We first met Amy Speace in her hometown of Nashville at AmericanaFest 2017. Following our Proper Music party, we saw Amy perform in the round at the High Tea @ Alley Taps event and were later introduced to her by fellow Proper artist and Nashville resident Ben Glover. Later that week we saw her performing again, this time at the Bluebird Cafe as part of the SongwritingWith:Soldiers + Women event, and it’s safe to say that on both occasions we were blown away by Amy’s voice and songwriting.
Find out about Amy’s new album, Me And The Ghost Of Charlemagne
Fast forward 12 months and we were back in Nashville for AmericanaFest 2018, where we met Amy once again, this time to discuss a new album she’d been working on and the possibility of releasing it on Proper Records.
It’s safe to say it was a successful meeting and we’re now thrilled to officially welcome Amy to the Proper Records family. Ahead of announcing the pre-order for the new album, which will be released in September, we’ve created a Spotify playlist to give those of you not already familiar with Amy’s music a chance to give it a listen. You can also find the video for ‘The Sea and The Shore’ from the album ‘How to Sleep in a Stormy Boat’.
Follow Amy on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to stay updated and we’ll bring you more news about the new album soon.
Biography
Amy Speace is a folk singer, timeless and classic, and a bit out of her own era. “She has one of the richest and loveliest voices in the genre and her songs are luxuriously smart,” writes Craig Havighurst (host of Nashville’s “Music City Roots”). “She’s profoundly personal yet also a bit mythic.”
Since her discovery in 2006 by folk-pop icon Judy Collins, Speace has been heralded as one of the leading voices of the new generation of American folk singers. Her song “The Weight of the World” was named as the #4 Best Folk Song of the last decade by NYC’s premiere AAA radio station, WFUV and was recorded by Judy Collins. From her beginnings in New York City as a classically-trained actress with The National Shakespeare Company to the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village where she began playing her original songs to her move to East Nashville in 2009 to her last solo release, “That Kind Of Girl”, what ties all of her work together is a palpable empathy for the small struggles of the human condition. Rock critic Dave Marsh, long a fan, wrote “Amy Speace’s songs hang together like a short story collection, united by a common vantage point and common predicaments…it’s a gift to hear a heart so modest even when it’s wide open.”
She has released 5 critically acclaimed records, 2 on Collins’ own imprint Wildflower Records, 2 on Thirty Tigers and her latest is a trio collaboration called Applewood Road which was released in 2016 on London’s Gearbox Records. 2016 saw Speace playing Glastonbury Music Festival and Cambridge Folk Festival with Applewood Road after 5 star reviews from The London Sunday Times writing “a flawless set that has to be the most haunting release of the past year.” Amy has been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Marketplace” and has appeared 4 times on “Mountain Stage”, as well as many folk festivals around the world. Her songs have been recorded by Judy Collins, Red Molly, Memphis Blues Hall of Famer Sid Selvidge and others. A gifted prose writer, Amy has published essays in The New York Times, American Songwriter Magazine, The Blue Rock Literary Journal, Pop Matters and others.
Upcoming Tour Dates
No European shows booked at the moment.
