Amy Speace – the former Shakespearean-trained actor who is known for her literate, detailed songwriting and versatile, expressive vocals – has announced the September 6th release of Me And The Ghost Of Charlemagne, a collection of exquisite lyrical portraits in miniature that she says “is about life and death and the journey of all dreamers.”
Produced by longtime collaborator Neilson Hubbard and recorded during the final weeks of Speace’s pregnancy with her first son at age 50, ‘Me And The Ghost Of Charlemagne’ captures Speace at her most nakedly honest, with sparsely-decorated songs that double down on her larger-than-life voice and detail-rich songwriting. It’s an album about the colliding of dreams and reality, full of characters making sense of their lives when something is lost and then found. Really, it’s an album about the trials and triumphs of an artist’s journey – a journey that’s no longer focused upon the destination, but upon the actual trip itself.
Discovered and mentored by folk-pop icon Judy Collins, Speace left her career as a classically-trained Shakespearean actress and, instead, kicked off a string of acclaimed albums, including Songs For Bright Street, The Killer In Me, and How to Sleep In A Stormy Boat. Championed by The New York Times, NPR and more, she received further acclaim as a member of Applewood Road , a harmony-heavy trio whose self-titled album became a critical success in the UK, earning a five-star review from The Sunday Times .
Speace blends the best parts of American roots music — gospel, alt-country, folk, classic pop — into her own songs. Me And The Ghost Of Charlemagne follows in that diverse tradition, but it also shines its light on a new Amy Speace: a clear-eyed, re-energized songwriter who’s done with chasing things that don’t matter…but isn’t anywhere close to being done with her art.
Amy plays The Green Note on Wednesday September 4th and The Long Road Festival on Sunday September 8th
Artist’s website: http://www.amyspeace.com/
‘Me And The Ghost Of Charlemagne’ – official video:
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