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SONGS FOR THE BRIGHT STREET • Amy Speace
Amy Speace is larger than life. In a good way. When she steps into the room, you know it. She's loud and she's beautiful, she'll drink the guys under the table, and hang till the party is done. And this party is just getting started.
She's from the NYC scene, but flirts with Nashville. She spins an urban folk country from the skeins of her gypsy lifestyle that's very radio friendly. Judy Collins heard that, or her people did-this "label" debut of Amy Speace promises to be one of the key releases of Ms. Collins' company Wildflower Records.
Speace is funny, too, the kind of woman who makes the jokes, not just who gets the jokes. Her band is called The Tearjerks. She's great with a crowd, and she's a killer one on one. Like her songs says, she is the real thing. In that song, she demands to be taken as she is. She goes on to say: I'll take you right here/right now/on the ground/with a little James Brown…
The record starts out with a banjo lick walking you into "Step Into the Shade," but it's only two tunes later that's she's rapping over the full drum set on "Not the Heartless Kind." But when she shows you her hurt side in "Make Me Lonely Again," that's where the hook goes in, for this writer. To put a value on attitude, it's got to have a threshold where it falls apart. There's also a fabulous country cover of the Debbie Harry/Chris Stein classic "Dreaming," it's a knockout.
We believe that AAA is going to pick this record up and put Amy Speace on the road to being as big as she should be. People like Gary Louris of The Jayhawks, folk star Cliff Eberhart and E-Streeter Soozie Tyrell are on to her, and each appears on the record. There's something about her, she's just the kind of woman you really want to see do well. She's a groove, she's genuine, she's the salt of the earth. We dig her big time. Highly recommended. • Frank Goodman
return to covers listen to clips buy it here
amyspeace.com wildflowerecords.com
