Amy Speace and Bloodkin Reviewed
Amy Speace – Days of Letting Go
People spend most of their lives trying to get away from themselves. Most of them manage to do it, but it’s a temporary solution. Sooner or later, they’re forced to run back and made to regret ever leaving. The only trouble is that, usually, when they do try to retrace their steps, they find out that the footprints have been erased by a thousand storms. They’re trapped!
Artists have the same problems. They always do. But for them, the process of extinguishing the deepest parts of themselves is nearly impossible. It’s the kind of problem that pays dividends in time. Artists are rarely allowed to forget who they are. They can spend as much time on their subjects as they want. Amy Speace has recently found that out.
“Days of Letting Go” is a great poem about modern American outlaws having to face tragedy and doing their best not to flinch. But one would reckon, even without knowing Amy Speace personally, that this is, just as much, a song about the writer herself. The impressionistic approach to the lyrics, and the hushed reciting of the words over a country-rock instrumental, work excellently. And who knows? Listen closely, and it might just be a song about you as well. You never know what pushes you back toward who you were to start with.
Bloodkin – Drinkin’ Blue
I love country and blues music. But it’s not like I’m in a hurry to tell anyone. In fact, I keep it hidden from my musician friends the way that you’d hide a bizarre porn fetish. And when I do reveal it, maybe play a blues lick or two, I make it seem that it’s all just a joke, a goof. They don’t suspect a thing. Yet, still, I worry someone I know will walk out on me tapping my foot to an old country song.
But why? Aren’t blues and country music the start, essentially, for all of pop music? Sure! The only trouble is that everyone thinks that they can play it. Which is not false. Everyone can play this kind of music, but most drain it of emotion while they’re busy figuring out what to solo over the chords. Bloodkin takes a different approach.
On “Drinkin’ Blue,” retro-tinged country and blues are merely the vehicle for a confession that the singer sounds like he doesn’t even know if he should be making. This is proper blues, the kind that includes clutter, bad habits and broken dreams. This is a song that makes people cry even if the singer wouldn’t want them to. It’s the real stuff, and you can hear every one of those things in the tone of that voice.
