Amy Speace Learns Not To Fear The Killer In Her (A CD Review)
nicholasg980
friends, and her home to write her new album, "The Killer In Me." She
left, it seems, not to escape the pain in her life, or to avoid
distraction, but to absorb her feelings and transform them. This
emotional osmosis drew her pain out and allowed her, as she says, "to
write the things the you're afraid to say out loud." Amy's songs break
through that fear not only in her mind but also in ours. She is not a
simple songwriter and "The Killer In Me" is not an easy listen. The
cryptic meanings of her lyrics are not immediately clear and demand
time to absorb their poetry. This album conjures the loneliness,
sadness, and helplessness that we all sometimes feel and tempers those
twisting emotions with those of hope and love.
For this album, Amy enlists guitarist and producer James Mastro who
brings a psychedelic-rock touch to the sound. His production skills
mixed with Amy's song-writing ability make this album special. Songs
like "This Love" and "Haven't Learned a Thing," are beautifully woven
pieces. The ghostly track, "Weight of the World" shows Amy's ability
to sew lyrical melody to instrumental sensibility giving this song an
almost programmatic feel; as if the instruments are acting out her
story each time they plays the song. Other songs like "Something More
Than Rain," "Piece By Piece," and the visionary "Blue Horizon" and
true poetic treasures and "Dirty Little Secret" shakes the soul with
controversy and depth.
This latest offering is a departure from Amy's previous album, "Songs
For Bright Street." Where this album occupies an acoustic-folk
sensibility, "The Killer In Me" rocks out and experiments with
ethereal and psychedelic timbres exhibited in the songs "Storm
Warning" and "Better". Overall, Amy's latest work offers a complex
intimacy that was largely absent in its direct and spontaneous
predecessor.
Amy Speace has certainly taken a turn on the rock and roll boulevard
but Amy doesn't forsake her roots. Songs like "Would I Lie" and "I Met
My Love" (featuring the voice of Ian Hunter, who also appears on the
title track), are infused with genuine country and folk sounds. With
"The Killer In Me" Amy shows us all the color of her heart, a heart
shrouded in blue.
Buy 'The Killer In Me' CD - http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/amyspeace4
Review by Nicholas Guida, MusicDish e-Journal
http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12485
Amy Speace's Official Website - http://www.amyspeace.com
Amy Speace Fan Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/SpeaceCorps
Amy Speace facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/amyspeacemusic
Joel Shimberg
> Like many musicians before her, Amy Speace left her family, her
> friends, and her home to write her new album, "The Killer In Me."
And this has to do with Old-Time Country Music in some way?
Lyle Lofgren
Well, before her, there were Grayson & Whitter:
"So I left old North Carolina, to Marion I did go,
Then on to Johnson City, gonna see this wide world o'er ... "
To get a better idea of what Amy Speace's songs are like, though, I
think they should have given us more information about that move. Did
she hole up in a Super 8, or did she move in with a grade-school
dropout living in a double-wide with a leaky roof and a dozen rusting
cars in the front yard? It makes a big difference in the sort of pain
you express in the songs you write, which is directly proportional to
the pain you inflict on the upper part of the lower half of your
audience's anatomy.
Lyle