Who Is Meels? The Story Behind Her Journey to Country Music

This week we interviewed a singer-songwriter who is a true artist in every sense of the word. Amelia Einhorn who goes by Meels is a force to be reckoned with in the industry right now. She just releases her latest project, Across The Raccoon Strait, and 2026 is shaping up to be a huge year for the singer. Keep reading to learn more about her story.

“I was born in Boston, but I grew up for most of my life in Mill Valley, California,” began Meels. “I’ve been playing piano since I was five. My grandmother was a concert pianist, so she put my mom in piano, and then my mom put me and my three sisters into piano when we were super young. I was kinda the only one that took to it.”

At a very young age, Meels was fully enamored with music, finding herself in every artist she listened to, and learning more about herself as she created her own music. “I grew up on a lot of 60s and 70s folk. My mom played a lot of Peter, Paul and Mary and John Denver growing up. I don’t really see John Denver and see him solely as a country artist, but Back Home Again is one of my all time favorite records, and I think John Denver is what really got me into country music and folk music early in my life.”

For Meels, music was a creative outlet. As she got older she added banjo and guitar to her resume, and she even wrote her first song at just fourteen years old. “I always say that I’m a songwriter first, performer second, even though I love both equally. When I wrote my first song, just the release that I felt and how therapeutic it was for me, I knew it was something I was going to do forever. It was a turning point for me,” she shared, adding, “I had just gone through a horrific friend break-up that rocked me, I was so sad, and so I was feeling sad, and I asked mom to take a personal day from school, and she’s the best, and let me. And I had another family friend that would bring over instruments all the time, and he brought over a ukulele and I had never played it in my life, and I looked it up, learned some chords, and wrote my first song on the ukulele that day.”

The Turning Point:

Meels always saw herself as an artist, taking her dream of playing music professionally across to the East coast to New York City, where she attended college. “I went to NYU the Clive Davis School of Recorded Music and then, I just knew from a young age that music was always something I wanted to pursue.”

While at college, Meels honed her skills as songwriter and music-maker, recalling the days from her youth where she discovered the therapy music provided. “I had started kinda recording covers with a family friend whose in the music industry, and I posted a cover of Vance Joy, “Riptide,” sepia-filter, pressing play on the computer for the track, and he saw the video and texted my dad that I could really sing, and told me I should try to write some songs,” she shared, reminiscing about the early days of her songwriting.

Eventually, upon graduating college, Meels was hungry to release music of her own. “I was like I’m an artist and I need to release a project, and I actually went to Nashville [and made my first EP.] It was basically the best songs that I wrote in college,” she shared, adding, “It did fairly well for me releasing independently, and I started positing pretty religiously on socials too.”

Despite loving the project, the indie-pop genre that she found herself in still didn’t’ feel right for her style and her voice. “I  felt like I was constantly searching for a genre that felt right for my voice and my songwriting, and there was this summer where my boyfriend, whose also my creative director, we worked really loses on the Meels project together – he started playing a lot of classic country music, and I just took a deep dive into Loretta Lynn and Marty Robins, and Willie Nelson. I took this deep dive, and all of sudden this music started pouring out of me. I had found a genre that felt so right for me and my voice and my songwriting style.”

Today:

Flash forward to today, Meels found her home at her label Lost Highway and even found her own style of music, something she calls, “critter country.” “Eventually was hooked up with my manager, Jake, and all of a sudden things started snowballing from there, and I started talking to these labels. This record has been done for a long time, and I have been teasing the songs for probably a year before it finally came out, but I think finding Lost Highway felt so perfect and the perfect partner for me,” she shared.

Since moving to Los Angeles to live with her grandma, signing her deal, and created her now released record,  Across The Raccoon Strait, Meels has been relentless about getting her music out there.” I was playing as much as I could, and I made Across The Raccoon Strait at that point. I was sending it before it was even mastered, I was like, “here’s my music, would love to play at your venue.” I was sending it to whoever would listen to it.”

With the project officially out in the world, Meels’ momentum is at an all-time high. The EP as a whole is a cohesive project that truly speaks what she is capable of an artist int he folk-Americana space. “”The Wizard” is the most personal song for me. It’s just a very special one. I also love “Marsha June” is right now, my favorite because I wrote it about my grandma, the one I moved in with in LA, and it’s all about her story, and sonically, the outro of that song is my most proud moment as a producer, as an arranger. It sounds exactly like it did in my head, and that was literally the coolest moment.”

Across The Raccoon Strait is one of those projects that fans are going to play again and again. Meels will also be playing he songs live all season long, as she embarks on a ton of touring. Stay tuned for what’s to come from the talented artist!

Connect:

To keep up with Meels, follow her on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

Meels’ music is available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released tunes on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.