The Erabellas are a small, folk band at Belmont University. The band is comprised of three freshman girls: Megan Youngblood, Morgan Ellis, and Ally Lubera. I was able to sit down with the band to talk about their music and future as a group.
(from left to right: Ally Lubera, Morgan Ellis, and Megan Youngblood)
Where are you all from?
Megan and Morgan: Nashville.
Ally: Chicago.
What are your majors?
Morgan: Nursing.
Ally: Commercial voice with an emphasis in songwriting.
Megan: Music therapy.
What are your roles in the band?
All: We all sing.
Megan: I play mandolin.
Morgan: I play guitar.
Ally: I play guitar and banjo.
Morgan and Megan had originally started the band, and Ally recently joined in.
When did Ally officially join the band?
Ally: It was a Friday night earlier last month.
Megan: We jammed in a gazebo and went to SATCO. We were like, “Be in the band with us!”
Megan, how long have you and Morgan known each other?
Megan: We’ve known each other for four years, and we’ve been singing together for a little over three years.
How did you come up with the name “Erabellas?”
Megan: It took a long time, but we decided that “era” means time and then “bellas” is beautiful, so it’s “a beautiful time.”
Fun fact: this wasn’t the original name! A previous bandmate named Lilliana had a pig named Esmerelda. At the time, the girls were going to call the band “Amarellas,” but it sounded too similar to Esmerelda. That’s when The Erabellas was formed!
When did the band start?
Megan: It first started in May 2014. Our first show was in August of 2014, and at that point we were under the name “No Signal.”
How would you describe the band’s style? Do you have any influences?
Megan: We have a folk/Americana style with some bluegrass influences in there.
Ally: Right now it’s a little bit of bluesy Americana.
Megan: You could say some Chris Stapleton vibes, but it’s acoustic.
All: Definitely some Nickel Creek.
Megan: We get a lot from The Eagles too.
Morgan: We have some classic country roots like Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
Tell me about your song “Live Like That.” What was the story behind it?
Megan: We started working with some really cool people from Nashville’s music industry, and we were given all these songs. As we went through the songs, none of them really fit us. At the time, we were 17 and none of the songs really fit the messages we were wanting to sing about. Our producer pulled out this song and emailed it to us. We listened to it, and I think from that first listen we were like “This is what we want to sing about.” We went into the studio and recorded it. It’s been our single ever since.
Check out the song here: https://open.spotify.com/track/7acV94FLuWydULUhMUoNtn
What is the song about?
Ally: This was actually one of the things that made me want to be a part of this group. It’s literally “I want to live like that.” It’s describing how we want to fill our lives with love and joy. Not only did I think it was a really cool song, but it gave me a lot of excitement about being in this band. The lyrics say who these girls are. They’re just really warm-hearted and happy girls. To me, that’s what it’s about.
Megan: We felt that when we chose this song, it was a good first step. At first, it was a lot of people trying to tell us who to be and what we were going to sing about. There’s an expectation that you’re going to sing about boys and relationships, and you’re going to sing a sappy country song. We didn’t want that to be our story.
Any new music coming soon?
Morgan: There’s been some talk.
Megan: Yeah, we’re working on pulling some songs together and writing with our new songwriter.
Morgan: We’re hoping to hit the studio in the next few months!
When are your next events or shows?
Megan: You can catch us at Dickens of a Christmas in downtown Franklin. It’s a super cool event; the dates and times will be on the Franklin Heritage website. We’ll also be posting a lot about it. We do several Christmas shows around town as well.
Note: All of the girls’ social media links will be listed at the end of this article if you want to check them out!
What do you love most about the band?
Morgan: I just like the community. I like having two other girls who are just like my family. It’s a really nice feeling.
Megan: It’s really cool to get your own creative control. I feel like that’s what inspired us to make a band. This group really stemmed from a long-time desire to perform but to also get to be our own artist.
Ally: The initial thing that really drew me in was my heart for Americana music, and coming from the Midwest, there’s not much of an outlet for that. I love the innovation that comes with this group. We can invent our own identity and our own sound. Especially being in Nashville. I feel like it’s a really good place for that.
What do you think your greatest accomplishment is thus far?
Morgan: I think the coolest one for us was singing the national anthem at an Orioles game.
Megan: It was about a year ago. It ended up being nationally televised which we didn’t know was happening until right before we sang.
What is the biggest goal for the band in the future?
Ally: We all know that we want to tour. Short-term, we want to have material out in the next couple of months.
Megan: If the opportunity ever presented itself for this to be a career, I think that’s definitely something we’d want. This is where our hearts are. We have a big passion for this.
Check out The Erabellas on social media!
Instagram: @erabellasmusic
Twitter: @erabellasmusic
Facebook: facebook.com/erabellasmusic
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