Stellar interview with Amy Speace re her new album.

http://popdose.com/the-popdose-interview-amy-speace/

Speace presents a free show at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, July 21

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Amy Speace returns with a batch of killer tunes

by Star-Ledger Staff
Thursday June 25, 2009, 3:03 PM

Amy Speace gets personal on her new album, "The Killer in Me."

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Amy Speace's backing band is called the Tearjerks, but there is nothing maudlin or sentimental about her music.

On "Haven't Learned a Thing," from her new album, "The Killer in Me," Speace recalls various mistakes and dead ends. Finally, she shrugs, "The only thing I've learned is that I haven't learned a thing."

In "Something More Than Rain," she resists the temptation to wallow in despair and becomes philosophical: "Always gotta find your way/Always gonna look for home/Always gotta push that rock/Always gonna be alone."

Speace, who lives in Jersey City, established herself as a singer-songwriter to watch with her 2006 album, "Songs for Bright Street," and will likely increase her following substantially with this album.

It's a dark, deeply personal album, with many songs growing out of Speace's separation from her husband. Producer-guitarist James Mastro (of the Bongos and the Health and Happiness Show) and engineer Mitch Easter (whose credits include R.E.M. and Pavement) help give the album a rough-edged, roots-rock sound that perfectly complements Speace's unsettling lyrics.

The haunting "Would I Lie" has a locomotive beat and a memorable opening line: "This year my father's heroes have all passed/Ronald Reagan, June and Johnny Cash." Ian Hunter (of Mott the Hoople fame) is a suitably snarling duet partner on "I Met My Love."

Speace is at her most accessible on "Better," a catchy, upbeat song about yearning for something ... better. "Haven't Learned a Thing" is presented as a gentle, pensive ballad, with just Jane Scarpantoni's cello and Speace's acoustic guitar backing her voice, while "The Weight of the World" is just guitar and vocals.

"The Weight of the World" is listed as a bonus track, possibly because it's a tragic story about a soldier, and doesn't fit lyrically with the rest of the album. But with lines like "He punched me in the arm to say goodbye/It's the first time that I saw our father cry," it's as affecting as anything else here.

Speace presents a free show at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, July 21 at 7 p.m. Call (201) 547-5000 or visit CityOfJerseyCity.com.

-- Jay Lustig

Amy is a neighbor and a fantastic performer...
Alan I must respectfully disagree with you--check her out live sometime--we saw her perform both in Jersey City and at Joe's Pub--but then again musical tastes are all very different.

her songwriting is as bad as her voice

+1 too. Hilarious!

Love it +1!

Only a JC resident would write this ode to the JC Parking Violations Bureau (a performance at the Brennan Courthouse Concert Series):

Yet the Post article, and her own website, call her "New York based." Not that I blame her.

There's a Judy Collins tribute album she's a part of, with some very good company. Leonard Cohen, Rufus Wainwright, Dar Williams and the like.

Local resident, singer/songwriter Amy Speace has been selected as the featured artist on NPR's Song of the Day.

Check it out here.

Her new CD, which will be out soon was also reviewed in the Washington Post