Putting herself in her music

BUHL, Idaho — In music, EllieMae Millenkamp-Ryan has learned to combine all the things she is passionate about, from agriculture to her Christian faith. That passion eventually led her to a spot on the 2019 season of “The Voice.”

EllieMae found music as a little girl, singing in church.

“I’ve always loved music and I’ve always loved the dairy industry,” EllieMae said. “I grew up in farming, and I wanted to go to vet school ever since I was 6, but my dad talked me out of that.”

EllieMae grew up on the family farm near Jerome, Idaho, where they now milk 30,000 Jerseys. When she is not on the road playing music, EllieMae can be found helping on the dairy in a variety of roles.

The high school she attended did not have a traditional school band, so EllieMae relied on church as her musical outlet. By the time she was a senior, she helped lead the worship team and taught herself to play guitar.

Though she graduated from Iowa State University in 2020 with a degree in agricultural business, it was in Ames, Iowa, where her music career was founded working as a worship leader at a small church. Here she also met Tyler Richton, a fellow ISU agricultural business major and musician fronting Tyler Richton and the High Bank Boys. He encouraged EllieMae to venture into country music.

“Tyler saw a video of me singing at church and told me I had the voice for country music,” EllieMae said. “He invited me to open for his band, so I learned three country songs and played a show. It just kind of took off from there.”

EllieMae began playing at local bars and other gigs. She invited the musicians she played with at church to come be her band.

“We’d play in church together on Sunday morning and in the bars the night before,” she said.

It was through those gigs that a door opened for EllieMae.

“A fun fact about the TV show, ‘The Voice,’ is they scout out a ton of talent — you don’t just randomly audition,” EllieMae said. “I would say 80% of the people from my season were scouted out. They saw a video of me singing that I posted on Instagram, and they emailed me. I thought it was spam at first and then my roommate and I decided it was actually legit.”

That email, and the ensuing audition, became a springboard for EllieMae.

“I made it onto Blake’s (Shelton) team,” EllieMae said. “I didn’t make it super far, just a few rounds, but since then my music has kind of taken off.”

Since graduating from college, EllieMae has averaged 70-100 shows per year, largely regional, in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and California. She also travels to Texas to play and has returned several times to play in Iowa. EllieMae plays many summer festivals, in front of crowds ranging from 2,000-6,000 people, but she has also had the opportunity to step on stage for larger crowds, alongside nationally known artists.

“I’ve played with Lainey Wilson three times, and with Craig Morgan, Nelly the rapper and Russel Dickerson, so I’ve opened up for a ton of these guys at big fairs,” EllieMae said. “My biggest fair so far was 10,000 people in South Dakota, with Nelly.”

EllieMae said she still finds her greatest joy in playing more intimate venues.

“I still play a lot of smaller gigs, which I love,” EllieMae said. “(This includes) a lot of wineries, bars and private gigs. Earlier this year I played an event raising money for mental health and at Mar-a-Lago, which was cool. I’ve also done some political stuff; I’ve played for Tucker Carlson in (Washington) D.C. So it is really random, all over the board.”

EllieMae handles all her own bookings through her website and email.

“I feel like the music industry is kind of changing a lot, people are going independent instead of being signed to labels,” EllieMae said. “They’re doing their own thing. With social media you can do so much more, you don’t really need the label backing you as much.”

Handling her own booking gives EllieMae the freedom to create her own schedule.

“I got married in June and took the whole month off,” EllieMae said. “If I was with a label, I wouldn’t have really gotten a say picking my dates. I’ve missed a lot of family stuff, playing gigs. I’ve decided that some of that is just not worth missing. I want to have the freedom to say no or to reschedule.”

Working with an independent recording studio, EllieMae has recorded and released some of her music.

“I write all my own music, which is something unique about me,” EllieMae said. “A lot of the music you hear on the radio, it’s written by several people. I’ve never done a co-write; everything is 100% me, the lyrics and the music. It’s pretty much true stories about my life.”

With that injection of herself, EllieMae has developed a writing routine.

“It’s different for everybody, but for me, it always starts with the lyrics,” EllieMae said. “I’ll be driving down the road, and I’ll think of something and just start it in a voice memo on my phone. Then I’ll go home and mess around with it and see if anything comes from it. A lot of times nothing does, but one in 10, you think to yourself, ‘This is kind of good,’ and it turns into something.”

A recent favorite song came from a friend’s reflection at EllieMae’s bachelorette party.

“My sister had everyone go around and say what they loved about me,” EllieMae said. “One of my friends said she thought I had a lot of grit. I thought about that word for a while — it’s such a cool word, and nobody’s ever said that about me. Suddenly, while I was driving, the idea for a song came to mind, and I recorded the idea on my phone: ‘Have a little grit, a little dirt on those boots, a little scuff on the skin.’ I went home and wrote a song called ‘Grit.’”

That song mirrors EllieMae’s approach to life.

“There’s going to be rejection, no matter what you do in life,” EllieMae said. “I’ve learned this a lot from my dad — there’s bumps in the road, but people who are successful just keep going. Success looks different to everybody, so as long as you’re hitting your definition of success, that’s all that matters.”