Pretty enough, but not enough meat here Amy Speace has such a lovely voice. It's a shame that her songs aren't more interesting. Land Like A Bird's opener "Drive All Night" is repetitive and dull, and so are any number of tunes on the album: "Ghost", "Change For Me" and "Had to Lose" all mistake repetition for intensity. Speace can use her quavering voice to evoke any number of emotions, including wistfulness on "Land Like a Bird" and "Real Love Song", and...

Bonnie Whitmore - Embers to Ashes We first got this record at WDVX almost a year ago when Bonnie Whitmore came to town as a member of Hayes Carll's touring band. Embers to Ashes got an official release this January and takes listeners on a journey from the beginning (the embers) the the end (the ashes) of a relationship. Whitmore walks a strictly country road for most of the album, but isn't afraid to expand things from time to time as she [...]
Amy Speace - Roots/folk singer/songwriter waved farewell to New York and New Jersey and said hello to East Nashville during the writing of her new album...what she describes as "the ending of one chapter and the beginning of another" // Release : Land Like A Bird (March 29) // Quote : "Her velvety, achy voice recalls an early Lucinda Williams. Sounding grounded but wounded, Speace exudes the vulnerability of someone who's loved and lost."-- NPR // Sounds like : elegiac postcards of friends and places left [...]
[STREAM] Amy Speace - Ghost

Amy Speace - Land Like a Bird Release Date: Mar 29, 2011 Label: Thirty Tigers
Amy Speace returns with a personal album of warmth and beauty.

Before their first show on the "Decembersongs" tour, I caught up with Dan Navarro and Sally Barris to talk about this holiday singer/songwriter collaboration, and how the idea differs from what they are used to. Dan Navarro The show that night at Bluebird Café was a most warm and cozy way to bring in the spirit of the season. In dimlit tranquility of the room, the cast of songwriters (Dan Navarro, Sally Barris, Jon Vezner, and Amy Speace) went one-by-one around the circle singing on each other's songs. Many of the songs were original compositions that were heartfelt, [...]

Here we are...smack dab in the holiday season. I saw a light flurry of snow yesterday morning, traffic has started to thicken up en route to the mall, and I noticed that many Facebook friends decorated their homes this weekend. The only thing left to make it official is a viewing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation . This weekend, I started looking around for holiday shows to get me into the spirit, and found that a couple that looked promising. Trans-Siberian Orchestra will be at the Bridgestone Arena on Sunday , December 12th; and for more [...]

Power-pop icon Alex Chilton died suddenly of a heart attack on Wednesday at age 59, but his influential '70s band Big Star shone brightly nonetheless Saturday night at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin. A headlining concert originally scheduled as a reunion show instead became a star-studded tribute to the late songwriter/producer whose work with the Box Tops and Big Star inspired many indie artists, including R.E.M and the Replacements. Anchored by longtime Big Star drummer Jody Stephens [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News The extent of Big Star frontman Alex Chilton 's influence was clear Saturday night at SXSW , where a scheduled Big Star performance at Antone's turned into a moving tribute to Chilton, who died Mar. 17 of an apparent heart attack at age 59. An impressive array of musicians inspired by Big Star joined drummer Jody Stephens , guitarist Jon Auer and bassist Ken Stringfellow to honor the music and [...]

A wonderful cascade of covers from a friend has turned my thoughts to covers of punk music this week. As Katie noted in her send-along, much of which appear below, "the thread that runs from folk to punk seems such a vibrant and easily spotted one to pull at", and that sounds just about right; I'd even go so far as to suggest that, like folk in the generation before it, Punk both served and sprung from the hearts of a discontented youth counterculture, and - as I noted about Rap rather tongue-in-cheek last year - [...]

Something for the weekend sir? Just an assortment of bits and pieces I've stumbled this week, thanks all for the links.... Ray Davies Talks Choral Collection, Kinks Reunion [...]

The smiling creature seen above is my dog Deacon. He's a strange little Golden Retriever, Chow, Pekingese mix (we think). He's also my only company this week while my wife is out of town on a business trip. Hopefully, the two of us will manage to stay alive until she gets back. In the meantime... Notes. ***I'll start with a sad note I picked up over at Music Fog . It seems as though Levon Helm is [...]
Though there were other artists booked for last night's Mountain Stage concert, I went for one man: Black Joe Lewis. Well, one man and his seven bandmates. Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears are an eight-piece "garage-soul" ensemble from Austin, Texas. As I said when I reviewed their album Tell 'Em What Your Name Is , their music is "the kind of guttural, robust, bluesy soul of James Brown and Screaming Jay Hawkins, rough edged with a very modern sense of humor and garage instrumentation." Tell 'Em What Your Name [...]
Just a quick and dirty round up this week due to being away, but here are a few tracks to tempt your ears.Elvis Perkins in Dearland have released the title track from their forthcoming EP.Veteran US shoegazers Asobi Seksu have released the title track from their new EPWe've found this by Amy Speace from her new album The Killer In Me. For lovers of Alela Diane, Neko Case, Jenny Lewis etc. A
![Amy Speace loves The Killer In Me [new mp3]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/1937230_lg.jpg)
I admittedly haven't made it through Amy Speace's album, The Killer In Me , just yet. This is one of those occasions, however, when I pass over a song that I can't wait to share and it's not worth waiting to write up a proper review. If you're a country music and/or Neko Case fan, dig in. She has a beautiful voice and this is a classic tear in your beer tune that belongs in every rural American jukebox. Amy Speace - The Killer In Me

"You go, wall of ice guy!" Right? Well guess what... Here at EAR FARM, on Fridays, you don't need no stinkin' inexorably advancing wall of ice to threaten the music industry with in order to get your free/legal music on; no, here as always, is a selection of songs and compilations that have come our way in the past week - all free, all legal. Some are EAR FARM favorites, some might be more your bag than ours, all are free for you to enjoy... just click the band name for the band's site and the song [...]
i have not heard amy speace's recently released, the killer in me , but i kinda feel like i should. if not only for the reason that this song reminds me quite a bit like car wheels era lucinda williams, which is really enough to warrant a complete listen. the killer in me was released last week on wildflower records . the killer in me Tags: amy speace , the killer in me

Playing catch up again with Drake , here's the first of an Independence Day Weekend double shot. -ed Drake's Take: New Releases 06.23.09 This week perfectly illustrates what makes this such a great year for music. Looking at it on the calendar some time ago, there was some excitement, but who knew there'd be so many year-end list candidates from this crop. The latest from The Future of the Left , Sunset Rubdown , Dinosaur Jr. , Foreign Born and Regina Spektor [...]