Amy Black

Somerville, Mass., isn’t exactly Nashville when it comes to nurturing up-and-coming country artists. But one local singer/songwriter may just change that: Amy Black, a Somerville resident by way of childhood homes in Missouri and Alabama, is getting ready to launch a tour in support of her soulful, self-assured new album “This is Home,” her follow-up to 2011’s “One Time.”
Prior to kicking things off at Johnny D’s in Somerville on Feb. 7 and 8, Black sat down to answer a few questions about her burgeoning music career.
Wicked Local: You recently gave up your “day job” to pursue music full time. What inspired you to make the leap, and what are the joys and challenges you’ve discovered so far?
Amy Black: The last job I took was more flexible and allowed me to tour, but I was still working 32 hours a week and had a lot of responsibility. I was ready to give 100 percent of my focus to my music career and decided that I was a point where it make sense to do just that. That’s what it takes! I’m going to run at it hard this year and see where I’m at after 12 months.
I’m certainly becoming more convinced that it’s an uphill climb to try to make music for a living. Part of the challenge is accepting that. The good news is great things happen every day. You have to celebrate all the wins -- you book a new gig, you start a new partnership with another artist, you get an encouraging note from one of your fans, a magazine reviews your album, and the very best … You get to play a show for an awesome audience who loves your music. It doesn’t get any better than that!
WL: There’s some tough and very moving material on “This is Home” -- “Make Me an Angel” is about a suffering mother, “Hello” is about a father with Alzheimer’s, and “We Had a Life” is one of several songs about broken homes. How much of your writing is autobiographical, and how much is just casting an empathetic eye on the world around you?
AB: A good deal of the difficult subject matter on this album came from real-life experiences that I’m connected to, and some characters and stories were imagined. Either way, you have to let yourself go to some dark places.
In the case of “Hello,” my grandfather died of Alzheimer’s when I was 16, but I wasn’t really in touch what that meant for my mom when it happened. I was inspired to write the song this past year after watching a movie that dealt with the topic. The film was comedy of sorts, but the Alzheimer’s piece hit me hard. I was actually holding back tears when I wrote the song. - Wicked Local

By her own admission, Amy Black was a late bloomer as a musician. In her mid-30s, she released her first album, 2009’s “Amy Black and the Red Clay Rascals,” a collection of mostly cover renditions of folk and country standards. Her own songwriting voice emerged two years later on “One Time,” which made her an artist to watch (and hear) in the local roots music community.

“This Is Home,” though, is another beast altogether. Released earlier this week, the album finds Black, who lives in Somerville, fully in charge — of her voice, her songs, her backing musicians.

Black grew up in Missouri and Alabama before coming to Boston in her teens, but she was slow to mine her Southern heritage until last year’s “The Muscle Shoals Session,” an EP that took her to FAME studio in Alabama to work with legendary players such as Spooner Oldham.

“This Is Home” picks up where that album left off, and the new direction coaxes a sultry confidence from Black that was never apparent on previous records. The opening stomp and sway of “Nobody Knows You” puts an R&B spin on her brand of Americana, and the bluesy swagger of “Old Hurt” takes a less-is-more approach: She slays you by being sly. Recorded in Nashville with just the right amount of polish from producer Lex Price, “This Is Home” suggests that Black might have gotten a late start, but few artists find their footing as fast as she did. (Out now) - Boston Globe

Southern-bred, Boston-based Americana siren Amy Black sure can tell a story — her dad was a preacher and the girl was paying attention. Black brings her full band and powerful voice to Johnny D’s tomorrow night, spotlighting her excellent album “One Time.” A vibrant performer, Black oozes equal parts of Patty Griffin’s smarts, Bonnie Raitt’s spunk, Iris Dement’s vulnerability and a natural ability to write memorable character-driven songs. She’s a star on the rise. Check her out tomorrow at Johnny D’s, 17 Holland St., Somerville, at 7 p.m. Tickets: $12; 617-776-2004, www.johnnyds.com. — BILL BROTHERTON - Boston Herald

New England singer-songwriter Amy Black is hitting the road this month. Her smooth vocals and country twang have made fans everywhere take notice of this beauty. With influences like Johnny Cash and Bonnie Raitt, she created her own original sound based off her favorite musicians. A preacher’s daughter, her life has been full of stories. Her music reflects her life journey through folk, blues, country, and powerful vocals. See her perform at The Saint in Asbury Park on Sept. 21.



- The Aquarian (New Jersey)

Singer-songwriter Amy Black says that when she started performing, she had no idea that what she was doing was Americana music.

“I didn’t even always know the term ‘Americana,’ ” Black says, calling from a car making its way from her suburban Boston home base to a show in Vermont on a tour that today, Sept. 22, will bring her to Listen Live! Music in Macungie.

These days, she's a new artist finding her way in a musical genre that has a new momentum, even if its roots are ancient.

Amy Black

“I think when I first got started with it, it was more kind of roots music to me," Black says. "And then when I discovered Americana and the definition of that and a lot of the artists that were considered Americana, it just fit really well with what I was doing, so I adopted it for myself.”

With the lines of musical genres blurring, even listeners aren’t unanimous in describing Black’s music. When she released her current disc, her sophomore release “One Time,” Black says reviewers frequently described as country music.

“And a lot of Americana is country and has a country vibe to it, but I had never really called it country. That’s what a lot of reviewers were calling me – a country singer. Which I found interesting, but I guess it’s true,” she says with a laugh.

What matters less than what people are calling her music is simply that they’re listening, Black says.

Five years into her career, Black has opened for Chris Isaak,The Courtyard Hounds, Rodney Crowell and Joe Ely and played headline shows at The Basement in Nashville and Eddie’s Attic in Georgia at the Americana Music Association’s annual event. The Listen Live! Music show will be her first Pennsylvania show.

Don’t presume that Black came to her love of country/roots/Americana music because of her southern and Midwestern roots. She was born in Missouri and spent her childhood in the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama and didn’t move to Massachusetts until she was 16.

“But I really came to it much later in life,” Black says. “I was a huge Bonnie Raitt fan, ever since I first heard her when I was a teenager. And something just clicked for me the first time I heard her.

“I had been listening to pop music, and I heard ‘A Thing Called Love’ when she did it for the Grammys, and I was like, ‘What is this music?’ It just totally spoke to me. So I think that was kind of roots music – I would consider Bonnie Raitt roots and blues, so I got into that.

Black says that while in college, she listened “to a ton of Mary-Chapin Carpenter, and Patty Loveless and what was contemporary country … so I’m that had an influence on me as well.”

Another influence, she ways, was the 2000 movie “Oh Brother [Where Art Thou]” and its bluegrass-tinged soundtrack.

“My dad was really into it and got us all to watch it, and then I started listening to the soundtrack and listened to Alison Krauss. And so that was mixed in there, as well,” she says.

But Black says her family was the inspiration for her story-telling style of songwriting. She says she has story-telling in her blood.

“My dad is a preacher and I grew up hearing my dad preach every Sunday and Sunday night and Wednesday. And he’s a great storyteller,” she says. And her grandfather, who died this year, “was the best story-teller ever.”

“He grew up in Waterloo, Alabama, super poor and going through the depression, and just had the best stories,” she says. “And so I think that I do have it in my blood to tell stories. I just never really knew it, and I didn’t think it was something I would do for music.

But “it wasn’t a decision. That’s what’s really interesting to me about all of this. It’s not like I decided that that’s what I was going to do. That’s what naturally has happened when I’ve sat down to write songs.”


Amy Black's "Whiskey and Wine"

She says perhaps her best-received song, “Whiskey and Wine,” was like that. She says it flowed from a phrase in her head “pretty quickly into this story about a couple and kind of a disconnect and what that song is about.”

“I’ve had a lot people say, ‘Oh my gosh, that describes my relationship with my significant other. Wow, is that about me,” she says. “But it didn’t start with me trying to tell somebody’s story. It just kind of found it’s way.”

If Black came to Americana music late, she came to professional performing even later.

Five years ago, making good money at a Massachusetts software company, Black says she had an epiphany at her kitchen table.

“It just kind of happened in my brain one night,” she says. “I just had this moment one night where I said, ‘You know what? Amy, you’ve never done anything with your voice, really. .. You’re not getting any younger. Maybe it’s time for you to get out there and do something to make something happen.

“I have no idea where it came from, what spurred it on, I don’t know. And it just started there.”

She released her first album in 2009.

Black says her career has been a - The Morning Call

A minister's daughter with storytelling and Southern tradition in her blood, Amy Black’s songs have begun to cement her as part of the next generation of Americana artists.
According to the Americana and alt-country magazine No Depression, “Amy Black has a smooth, seductive sound that commands attention… [She] sings in a folk-styled country voice that suggests bits of Patty Loveless, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Judy Collins, edged by the blues of Bonnie Raitt and a hint of Jennifer Nettle’s sass.”
In an era of perfectly polished and plastic “country” stars, Black’s 2011 album "One Time" offers up a sultry, down-home authenticity that puts her in good company with some of her famous forebears – and not just because she completely nails a cover of Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man).”
The album starts off with advice for an Alabama man who just murdered his girlfriend in the gritty, blues-driven “Run Johnny,” and just gets better from there. There’s plenty of whiskey, struggling country gals and lying and cheating men on the disc, but Black’s lyrics are wry enough to rise above the usual tropes (“The bed you left feels way too small, in my bare feet I’m much too tall,” she sings on the wistful torch ballad “You Lied.”)
The album closes with Claude Ely’s “Ain’t No Grave,” recorded most recently by Johnny Cash and released posthumously. Black’s version may not be as gravelly as Cash’s, but her smooth twang and clear conviction makes it just as compelling.
Black is currently performing shows around the Northeast. For more on Amy, visit AmyBlack.com.

- Community Newspapers

Amy Black doesn’t like to dwell on what might be the most compelling part of her story. Five years ago, she was sitting at her kitchen table when an epiphany took hold.

“I don’t remember why, but I started thinking, ‘Amy, you’re not getting any younger. You’ve never done anything with your voice, but you should try,’?” she says. “At the time, I didn’t even know what that meant.”

It meant that at age 35, Black would finally pursue a career in music — first as an interpreter of others’ songs and then as a writer of her own. She has had a slow but steady rise in Boston’s roots music scene that eventually has gotten her noticed as far away as Nashville.

Black, who plays at Johnny D’s on Saturday for what she says will be her last local show for the rest of the year, could just as easily have fallen through the cracks. She could have focused exclusively on the full-time job she still has working in marketing at a software company. She’s the classic example of a late bloomer.

AMY BLACK BAND
Johnny D’s, 617-776-2004. www.ticketweb.com
Date of concert:
Saturday, 7 p.m.
Ticket price:
Tickets: $12

“Big time,” she says recently in the kitchen of the Somerville home she shares with her husband and their black lab mix, Sophie, who lovingly bounds toward a visitor when the doorbell rings. “I’m aware of the fact that I’m not 20 years old.”

She’s also aware that she couldn’t have written and sung the deeply felt songs that appear on her latest album, “One Time.” From steely murder ballads to tender love songs that evoke bedrock country tropes (“Whiskey and Wine,” a handy description for why two lovers can’t make it work), the record is Americana in its broadest definition. It’s rooted in folk and country but with tinges of Southern soul and blues.

After a childhood split between Missouri and Alabama, Black moved to Boston when she was 16. Her father is a minister and brought the family to town to work at a church. Black doesn’t play up her Southern roots, largely because she didn’t truly discover them until she moved east.

“A lot of people assume that because I’m from Missouri and Alabama, that’s why I have this connection to a more rootsy, country sound,” she says, “but I wasn’t exposed to that kind of music down there. I was exposed to it here. I feel like I’ve found my musical home in this music. I can say that it’s as close to a spiritual connection as I’ve ever had.”

“I listened to a lot of pop, but my parents wouldn’t let me listen to the radio when I was younger,” she adds. “And then it became I got 30 minutes a day that I could listen. I remember hearing ‘Centerfold’ [by Boston’s J. Geils Band] and thinking, ‘Oh, this is dirty.’?”

Later she gravitated toward ’90s country singers, particularly ones who stood out because of their songwriting, folks like Mary Chapin Carpenter. Her biggest influence by far was Bonnie Raitt, which is easy to believe when you hear her 2009 self-titled debut, credited as Amy Black and the Red Clay Rascals. Except for two originals, it featured all covers, such as “Angel From Montgomery,” “Hound Dog,” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”

Once Black decided she was serious about music, she wasted no time. On Craigslist, she teamed up with another fledgling musician and started to hone her singing skills at the local open-mike night in Groton, where she lived at the time. Fifty people came to her first official show she booked at the same venue. At the Bull Run in Shirley, 110 people showed up. And then she cracked the Boston market with gigs at Sally O’Brien’s in Somerville and Toad in Cambridge.

To hear Black tell it, things fell into place naturally after that. She started taking guitar lessons — she never played anything before that — in tandem with writing her own songs, which marked a pivotal shift. Suddenly she wasn’t just a singer, but rather an artist in her own right.

“I don’t remember feeling incredible pressure to do that, but I certainly recognized that people who had a career in music do their own music,” she says.

Her day job has served her well, too. “I have a reputation for being a good business person, a good marketer,” she says. As if to prove the point, she sends a follow-up e-mail after our interview to drive home something that might have been missed.

“I believe that I started at just the right time for me. But it does mean that I have to work that much harder to make a career in music,” she writes. “And that’s what I’m doing — working hard. And having a good time doing it.”

As for her age, she clarifies that she’s not hung up on the number.

“I’m proud of being 40, but I think people judge and think you’re kind of old,” she says. “My gospel is that you live one time. That was the name of my last album. You’ve gotta make the most of it, and that’s what I’m doing right now with music. I get this one shot, and I want to make it count.” - Boston Globe

It takes guts, especially as a female artist, to release an album that opens with a murder ballad and closes with the title track from Johnny Cash’s last album. Amy Black’s One Time is an album full of such gutsy decisions. Black fuses old and new country with bluegrass and pop setting to create an album reminiscent of country women from the 1990's. She blends the writing chops of Matraca Berg with a singing voice that falls somewhere between Suzy Bogguss and folk singer Susan Werner. Amy Black is something uncommon in the contemporary era. She combines strong, female centered songs with a solid sense of contemporary country that never gives way to pop sensibilities. One Time is an album for all of those who have been missing simple, newfangled mainstream country of the kind that hasn’t been played for a decade…

…The 1990s were an easy time to be female, in society and in country music. Now days, it has gotten harder and nowhere is this more noticeable than in country music. The majority of the few female artists who get airplay are thinly disguised pop, and the one truly country female, Miranda Lambert, made it to the top by killing nearly every man she came across. What is missing is the half of the adult narrative that used to make up country music. For every “You Still Move Me” there was a “This is the Way We Make a Broken Heart” and a “Cry My Self To Sleep.” There was a completeness to the stories being told that is lacking in this day and age. One Time harkens back to that era in country music, and is a nearly perfect album for anyone who is missing that half of the story. - RoughStock.com

For a New Englander, Amy Black sounds quite down home. Her Southern roots (she was reared in Missouri and Alabama until the age of sixteen) clearly packed their bags and traveled along in the relocation North and East, and have been renewed through visits to her family’s home town. Black sings in a folk-styled country voice that suggests bits of Patty Loveless, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Judy Collins, edged by the blues of Bonnie Raitt and a hint of Jennifer Nettle’s sass. It’s a voice that sat largely idle during a ten-year career outside the music industry, and one that wasn’t stirred back into action until a few years ago. - Hyperbolium (Blog)

Editor’s Pick – “Whiskey and wine/that’s you and me, baby,” Black sings rather sweetly on the third track from her spirited new album. “One Time” toggles between barn-burning country [including a cover of Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough (to Take My Man)"] and rootsy folk. The local singer-songwriter will celebrate the album with an afternoon CD release party. – James Reed, Boston Globe - The Boston Globe

This Northeastern grad and Lowell resident had established a career in marketing when she decided it was “now or never” for her music. After last year’s debut album of mostly covers under the name Amy Black and Red Clay Rascals, the singer/songwriter explodes with this compelling album. Produced by Lorne Entress (Lori McKenna, Catie Curtis and Olabelle), the nine originals and three covers draw upon Black’s Alabama roots with a mixture of bluegrass, country, gospel, blues and rock. Her splendid voice and writing are complemented with traditional American roots instruments, highlighted by Nashville aces Stuart Duncan (fiddle) and Roger Williams (dobro) with local support from Tim Gearan, Lyle Brewer and Mark Erelli. Black shows country cred on Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” but it is the beautifully imagined sound and soul of her originals that make her a newcomer of note. - The Boston Herald

Supposing Etta Baker hadn’t predated Elvis Presley. Do you think what passed for Americana back then would have been rocked up and sound something like Amy Black today? She serves up Americana for the left side of the ledger and is completely unafraid to let her southern roots show. Maybe if Lucinda Williams hadn’t moved to LA and sold her publishing to Madonna?...This singer/songwriter stuff is real and in the moment while doing a good bit of time and place shifting. A killer set that commands and demands your attention but is prepared to reward it as well. Hot stuff." - Midwest Record Recap

AMY BLACK & THE RED CLAY RASCALS Don’t be fooled by the fact that their set list is mostly covers. Black and her band put their own rootsy Americana stamp on everything from country (Emmylou Harris’s “Red Dirt Girl’’) to soul (Bill Withers’s “Ain’t No Sunshine’’) to rock ’n’ roll (Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog’’) - all highlights from their new self-titled debut. - Boston Globe

Regional favorite Amy Black and The Red Clay Rascals celebrate the release of a debut CD.

Amy Black and The Red Clay Rascals have been playing folk and acoustic venues throughout the area for many years, and have recently taken a taste of their contemporary take on traditional Americana music to the recording studio.

They are celebrating the musical milestone of a debut, self-titled CD this Saturday, at the Old Court Irish Pub in Lowell, with a raffle to benefit the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.

Amy Black and The Red Clay Rascals, a five-person Americana band, formed two years ago and have played extensively throughout the region, playing music celebrating the roots of contemporary American music – country, bluegrass, gospel and more.

On the new CD, the band pays homage to greats including Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, John Prine and Waylon Jennings.

The music reflects the time-honored themes of so-called roots music – love, loss, hope and redemption, and a bit of boot stomping.

Two original songs written by Black add to the collection.

“This CD has been a long time in coming. Fans have been asking and we finally got into the studio and made it happen,” Black said. She added, “It was a labor of love for me, something I‘ve wanted to do for a long, long time. And now that people are hearing it and loving it, I’m thrilled. It’s an important next step for our band and we look forward to seeing where things will go from here.”

Band members are Black on vocals, Bob Sevigny of Billerica on guitar, Michelle Lambert of Somerville on fiddle, Andy Sicard of Tyngsboro on upright base, and Eric Pohl of Chelmsford on drums.

Additional players include Fred Brement of Boxborough and Corrie Jones, of Somerville.



CD release party for Amy Black and The Red Clay Rascals

Where Old Court Irish Pub, 29 Central St., Lowell

When Saturday, Jan. 23, 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets $10. CDs will be available for sale.

For more information visit www.amyblacklive.com.
- New England Community Newspapers

For Amy Black, music is a passion that can come at any point in life. She’s been singing since a child, but didn’t formally pursue performance until about a year ago.

“I have been singing all my life, and it has just always been a passion of mine. Most of the singing has been in church, and at weddings, I was in bands in college,” said Black, 36, a Groton resident who is married, works in marketing, and enjoys volleyball and spending time with her dog.

If it doesn’t sound like the life of a rock-and-roll rambler, that’s because Black said she, like many full-time professionals who pursue the arts in their spare time.

After posting a classified ad seeking other musicians, she said, “In the beginning, I was a little lost. I liked a lot of types of music.”

Through her ad she connected with some players, and enlisted the talents of her younger sister, Corrie, also a singer. Eventually they formed The Red Clay Rascals, with emphasis both on Black’s solo style and work as part of an ensemble.

A performance at the Five Star Open Mic at the Stagecoach Inn and Tavern in Groton led to a booking there last January.

A short while later, she played at J.P. O’Hanlon’s in Ayer, and another three week’s later. On Friday, they will be playing at the prestigious folk venue, the Bull Run Restaurant in Shirley.

The key to success? “I am definitely am a self promoter,” Black said. “I am really friendly. I enjoy talking with people… Every person you meet, who wants to hear you again, and loves your music, can bring people. One woman brought 11 people to a show.”

Her musical style reflects her heritage and the revitalization of so-called American roots music, with hints of blue grass, old country and gospel, hearkening to her upbringing – her father was a church minister.

Although it has brought her fulfillment, she wants to keep all the elements of her life in harmony.

Of her appreciative audience, she said,

“They realize I am not just doing this for Amy,” Black said. “I love this type of music. It has a lot of meaning to me.” - Community Newspapers Massachusetts

Amy Black was born in Alabama, but she's a Groton girl now. Her musical tastes, and that of her band, the Red Clay Rascals, favor the blues, old country and bluegrass of the south. - Boston Globe

This is one act you won’t want to miss. From blues… to gospel… to county… to rock… Amy Black and the RCRs deliver a foot-stompin’, hand-clappin’ performance that will send you home singing. –Aaron K.
- Aaron K, Concord, MA

Our first Amy Black experience was a GOOD one! We caught her show at the “Bull Run”, March 28, 2009. It was a highly energized concert, start to finish, with a nice balance of music that was enthusiastically received by the audience. Music ranged from blues to country western to bluegrass, with something for everyone to dig. The crowd included “20-somethings” to “80-somethings”! Fiddlin’ Rich Hamilton, and the cool harmonica guy, Fred, added polish and a nice extra dimension. Amy Black was not only a great performer with a fun stage presence and great rapport with the audience, but found solo spots to highlight every musician in the group of seven. She graciously shared the spotlight! We will be watching for more of this talented, fun New England vocalist and her band. - Dave and Ellen H, Jaffrey, NH

I had no idea what to expect from Amy Black & the Red Clay Rascals when I saw them live a week or so ago. But within the first half-hour of their show, I felt like I’d found something I didn’t know I was missing. They aren’t just good musically (although they are!), they are also fun and entertaining, and Amy has a refreshing and real presence on stage. I can’t wait to hear them again. - Ann H, Andover, MA