Click play to check out new Amy Speace radio tracks from The American Dream, released October 18, 2024 on Windbone Records.
Formats: AAA, Americana, Noncomm, Folk, Women
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Track By Track Commentary
- “The American Dream”
Looking back on when I wrote it and what has been happening in the country, politically, I wonder if this came out of a ‘trying to get something we lost back”. Um, like real conversation? Honestly, I just was giving myself permission to write a country/pop song based on my memories from 1976. I rode that Huffy bike with streamers off the handlebars. There was talk of Carter and Ford. Juliette really had a pool and Cheryl’s dad really played for the Vikings. I remember that feeling of freedom and I wrote this based on memory. It was initially called “1976” and a friend of mine told me I had two songs in here – one a really apolitical patriotic song and the other a dark song about my Dad. So I chose the patriotic song. Not how it’s being currently defined but by how a 7 year old would feel it. - “Homecoming Queen”
Straight from my high school. A girl who I admired, who was beautiful (still is), had everything and was semi-famous in our little town. She came back home. Which is fine. I’m not judging her. She’s a lovely woman who seems to have found her calling (from the Facebook I can see). And everytime I see her she looks like 1985 because she hasn’t aged. Again: it’s kind of the dream that you reach for that you don’t get, and maybe that was the point. I respect the shit out of that girl for reaching. - “Where Did You Go”
this is a song that Neilson and I wrote in my East Nashville house, while Huck was at school. We wrote it in about an hour. It just spilled out. All the things I was feeling about my marriage. Neilson’s the perfect songwriting partner for those moments, as he captures them in groove and music. - “In NYC”
I’ll be honest: this is my favorite song I’ve ever written (so far). I’m not sure why. It fell out late, late one night I was noodling on my piano. I wrote it pretty quickly. It’s all absolutely autobiographical. I moved to NYC when I was 23 to go to acting school. I picked up the guitar and started playing songs. I lived in the East Village on a street full of drug dealers. They noticed I was coming home late from my dayjob and they all decided to protect me, so they’d walk me to my apartment. (side story). I went to NYC a few years ago while I was playing a show, and just walked around the neighborhoods I lived in. I was feeling very far away from that girl, just starting out, trying to find her artistic footing. It was such a different NYC when I moved there in 1991. I miss it. Sometimes. - “Glad I’m Gone”
I wrote this in another quick writing session with Gary Nicholson. We started writing together a few years back after we met as writers on a “Songwriting (with) Soldiers” retreat. I had just divorced and was talking about it, which is usually how a Gary Nicholson co-write starts, with him making a transcript of what I’m saying. Anyway, I said, “I wish I was still back there.” Gary responded, “What if you were glad you’re gone.” Bingo. - “This February Day”
I walk as much as I can along the Cumberland River on the Shelby Park Trail. It’s a beautiful and peaceful winding path with birdsong, deer, wild turkeys, the smell of honeysuckle. It’s where I pray and talk to God. And there’s been a lot to talk about in the past few years. - “Something Bout A Town”
I was playing “Mountain Stage” in Charlestown (ton??) West Virginia a few years back and had woken up early to take a run along the river path. I was thinking while running that I’ve always lived on a river. The Potomac, The Susquehanna, The Hudson, The Cumberland. I wrote the music and the groove and the hook line while running. - “Already Gone”
One of my favorite co-writers is Robby Hecht. We wrote “The Sea and the Shore” together. This is fiction, honestly. It’s a breakup (which I was going through, which Robby had recently gone through) so we were able to add in our own truths, but the story itself is made up. We knew we wanted to write a song in a kind “timeless” style. - “First United Methodist Day Care Christmas Show”
This is actually how it went down at Huck’s pre-school. I have video, but I can’t share it. Best show I ever saw. - “I Break Things”
I was living in a temporary cottage after we’d separated and I only had a few of my belongings, but I brought my guitar and my keyboard. There was a blizzard (in Nashville terms) for a week and I was snowed in and started writing this. I definitely cried it out while writing this song. I asked Jon to give me comments. I didn’t have a chorus at all and the title was something different. He took a hidden line out of the verse, “I break things” and made it the hook and the title. He took a decent song and really changed it. - “Margot’s Wall”
I went to Amsterdam on a tour a few years ago and had a day off and went to the Anne Frank House. The thing that really struck me were her sister, Margot’s pictures of famous women taped to the wall (they’re still there). I had that in my notebook for years. I was thinking about the notion that there’s always something left behind when something breaks apart and how that related to where I was in life. - “Love Is Gonna Come Again”
When I first heard Jaimee Harris sing this song, I knew I wanted to record it. It’s the song I’d like to have written to myself. Jaimee and Graham wrote it so beautifully. I’m really honored that they let me record this.