Mill Valley singer-songwriter Amelia Einhorn, who performs as Meels, will make her Grand Ole Opry debut on Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Nashville, according to the Opry’s artist profile. She got her start doing open mics at Sweetwater Music Hall, where she once experienced panic attacks before two-song sets, she told Marin Magazine.

Her signing with Nashville-based Lost Highway Records was announced Jan. 9, ahead of the Jan. 30 release of her seven-track EP, “Across the Raccoon Strait.” The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce announced the Opry debut this week.

Born in Boston and raised in Mill Valley, Einhorn comes from a musical family. Her grandmother was a concert pianist who once played with the South African Symphony. An uncle on her father's side is a bluegrass musician, and she started piano at age 5, according to the chamber’s account and her Marin Magazine interview.

Her songwriting began at 14, after a painful friend breakup. She stayed home from school, picked up a ukulele a family friend had left at the house, learned three chords from YouTube and wrote her first song that same day. She told Marin Magazine: "I literally just never stopped."

Those early songs led to Tuesday-night open mics at Sweetwater, then to NYU's Clive Davis Institute, where she studied recorded music.

After college, she noticed animal metaphors kept surfacing in her lyrics. Growing up surrounded by pet rats, gerbils, horses, chickens and three dogs in the Mill Valley hills had influenced her songwriting, she told Marin Magazine. She named the sound "Critter Country," a blend of 1960s and 1970s folk, bluegrass and classic country.

Her breakthrough came after she moved to Los Angeles, cold-messaging venue bookers on Instagram with her unmastered album. She landed a booking agent at William Morris, connected with a manager and drew label interest. She told Marin Magazine that she had been working a desk job and living with her grandmother rent-free before taking the leap.

The EP title is a nod to the waterway near Angel Island. Einhorn told Marin Magazine she recorded the project live to tape at Tiny Telephone studio in Oakland, using a console from the Sausalito studio where Fleetwood Mac tracked “Rumours.”

The Opry invitation came from Jeff Hanna, a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Einhorn had toured as an opener on the band's farewell tour and grew close with Hanna, who played on her upcoming album. She told Marin Magazine that Hanna extended the invitation in the studio, right after they finished recording the album's final song.

She said she started crying.

"The Opry debut is October 28th, which is probably going to be one of the biggest milestones of my career," Einhorn told Marin Magazine.

Her tour page lists additional dates after the Opry show, including an Oct. 29 appearance at Skinny Dennis in Nashville and December dates in Texas with Kaitlin Butts. In the Marin Magazine interview, she said she planned to release a single called “Northern Star” in November and a full-length album in early March 2027. Einhorn also said she hopes to book a spring headline tour that includes a San Francisco stop and possibly a return to Sweetwater.

Coming up: Meels plays the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Tickets are available through her official website.