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Amy LaVere

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Green Grass
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Green Grass
Album: Died of Love
Released: Mar 18, 2009
Label: Archer Records

General Info

  • Genre: Indie / Rock / Roots Music

    Location MEMPHIS, Tennessee, Un

    Profile Views: 415769

    Last Login: 11/9/2011

    Member Since 3/12/2006

    Website http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmFteWxhdmVyZS5jb20=

    Record Label Archer Records (www.archer-records.com)

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    “Oh, it’s dreamy, fun, dark, and suspenseful — like a cross between a Robert Altman and Woody Allen film. The atmosphere in the studio was playful and you can really hear it. I stayed honest and impulsive and listening now to what it became is thrilling. This record is stranger and more lush — much like how I was feeling when it was created.” That’s Amy LaVere — singer, songwriter, storyteller, and upright bass player — talking about the evolution of "Stranger Me", her upcoming album on the Memphis-based indie Archer Records label. The 11 tracks go deep into exploring uncomfortable emotions, defiant sassiness, and off-humor — all with Amy’s uniquely twisted perspective. These twists mirror the convoluted musical journey of the young woman who seems to defy easy categorization, hailed by critics as “a uniquely Memphis blend of grit and delicacy,” “a voice filled with just enough Southern charm to melt the heart,” and “a country-soul belle from Memphis with her own take on classic Americana.” Amy was born in a tiny town on the Texas-Louisiana border, and enjoyed a gypsy life as her father’s work with the automotive industry took her family to 13 cities by the time she entered high school. Amy ultimately landed north of Detroit, where she fronted the alt-rock band Last Minute while still in her teens. “It was too complicated to be punk rock, but I did scream and flail my arms a good bit,” she says. “I wrote brave songs about things like wanting to be abducted by aliens. I was full of playful angst then. I believe I still am, actually.” “I just knew that this was what I would do,” she explains about her chosen career. “My mother was a songwriter, and my parents were pretty social. When people were at the house, after they complimented some wild-game stew she served for dinner, she would pull out her guitar and light up the room, and I wanted to be like her. Or maybe I assumed that was what the women did: The man works and hunts, the woman cooks and sings. I didn’t question it.” Another move found her in Nashville, where she began to play upright bass. “One day I picked up a friend’s upright and I could just do it,” she says. “It was like I was meant to play the thing. What took much longer was getting up the endurance to play more than a few songs without a blister.” She met Gabe Kudela there and in three short weeks they eloped. Amy became half of the Gabe and Amy Show and really began to hone her craft on the instrument on the Honky-Tonk strip of Nashville’s lower Broadway. The marriage didn’t last, but the friendship remains. “Boy, I learned a lot from him, both musically and just about life all around. He is an amazing artist, painter, and dreamer.” She eventually moved to Memphis, where the city’s diverse musical community quickly embraced her unique style. Gathering together a collection of her own material and covers, she released her first solo album, "This World Is Not My Home", on the Archer Records label. It is a sweet and dreamy record, produced by noted Memphis multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Paul Taylor, where Amy explored a softer side of love and longing, while in her live performances she continued to push into a more dark and aggressive place. While playing gigs around town with her own band, called Amy and the Tramps at the time, Paul introduced her to his longtime friend and mentor, the legendary producer Jim Dickinson, whose career included playing piano for the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan and producing such stellar acts as Big Star, Aretha Franklin, and Ry Cooder. “She has the whole package,” Dickinson said about Amy. “You run across artists all the time that have part of it, but she has it all, and it keeps growing.” As a producer, “I take artists out to the edge of the cliff, and that’s all you can do, and of course you push them off. Hopefully they fly; a lot of them fall. But she’s got the wings to fly.” With support from a cadre of local musicians, Amy and Jim went into his Zebra Ranch Studio in Coldwater, Mississippi, and came out with "Anchors & Anvils" (also released on the Archer label). The songs delve into the complexities of relationships, from the aching realization of a love gone stale (“Washing Machine”) to an affair that ends tragically (“Killing Him”). She spent the next two years touring on the slow but steady success and interest of the record, and was nominated as “Emerging Artist of the Year” by the Americana Music Association. “There’s an underlying darkness that’s kind of ‘Twin Peaksy’ to Anchors & Anvils,” said Dickinson. “It’s definitely one of the best records I’ve ever made.” Critics praised her efforts, with the London Times saying that Amy “took the audience into a world where R&B tunes, country waltzes, rockabilly shuffles, and funky Americana music were welded together and given a slightly Gothic twist.” The Sun proclaimed, “Anchors & Anvils is 40 minutes of aching hearts and broken dreams.” Mojo magazine observed that Amy “rocked and waltzed and tangoed while she imparted strange takes on life that work for every day, everywhere.” And the Compulsive Reader noted, “‘Killing Him’ is one of those rare songs that seem perfect upon first listening and forever after.” She somehow manages to keep all these accolades in perspective, laughing as she recalls that band mate Paul Taylor dubbed the record, with all its emotional upheaval, “Anger and Advils.” Next came "Died of Love", recorded at the Music + Arts Studio in Midtown Memphis. The five-song EP weaves between driving folk-rock tunes and psychedelic-tinged dirges of loss and desperation. “These were songs that we had been performing for years — great material from artists like Tom Waits and Michelle Shocked that we had definitely made our own — and people kept asking what album they were on, so I thought it might be good to have them recorded,” Amy explains. During this time, Amy made her presence known across America and throughout Europe with relentless touring. Performances on Conan O’Brien, the British show Later ... with Jools Holland, and — most notably — opening for the American-born but Norwegian-adopted balladeer Seasick Steve to a packed house at London’s Royal Albert Hall introduced her to audiences around the world. This lead to major festival appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, including South by Southwest (Texas), Bonnaroo (Tennessee), the Strawberry Music Fest (California), and a headlining spot at the Down on the Farm Festival in Norway. A highlight for Amy took place inside the historic Preservation Hall in New Orleans, where she recorded with the band on a compilation album to benefit the Hall’s Music Outreach Program. “It was unreal to be invited on that project,” she says. “It’s a great record and has so many artists on it that I’ve admired, like Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, and Yim Yames — and then there’s my little name thrown in there! Just amazing. Singing in Preservation Hall was special enough.” In between all the musical gigs, Amy has continued to stumble into film roles, including the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line" and Craig Brewer’s "Hustle and Flow", as well as a slew of indie productions. Her first lead role is scheduled for this year. The dark comedy The "Romance of Loneliness" will be filmed in Memphis throughout the month of May. “Acting is very much like singing,” she says. “It’s losing yourself in a story. My favorite escape.” Following the wrap of the film, Amy will release "Stranger Me", the long-awaited new studio album, and will hit the road to tour. The death of Jim Dickinson last year meant that the new album had a different producer, and noted UK-based Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Portishead, Nine Inch Nails) added his special touch to the sessions. Amy and Craig met in London while on tour there in 2008. “We hit it off when we met and had kept in touch,” she says. “I knew we could work together and hoped to maybe make a future record with him, but Jim was going to produce this new record. He and I were already talking about songs and planning things. Man, his passing was really hard — it was hard for a lot of people. At a certain very important time in my life he damn near single-handedly made me believe my art might be valid. I miss Jim terribly. I kept a photograph of him in the studio throughout the whole recording process, and I could feel him guiding me to go as weird as I wanted to.” “Craig and I were like kids in the studio,” she continues. “We just played and experimented and stayed in there day and night. We had great collaborative chemistry. You can really hear the fun we had on this record, more than my previous releases.” Over the years, Amy LaVere has supported her art with odd jobs: training miniature ponies to pull carts at a petting zoo, painting houses, serving as a tour guide at famed Sun Studio, among others. “When I was at Sun, a lady there named Miss Lisa told me, ‘Always follow your first mind.’ I do that now. It took some time for me to figure out how to get free as a creator, but when I get a good idea I follow it through before I lose the essence of it. That’s what "Stranger Me" is all about.” “Stranger Me” features Amy on upright bass and vocals, Rick Steff on keys, David Cousar on guitars, and Paul Taylor on drums. Other contributors included Jonathan Kirkscey and Bobby Furgo (strings), Jim Spake (saxophone), John Stubblefield (bass), and Nahshon Benford (trumpet). Additional recordings were made in New Orleans at Preservation Hall with horn arrangements by noted Preservation Hall Band member and Bingo Show leader, Clint Maedgen. Recording engineer Daniel Lynn assisted Craig Silvey with the recording and mixing at Music + Arts. Additional mixing at The Garden Studio in London. "Stranger Me" was mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound in New York and is scheduled for release in June of 2011. Contact Info: RECORD LABEL: Archer Records, Ward Archer, 1902 Nelson Ave., Memphis, TN 38114; ward@archer-records.com MANAGEMENT: David Macias, Thirty Tigers, david@thirtytigers.com BOOKING: Mary Brabec, Billions Corporation, brabec@billions.com PROMOTIONAL NEEDS/INTERVIEW REQUESTS: Archer Records, info@archer-records.com; ward@archer-records.com BOOKING (OUTSIDE U.S.): Free Trade Agency Limited, Paul Boswell, London, England Tel: 020 7655 6900 info@freetradeagency.co.uk PRINT PUBLICITY (U.K): Andy Prevezer, Warner Music, Andy.Prevezer@warnermusic.com, +44 (0)207 368 3550 RADIO PUBLICITY (U.K.): Amanda Beel, All About Promotions, amanda@allaboutpromo.com, +44 (0)20 7328 4836

  • Members

    Touring Band: Amy LaVere - Upright Bass and Vocals.. David Cousar - Guitar.. Shawn Zorn - Drums Krista Wroten- Violin/keyboards

  • Influences

    So many , so little time..... Some of my top favorites would include Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Prince and Leonard Cohen.....

  • Sounds Like

    ..Click album cover pictures for ordering information.. ...... ......Amy LaVere...... ..Died of Love.. ..With her newest release, the singer/songwriter/upright bassist once again defies any effort at simple categorization. Her ..Died of Love.. EP finds Amy tracing around the darker edges of her lovelorn repertoire, but with a distinctive new sound honed on the road since the release of ..Anchors and Anvils... Throughout, she weaves back and forth between wild, driving folk rock and psychedelic-tinged dirges of desperation, heartache, and loss....... ...... ......Amy LaVere...... .. Anchors and Anvils...... I want to pretend it’s kind of this Classic Country/Gypsy/Jazz thing,” says Amy LaVere of her second Archer Records album, ..Anchors & Anvils... The disc, produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson, is bigger than even that: ..Anchors & Anvils.. delivers ten smart and sexy tales of spooky love, twangy ache, sultry torch and gutsy blues that is totally unpredictable and relentlessly daring, the sound of an uncommon artist unafraid to be exactly who she is. It may also be, quite simply, the sound of Amy LaVere’s big breakthrough... .. ...... ......Amy LaVere...... ..This World Is Not My Home.. ....This World Is Not My Home.., Amy LaVeres debut CD, was a year in the making and is a wonderfully crafted and dreamy country pop debut. Great songs and a band full of special guests including Jim Dickinson, guitarist Jimbo Mathus, producer/multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor, and more....... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .... .... .. ..

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New Amy LaVere album, “Stranger Me”, coming July 19th


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Click album cover pictures for ordering information

Amy LaVere
Died of Love

With her newest release, the singer/songwriter/upright bassist once again defies any effort at simple categorization. Her Died of Love EP finds Amy tracing around the darker edges of her lovelorn repertoire, but with a distinctive new sound honed on the road since the release of Anchors and Anvils. Throughout, she weaves back and forth between wild, driving folk rock and psychedelic-tinged dirges of desperation, heartache, and loss.

Amy LaVere
Anchors and Anvils

I want to pretend itÕs kind of this Classic Country/Gypsy/Jazz thing,Ó says Amy LaVere of her second Archer Records album, Anchors & Anvils. The disc, produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson, is bigger than even that: Anchors & Anvils delivers ten smart and sexy tales of spooky love, twangy ache, sultry torch and gutsy blues that is totally unpredictable and relentlessly daring, the sound of an uncommon artist unafraid to be exactly who she is. It may also be, quite simply, the sound of Amy LaVereÕs big breakthrough.

Amy LaVere
This World Is Not My Home

This World Is Not My Home, Amy LaVeres debut CD, was a year in the making and is a wonderfully crafted and dreamy country pop debut. Great songs and a band full of special guests including Jim Dickinson, guitarist Jimbo Mathus, producer/multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor, and more.

Record Label:

Archer Records (www.archer-records.com)

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