The True and Incomplete History of Me by Me

I was born in Baltimore at the tail end of the hippie-dippie-love-fest decade to two very solid, faith-based people who had nothing to do with love-ins and be-ins and were probably in church the weekend Woodstock swept the country.  My Dad grew up on a really small farm in a really small house with an outhouse, three brothers, a sister, a few dogs and cows and things that a farm would have, and one very solid, very Baptist widowed mother.  I think my Dad looks like a movie star in his old black & whites: a football star, Eagle Scout, Bible memorizer.  My mother was born in Baltimore and was very much a city girl. A catholic, plaid skirt-wearing, Catholic Girls’ school goin’ city girl. Her dad was a sailor who died in the ocean when she was a girl and her mom was a Boston transplant who never lost her accent, even up until she was 103, lying in her bed in my parents’ home in rural Maryland, whispering to the stars of her long lost love.  I was born in Baltimore. My sister and my brothers were born there, too, so I guess we’re from there, but we moved around enough that I felt a bit restless. Minneapolis, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. My feet never rooted anywhere.  Part of me thinks of myself as being “from” New York City cause I’ve lived in and around Manhattan longer than I’ve lived anywhere else in my life and I started writing and playing music here. Home is perhaps where you choose to land.

There was an old, black upright piano in our basement and I remember sitting at it, my feet dangling off the bench, spreading my fingers out over the white keys. I was maybe three or four when they tell me I one-fingered out a nursery rhyme by ear. I took piano lessons my whole life and cheated every step of the way, never practicing, just sight reading my way through the lesson. I was a really good sight-reader and I think I fooled most of my teachers until the last one, who kicked me out for not having any discipline. But by that time, I was playing clarinet and saxophone in the band, and I was singing in the choir and taking voice lessons and getting distracted by boys and lead roles in the high school musicals.  I went to Amherst College and studied English and Theater, thought about being a playwright or an academic, but spent a summer acting in Vermont in a small theater company and was hooked. After college, I moved to Manhattan and studied acting for 2 years at The National Shakespeare Conservatory. I taught myself to play guitar and started writing songs during a particularly hard summer, heartbroken and in between apartments.  I started my first band, Edith O., with a college friend. We played for a few years, recorded an album and broke up. My life at this point consisted of acting in Off Off Broadway shows, directing plays for my own 5 Points Theater Company, temping at law firms, and playing shows at night at The Bitter End. I lived in the East Village, my friends were actors and musicians and poets and painters. We were all overeducated, unemployed, poor and passionate and it was a thrilling time and place to be a 25 year old.   Solo, I got a gig at The Living Room, which was just becoming the underground hotspot for acoustic music in NYC. I made “Fable” on a whim, just a string of songs I’d written in the year I first started playing out by myself. I recorded it in John Abbey’s loft studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with Jagoda and John and I experimenting, ordering pizza, talking about Shel Silverstein and watching the Yankees in between takes.

On September 11, 2001, I was walking my dogs along the Hudson River in Hoboken and watched the sky fall.  I spent at least a month in a state of shock, then decided to take an offer from a friend and go on my first tour. It was easy to get focused then. It felt like life or death and I wanted to play music more than ever. I put out “Fable” and started booking any show I could get out of town, cafes and colleges and clubs. I just decided to put my whole heart into this thing called being a Singer/songwriter, whatever that meant.  I just wanted to meet others who were doing this, driving around the country in their cars and fighting the espresso machines at night with their acoustic guitars. I made “Songs For Bright Street” with my favorite players, my band, in Hoboken in a recording studio housed in the backend of one of the country’s oldest Homing Pigeon Clubs. It’s a funky place with great vintage gear.  I’m really proud of “Songs For Bright Street”. In the two-year course of making it, we found a sound that sits nicely in the sidewalks of my Jersey City. A little town busting at the seams but still a bit stuck as the underdog.

I write songs that sound like what I hear in my head, which is a kind of melding of what I heard when I was a kid, my Dad’s Johnny Cash records, my Mom’s Neil Diamond records, Emmylou, Dolly, twisted up with Ella and Nancy Wilson and  Dinah Washington and Matthew Sweet and The Replacements and Tom Petty, etc. I feel a bit like that old Donny & Marie song, in between genres, but I like playing solo and I love playing with my band. I love writing songs but it’s a struggle everyday for me to do it, and I try to stay honest and I hear other writers working and I’m humbled and remind myself to enjoy the journey. Enjoy the music and pass it along!

Visit Amy's Website - www.amyspeace.com

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* Amy won Best Country Song for IMA's first Vox Populi Awards

* "Two" featuring Gary Louris wins award at International Acoustic Music Awards (IAMA) in their open category

* Amy nominated for International Folk Alliance's "Emerging Artist Of The Year"

* Amy accepted as Fellow at prestigious Virginia Center for the Creative Arts along with fellow songwriters Steve Seskin, Jon Vezner & Paul Reisler

* PBS distributor FastFocusTV to feature Amy on their new series "Frequency," hosted by Dave Koz. The video will also be available on Google Video, Comcast, Bellsouth.net, Fastfocus.tv, and on over 800 stations in over 80 countries and other Internet portals.

* In 2006/7 Amy was asked to open for Little Feat, Heartland, Phil Vassar, John Corbett Roger McGuinn, John Gorka, Peter Mulvey, Tracy Grammer, Sloan Wainright, and Steve Forbert.

* Amy sings title track "Born To The Breed" on tribute album to Judy Collins' songwriting featuring performances by Chryssie Hyndes, Dolly Parton, Melissa Etheridge and others

* Paste Magazine's August/September '05 Issue included "Not The Heartless Kind" on the CD Sampler

* "Songs For Bright Street" is Top 25 Indie release at Indie-Music.com, 2006

* New Album spent 3 months in Top 10 of Folk Radio Charts and 10 weeks in Top 10 of Roots Americana Charts, summer 2006

* International Songwriting Competition Semi-Finalist for "Double Wide Trailer," 2006

* "Step Out Of The Shade" awarded "Listeners' Favorite Song," by WIVK-FM Knoxville

* "Step Out of the Shade" also placed at No. 5 in the Top 200 Americana Songs of 2006 (WIVK)

* The State of Wyoming used Amy's song "Why Not Wyoming" in their 2005/06 tourism ad campaign for TV and radio

* South Florida Folk Festival - Finalist 2007

* Kerrville New Folk - Finalist 2006

* Founders Title Folk & Bluegrass Songwriter Showcase - Winner 2005

* Telluride Troubadour Competition - Honorable Mention 2005

* Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival Songwriter Showcase - Finalist 2005

* Vermont SolarFest Songwriter's Showcase - Top 10 Finalist 2005

"If Lucinda Williams is the queen of Americana, Kathleen Edwards' position as its princess is being challenged by this New York resident. Take both of their rough attitudes and combine them with the elegance of Roseanne Cash and you get Amy Speace. It tells you something that she gets to sing a duet with Jayhawks' Gary Louris in 'Two'. We'll be hearing a lot about Amy Speace."
Trots Allt (Sweden)

"Amy Speace has one of those fetching voices, the kind that taps you on the shoulder and motions seductively for you to follow it around corner after dark corner. You don't know where you're going to end up or how you'll ever find your way back, but that doesn't matter right now: you're enjoying the trip."
Scott Brodeur, No Depression

"The talented Ms. Speace is lately taking her Americana away from twangy contemplation toward tangy confrontation. Paste magazine has discovered her, and you should too... she's well worth checking out."
Barry Mazor, The Village Voice

"[Speace's] arresting voice combines the best parts of Lucinda Williams with Roseanne Cash ... [and] brings an unflagging sense of 21st century hipness to all her songs. Produced by James Mastro, Songs For Bright Street delivers big-budget sound worthy of any A-list performer."
Steven Stone, Vintage Guitar Magazine

"Rarely do I receive a CD that is complete in its brilliance...songwriting, music, production. Amy Speace's most recent release is one of those rare CDs. Like a relieving wind on a hot day, Amy reminds me that there is always someone out there who has The Goods"
Michael Jaworek, The Birchmere Theatre, Alexandria VA

"There is something about her ... She's a groove, she's genuine, she's the salt of the earth. We dig her big time. Highly recommended."
Frank Goodman, Puremusic

"This woman's not another of those breathy would-be child poets taking up space on too many labels now, but a real singing writer of songs."
The Village Voice

"She's got a terrific voice. Songs like "Double Wide Trailer" and "The Real Thing" jump out at you, and she balances the energy and twang nicely ... simply call her a talented country-rocker. Grade: A-
Ron Warnick, Daily Gazette & Sauk Valley Newspapers, Tulsa, OK

"In my opinion, there is something for everyone on this CD. Rarely, have I listened to such an incredibly powerful, yet sincere set of folk/country/blues/pop songs all on one disc. Perhaps, the Traveling Wilburys' Volume One might compare."
Bill Vordenbaum, Ear Candy, Austin, TX

"Amy Speace's "Songs For Bright Street" is excellent ... I enjoyed so much her talented vocals and songwriting skills. Lots of variety, emotion, and well....the whole deal is the real deal and I'll be airing [the album] on my shows."
Eddie Russell, WCNET, El Campo, TX

"Speace has her own sound - it isn't enough to compare her to [Melissa] Etheridge or Sarah McLachlan (who she can match in range and pitch, listen to "Two" and you'll see). Her honeyed voice is polished and rich with emotional nuance, much like some of the Jazz greats."
Diana Schwaeble, The Current, Hoboken, NJ

"Amy Speace's tunes ... groove along with power-pop elan."
Time Out NY

"An exceptionally addictive album! If there were more artists recording who were like Amy Speace the world would be a an even better place"
Eddie O'Strange, Blue Smoke Radio, New Zealand

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