it also takes guts to be a woman in music. Like other women in the industry, she says she’s faced sexism from those who underestimate or undercut her skills because of her gender. “It’s still happening, but the other thing that’s happening right now is there’s more women than ever on stage and touring and performing. And some of my best experiences ever have been with women on the crew or on stage with me,” she said. “It’s no longer the novelty it was when I was nine to be a female bass player, which is great, because I’m really tired of acknowledging the novelty of who I am. And I would rather just, you know, be individually me, not have to be a representative for every woman guitarist out there or anything else. So, I do see things changing super positively. And then there are still some people we have to kind of nudge in the right direction.” Lambiase says her goal in every performance or recording is to tap into that same sense of enchantment and satisfaction she felt the first time she ever performed. She shares that joy with young artists she teaches in private lessons. For girls eager to chart a music career, too, Lambiase offers this advice. ”I would say I was absolutely afraid as well to start playing. I remember trying to go to my first bass lesson. I was trying to talk my mom out of taking me. I don’t think I actually want to do this. I don’t want to sit in a room alone with some person who’s trying to teach me something. What if I’m so bad? I would just try it. Everybody out there wants you to succeed,” she said. ...read more read less