Viral music darling EmiSunshine is (almost) grown up and playing Lexington. Here’s where.

After a few minutes of conversation with EmiSunshine, you tend to forget she is 17 years old.

The realization sneaks up on you slowly because the country, folk and pop-leaning song stylist, vocalist, guitarist and ukulele ace talks like a seasoned pro – which she is.

Then come a few casual hints: “I wrote those lyrics when I was seven” or “I recorded that when I was eight.”

That’s when it dawns on you that the artist born Emilie Sunshine Hamilton, despite a decade old career, still isn’t old enough to be a patron in most of the music clubs she plays.

But when a video performance of “Blue Yodel No. 6” goes viral when you’re only nine, leading to an appearance on “Today” and opening shows for the likes of Willie Nelson and Loretta Lynn, you grow up pretty quickly.

“For me, it wasn’t ever about pursuing a career at first,” said Hamilton, who returns to Lexington for the March 14 taping of the “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour.” “It was just about me doing something that I loved. It was about me doing something that brought me joy and pleasure in life. I think that’s the main focus of it. It was never really about the business side of it or how much money I could make from this or how much stuff I could do. It just kind of turned into this. We didn’t think it would turn into this. We’ve just been rolling with it. That’s how it’s gone.

“The pressure ... of course, it is a lot. Anybody could say that, but I think it’s worth it in the long run. I have a career that’s built up for me now and I’m very thankful for that. When you grow up in it, too, it’s a whole different thing because you just see it as a fun opportunity. You don’t really see it as a job.”

As such, it initially seems curious that the new EmiSunshine work, “Diamonds,” is being promoted as her first solo album. Part of that centers around the fact that the previous half-dozen albums Hamilton released over the past decade (that’s right – six of them starting when she was eight) were essentially family band projects co-piloted by her musician/recording engineer father.

But for the new record, Hamilton wanted more of her own voice, both in the lyrics she wrote and the music they grooved to.

“I grew up in a family band. That’s how I have worked for many, many years. I’m thankful my family brought me up in music, but I wanted to branch out into my own thing. When I usually think about my albums, I think about me and my band as a whole because we’re partners in crime. We do all of this stuff together. We arrange all the songs together, but this was mostly a lot of my arrangements and things that I came up with. I had a lot of help, of course. But it was centered around my vision this time. That’s what separates it in a lot of ways. I think this record shows me branching out and becoming my own person.”

Typifying the sense of independence at the heart of “Diamonds” is a song called “Dead Men Can’t Catcall.” It’s a draw as to which is more arresting, hearing an artist barely out of childhood singing about unwanted advances from predatory males or the fact the song charges along not to the lead of Hamilton’s now familiar ukulele sway, but a chugging strut of electric guitars.

“I got cat-called for the first time about two years ago and it was absolutely mortifying and awful,” she said. “I don’t think anybody should have to go through that. That’s where the beginning of the song started. It just manifested into that whole thing. And I think that’s a good thing, honestly, because I was able to write a song about my experiences and lot of other people’s.

“Although I didn’t have a specific way that I wanted to go musically when I first started thinking about this album, I knew I wanted it to be versatile. I wanted to show people what I could do differently. I wanted to show people just what I was working on over the last few years. It was just a mixture of songs I wrote where I felt like, ‘Hey, all these should be together because they show a story of where I was and where I’m going.’”

“Diamonds” is also the culmination of an especially fruitful artistic period for Hamilton that coincided with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. One project that came to light was a collaborative single alongside veteran Cincinnati funk artist Bootsy Collins. Titled “Stars,” the song was a benefit for the Recording Academy’s COVID-19 Relief Fund.

“Working with Bootsy was just so cool. He’s an incredible human being. When we first really started talking to each other, we were supposed to be at the opening day parade for the Reds, but it was all canceled because of Covid. But his wife Patti reached out to me and my mother and was like, ‘Hey, do you want to write lyrics for a song and we could do a whole collaboration together?’ I mean, that’s the opportunity of a lifetime, so I started working on the lyrics to the song and it all went so quick. It was a beautiful experience.”

Another pandemic era project was a trio called Strong Armed Robbers. Consisting of the singer, her engineer father Randall Hamilton and longtime songwriting collaborator Fish Fisher, the trio began informally during production for “Diamonds.”

“Fish is out of Toledo, Ohio.” Hamilton said. “He has been working with me since I was very, very young. I started writing with him when I was maybe 10 – something like that. We wrote murder ballads together at that age.”

She did what? When? It seems writing murder ballads — the kind that abounded during the earliest days of country music — was, well, child’s play for Hamilton.

“I listened to a lot of Louvin Brothers, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash. That kind of started it all, I guess. I wanted to write story songs. I wanted to come up with complex characters and give them a beautiful narrative that people can either relate to or be horrified of. It’s fun. I love being able to do that. Having that creative outlet is so good for me and I think it’s good for other kids, too, honestly.

“Well, maybe not murder ballads. That was just my thing.”

EmiSunshine and The Faux Paws

What: “The WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour”

When: 6:45 p.m. March 14

Where: Lyric Theatre And Cultural Arts Center, 300 E. Third St.

Tickets: $10

Online: woodsongs.com