Twished twang and other unusual Memphis thangs. ****
The result of a studio liaison between bass play-singer Lavere and Arcade fire producer Craig Silvey, much of Stranger Me wouldn’t sound out of place on a Twin Peak soundtrack. There’s lots of doomy guitar set amid atmospheric surrunds while to the fore is Lavere’s voice, quirky but applealing, sorta Norah Jones with an added Cyndi Lauper element. So, what’s to be made of a record that additionally commences with a drone then seques into Damn Love Song, featuring a powerhouse riff lifted right off The Beatles’ Rain? Or one that contains New Orleans jazz alongside a version of Captain Beefheart’s Candle Mambo, given a tender, romantic treatment” Stranger Me is accurately titled. It’s both intriguing and entertaining throughout. And you don’t get many like that to the pound. ****
–Fred Dellar Mojo Magazine September, 2011
Amy LaVere’s high, slender voice grows all riled up on “Stranger Me”
New York Times
August 7, 2011
By JON PARELES
Amy LaVere’s high, slender voice grows all riled up on “Stranger Me” (Archer), her third album. “Here’s your damn love song,” she sneers over a fuzzed-out bass riff; “I’m stomping out of here/I hope the dishes rattle down off their shelf,” she declares over galloping garage-rock one song later. Ms. LaVere, who lives in Memphis, has stepped outside the homespun, country-flavored Americana of her first two albums into more surreal territory: a zone of open spaces and resonant guitars, of sparse backdrops and inscrutable background sounds. Her new songs, and those she borrows — like Kristi Witt’s enigmatic drowned-boyfriend tale, “Red Banks,” and Captain Beefheart’s “Candle Mambo” — expand into those spaces, especially when they reflect on the self-deceptions of romance or the aftermath of a breakup. Spookiness suits her.
New album, tour equals success for Amy LaVere
“For the past few years it’s felt like LaVere has been on the cusp of major stardom. Her latest effort, Stranger Me, will be released in the U.S. next week, and she’ll mark the occasion with a free concert at the Levitt Shell on Saturday”
Read Bob Mehr’s review from The Commercial Appeal July 12, 2011
8 out of 10 in Spin for Amy LaVere’s Stranger Me
“Part winsome alt-country gal and part avenging angel, Amy LaVere has made the breakup album of the year.”
MOJO, Q Magazine, Daily Mirror and the Sun give Stranger Me four stars
Q Magazine, Daily Mirror and The Sun give Amy LaVere’s Stranger Me four stars.
(From MOJO September 2011)
Twished twang and other
unusual Memphis thangs.
The result of a studio liaison between bass play-singer Lavere and Arcade fire producer Craig Silvey,
much of Stranger Me wouldn’t sound out of place on a Twin Peak soundtrack. There’s lots of doomy guitar set amid atmospheric surrunds while to the fore is Lavere’s voice, quirky but applealing, sorta Norah Jones with an added Cyndi Lauper element. So, what’s to be made of a record that additionally
commences with a drone then seques into Damn Love Song, featuring a powerhouse riff lifted right off The Beatles’ Rain? Or one that contains New Orleans jazz alongside a version of Captain Beefheart’s Candle Mambo, given a tender, romantic treatment” Stranger Me is accurately titled. It’s both intriguing and entertaining throughout. And you don’t get many like that to the pound. **** –Fred Dellar
Production begins on new Amy LaVere album
Principal recording for a new Amy LaVere studio record has just been completed at Archer Records’ Music + Arts Studio in Memphis. U.K.-based producer/engineer Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Portishead, Nine Inch Nails) added his magical touch to the sessions which lasted two weeks.
Recording musicians included Rick Steff on keys, David Cousar on guitars, and Paul Taylor on drums. Jonathan Kirkscey (strings), Jim Spake (Sax) and John Stubblefield (bass), among others, also lent a hand. The recording sessions included a side trip to New Orleans where additional recordings were made In Preservation Hall with horn arrangements by noted Preservation Hall Band member, Clint Maedgen.
Recording engineers Daniel Lynn and Kevin Houston assisted with the recording. The record is scheduled for a final mix in September with a release planned for early 2011.
Amy LaVere at Borderline
from London Times: Dec. 9, 2008
by David Sinclair
Amy LaVere cut a striking figure on stage at the Borderline. Leading her trio from behind a double bass, which she played with all the percussive force that that most unwieldy of instruments demands, the slender, dark-haired singer from Memphis put on a show that was enchanting in so many ways. LaVere has been promoting her second album, Anchors & Anvils, for more than a year, and has recently been seen in all the right places, including a support slot with Seasick Steve at the Albert Hall and an appearance on Later… with Jools Holland. The hard work has paid off.
Starting with a Carla Thomas song, That Beat, she 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. “Killing him didn’t make the love go away,” she sang, explaining that it was a song she wrote after an argument with the group’s drummer, Paul Taylor, who is also her boyfriend. Taylor smiled affably, behind her.
The line-up was completed by the guitarist and singer Steve Selvidge, one of those astonishingly versatile players who are ten-a-penny in Tennessee but who was nevertheless able to prompt spontaneous outbursts of applause for his solos.
LaVere is not a prolific songwriter - only three songs on Anchors & Anvils are her own - but she has such distinctive pitching and phrasing that she stamps an indelible mark on all she touches. In particular, her treatment of Bob Dylan’s I’ll Remember You was simply stunning - far better than the original.
Putting aside her huge instrument, she demonstrated how to “walk the dog”, in an attempt to get the audience to dance, while leading the band through an apparently impromptu version of Willie Dixon’s Wang Dang Doodle. She ended the show with an exquisite interpretation of Tom Waits’s Green Grass and the bittersweet western swing of Buck Owens’s Swinging Doors.
Jim Dickinson is Gone, Amy LaVere Returns
from KDHX FM: Aug. 20, 2009
by Roy Kasten
Amy LaVere is no stranger to Saint Louis, though she’s only had a handful of shows in town. This past June she opened up the first night of Twangfest, filling the cavernous space of the Pageant with her alluring voice, a uniquely Memphis blend of grit and delicacy, and her rhythmically supple (she’s an underrated slap bass player) jazz, blues, soul and rockabilly songs. If Hot Club of Cowtown and Alejandro Escovedo hadn’t been waiting in the wings, I could have listened to her all night.
It’s safe to say she would have found her voice on her own, but the voice she did find owes much to Jim Dickinson, the legendary (adjective not used lightly) Memphis producer, session man and mentor to many, who passed away on August 15. I spoke to Amy on the phone the day before, and she was hopeful for his recovery, saying that Jim seemed to be getting better as he was greeting visitors by flipping them off. She desperately wanted to record another album with Jim (who produced her first two LPs). My full interview with Amy will run in the August 27 Riverfront Times, but here’s a salient quote:
“[Jim] encouraged me to take risks, to make mistakes, and to experiment. He reminded me that music is about being spontaneous and youthful and not agenda driven.”
You can hear that in nearly every recording Dickinson produced, played on, or inspired. The list is long and essential: Big Star’s Third, The Replacements’ Pleased To Meet Me, Aretha Franklin’s Spirit In the Dark, Ry Cooder’s Into the Purple Valley, Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, and a little record called Sticky Fingers. That’s Jim’s piano on “Wild Horses.”
Jim is gone now, but Amy LaVere will be coming back to Saint Louis, playing a full night at Off Broadway on Sunday, August 30. I wouldn’t miss that evening for all the soul food in Memphis.
Killing Him Didn’t Make the Love Go Away
from Compulsive Reader: May 13, 2009
by Daniel Garrett
“Killing Him” is one of those rare songs that seem perfect upon first listening and forever after. As described by Amy LaVere’s girlish, country voice, supported by a sultry bass, the story-song’s couple argue until the woman’s maddened violence and subsequent incarceration. Amy LaVere’s voice is quite pleasant (I wonder how it will age?) in David Schnaufer’s “Tennessee Valentine,” a country ballad with dance steps; and there is a bit of tango in her interpretation of Carla Thomas’s “That Beat,” featuring Bob Furgo’s gypsy violin and Paul Taylor’s percussion, and LaVere’s voice is given to spontaneous, thoughtful inflections, but the strong initial impression made by “Killing Him” remains.
What are the acts that begin, nurture, sabotage, and end a life? Paul Taylor’s “Pointless Drinking” is a drinking song that critiques drinking, drawing focus to the contradictions and disappointments that could cause weeping but are here merely sobering, the kind of song selection that suggests significant intelligence in a singer, in Amy LaVere. Amy LaVere’s voice has a unique vocal quality; it is compact and conversational, and it is a formidable instrument for delivering songs about female constraint and domestic labor, such as Kristi Witt’s “Washing Machine.” The domestic drudgery in “Overcome,” written by LaVere, in which a woman finds it difficult to leave (“songbirds need homes and live oak trees”) is not a new subject but it is a timeless one.
About the conflict between perspectives and motives, about the conflict among people, Paul Taylor’s “People Get Mad,” with its fast rhythm, possibly funk, is about more than manners and moods; it is about conformity. Freedoms are disapproved of, the song observes.
Disappointment in love is inspiration, and an arrow is returned for a song in LaVere’s “Cupid’s Arrow”; and Kristi Witt’s “Time is a Train” is metaphorical and moody too. With songs such as those, Amy LaVere’s album Anchors & Anvils seems to expand under examination. LaVere’s interpretation of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You” is intimate—the nice thing is that it sounds as if it could be one of the songs that she herself wrote. That, and much else here, makes Amy LaVere a very interesting writer and singer.
Amy LaVere’s Died of Love, her short-playing album that is a successor to the longer Anchors & Anvils, has an orientation to rock music rather than country music, and, obviously, continues a theme of love and death. Amy LaVere is helped on Died of Love by drummer Paul Taylor and guitarist Steve Selvidge. LaVere’s voice is wailing in the traditional song “Railroad Boy (Died of Love),” and her voice is more than a match for the music. In Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s “Green Grass,” with a mournful, metaphysical theme, featuring lyrics about spiritual disbursements, Amy LaVere’s voice can be both narrative and expressionistic. “If Love Was A Train” (by Michelle Shocked) has a rumbling rock rhythm. Another traditional song featuring a sheriff and the devil and a shooting, “Lazarus,” is arranged and sung by LaVere’s collaborator Steve Selvidge, and becomes a fusion of rock, rhythm-and-blues, and gospel. Kristi Witt’s “Washing Machine” is given a heavy rock sound, completing Amy LaVere’s move in a new direction.
Club Culture
from The New Yorker: May 11, 2009
by Ben Greenman
I don’t usually watch TV just because it’s free on iTunes, but MTV’s new quasi-reality series, “$5 Cover,” had intriguing plot descriptions and a high concept: take some up-and-coming music stars in Memphis, film their musical performances, and then build a soap opera around them. I have only watched a few of the episodes, including the one that’s free, but I am pleasantly surprised by the show so far.
For starters, one of the main musical acts is the singer and upright bass player Amy LaVere—I loved her first album, “The World is Not My Home,” and it’s voyeuristically gratifying to watch her fume over the way her sometime boyfriend/drummer takes up with another woman.
It doesn’t hurt matters that the other woman is Clare Grant, a young actress who, to date, has starred mostly in low-budget horror movies that require her to show lots of skin; Grant is fairly magnetic, at least on the small screen.
The project, at least initially, is overseen by Craig Brewer, who rose to prominence as a result of his hip-hop film “Hustle and Flow”; Brewer is a Memphis native who has wanted to make a film about the broader Memphis scene (country, but also rock, hip-hop, and even comedy) since before “Hustle and Flow,” and he decided, for this particular project, to tell the story in a series of fifteen-minute Web-distributed episodes. The show premiered May 1st—new episodes post Friday at midnight—and it has a blog, because it’s 2009, and everything has a blog.
Amy LaVere: Queen of the Memphis Dream
from The Aquarian: January 28,2009
by Martin Halo
For Amy LaVere her brand of soulful Memphis-based Americana has captivated audiences with a sweet warm-hearted charm. After the release of Anchors & Anvils back in 2007 the journey has taken her to foreign shores for a performance at Jools in Holland. After recording with famed Bob Dylan producer Jim Dickinson, things for the songwriter forge forward.
LaVere will be embarking on a short East Coast leg before rollin’-n-tumblin’ back to Tennessee for some well deserved down time. The area performances are noted by a taping at the Conan O’Brien Show on Feb. 2.
A phone call in the late afternoon woke the bass plucking LaVere from a cat nap. With a voice to die for, it got right down to business.
How was the taping of Jools in Holland as far as an experience for you?
That went really well. I was really nervous but it went well. We played with Coldplay and Glenn Campbell which was amazing.
Did you get to spend any time with Jools himself?
Not really. I was introduced to him before the show but he is a very busy man.
He didn’t invite you out for a steak after the show?
Sadly not [laughs].
How was the UK leg? Did you have any memorable stories?
You got me on the spot here. I could tell you something tragic.
Fair enough.
We were really excited to go to Liverpool for the obvious reasons. We had a list of places that we wanted to see—places that were relevant to the Beatles. We wanted to check out some of their hangs. We stopped at the pub that they apparently used to ‘plan world domination’ in. There were others places we wanted to hit but we decided to go check out the Beatles Museum. It was something outrageous to get in, like $26. I don’t remember how that works out in pounds, but it was expensive. I am a Sun Studios tour guide back home in Memphis and I pulled my card and told them that back in Memphis we let touring bands get in for free, which is true. We will let them tour for free in trade of a CD. I asked them if they would work the same deal and they said they would. We ended up being really disappointed with the museum. Most of all was a bunch of Beatles mannequins that were hanging out in a mock studio that kind of made me feel a little uneasy. The drag of it was that it took so long to get through it that by the time we got out we didn’t have enough time to see more of the real places.
Now that you are back in the States, is it just a Northeast leg that is on the books?
Yea we are just going to pull back down to Memphis in a round about way. I don’t really love touring in the winter because the roads could really be treacherous. I was always one to hit it really hard in the spring.
I find that the truly great artists have a level of inaccessibility that force people to be drunk with wonder. Do you feel because of Internet connectivity that it is hard to keep a basic level of the unknown in the eyes of the fans?
It is funny you should mention that because it gets really disillusioning to read so much about yourself in the papers sometimes. I don’t think there is just room for some wonder, but rather a need for it to return a little. Once you lay everything out there, then what do you have left for yourself?
For me personally I really don’t enjoy reading all of that stuff. I am not one that picks up rock magazines regularly, but my band does. They find literature about what is happening in the music industry.
As a teenager that is what kind of got me hooked, the wonder. The artists I was drawn to were bands who had spots I had to fill in my own mind.
Totally! You will hear an amazing song, or see a few photographs of an artist. In-between the material and the imagery you can make up your own story about them. Sometimes the proof in an artist’s bio might be more disappointing to a fan that is searching for something [laughs].
When we first had the chance to catch up over the summer you were touring in support of Anchors & Anvils, do you have plans for a follow-up?
Actually we just did a little ‘under the radar’ EP because I was desperate to record something. Most of it is just a handful of cover tunes that I kept in rotation during my live show that people would say, ‘What record is that song on?’ We just really knocked them out live at the studio in Archer Records, which sort of filled the void until we get the chance to cut the next record. It looks like I am about to get some broader distribution, especially in Europe. There is a little contract clause that says I cannot release anything until the first of next year.
Amy LaVere will be performing on the Conan O’Brien Show on Feb. 2, at Joe’s Pub on Feb. 3, and Mexicali Blues in Teaneck on Feb. 5. For more information you can visit her homepage at amylavere.com.
Bass-Slapping Singer Brings Strut and Gothic Melancholy
from Mojo Magazine: November 26, 2008
The sight of little Amy LaVere lugging her double-bass out of some basement club late at night can inspire chivalric offers of help from almost any man. Or rather, almost any drunk. “So I get nervous and tell them no,” she says. “But with the amps, anyone’s welcome…”
Next time in the UK, though, she may be able to afford roadies, give the zoot-cute allure of her October shows supporting Seasick Steve and her spot on Jools Holland’s Later…Lavere and her off-kilter blues-country trio (with guitarist Steve Selvidge and her boyfriend, drummer Paul Taylor) rocked and waltzed and tangoed while she imparted strange takes on life that work for everyday everywhere - from a woman mired in the mundane and aching to get away (“Washing Machine”) to the one who stabbed her man to death (“Killing Him”, with its haunting chorus: “Killing him didn’t make the love go away”).
LaVere, aged “25” in UK press cuttings and not arguing, spent her first seven years in a stationary mobile home in the woods near Bethany, a hamlet on the Texas/Louisiana state line. Her father, Charlie, came and went because of his work - constructing oil rigs in Norway, a bridge in Alaska. Then, until she was 13, the family moved around America with him before settling in tiny Ortonville, Michigan, where her parents promptly separated. Her mother, Catherine, made up her own songs, so from childhood AMy did too, right on through her mohican-flaunting teen rebellion spell with an art-punky combo.
At 20, she followed a job in band management to Nashville where she discovered her natural slap-bass aptitude and married fellow bull fiddler Gabe Kudela after an extensive three-week courtship. They took off for Memphis and gigged together a lot - “We were great! We did our own songs and some Replacements and Hank Williams” - until the broke up. Hence LaVere’s 2006 “heartbreak album”, the solo debut “This World Is Not My Home.”
Unfortunately, after years playing live, she detested recording it. The rockers sounded stiff so she dumped them. But then the quiet confessionals involved studio strangers looking on while she put painful emotions “under the microscope; it was like surgically removing an organ.”
However, her second album, “Anchors & Anvils”, captured her delicate oeuvre with the confidence-boosting help of Memphis music doyen Jim Dickinson (sideman or producer for Aretha, Dylan, Big Star, Primal Scream).
Although LaVere has lately earned a more-or-less living from music, she still goes back to the freelance job she loves as a tour guide at Elvis and Sam Phillips’ old stomping ground Sun Studios. Complacency is hardly an option. Having climbed to motel level on tour in America, in pricey Britain the trio returned to dossing on friends of friends’ floors.
“Still, I always figure it out,” she says equably, “if I need a buck I’ll ask the neighbor if I can rake the leaves off her lawn…”
Too Much Talk. But Bluesman Stays Out of the Dog House
from Edinburgh Evening News: October 27, 2008
by Martin Lennon
DESCRIBING Amy LaVere as a support act would be a mistake. Every single aspect of her music and its performance was first class and, as a headline act would struggle to get much less than 5 stars.
The capacity audience at the Queen’s Hall this weekend had to make do with a measly half hour or so, but hopefully, she’ll come back and play for considerably longer.
Accompanied by world class musicians, drummer Paul Taylor and guitarist Stephen Selvidge, the diminutive, but outstanding upright bass player wowed the predominantly standing crowd with songs like If Love Was A Train, That Beat and Killing Him. These songs, which effortlessly blended country blues, torch song and even pop, got her noticed, but it was her breathless and utterly emotional delivery which made her unforgettable and won her a lot of new fans.
She was the perfect foil for actual headliner, Steve Wold, better known to the world as Seasick Steve. Having played at more festivals than anyone else in 2007, Wold had really only one flaw in an otherwise faultless performance. The Queen’s Hall is a more intimate venue than any festival stage and required a different kind of atmosphere.
That said, he held the audience in the palm of his hand as he trundled through songs like Started Out With Nothing, Thunderbird and of course, Dog House Boogie. Accompanied by Dan Magnusson on percussion, and his own, famous 3 string trance wonder guitar, and the one stringed Diddley Bow, among other instruments, every note sung or played grabbed the crowd’s attention and wouldn’t let go.
Fond of storytelling, the Mississippi bluesman sometimes talked for a little too long. Having wound the audience up, most seemed to simply want a relentless stream of his pure, Southern ‘gentleman of the road’ blues. Despite the intimate venue, chit-chat didn’t satisfy them, which Wold didn’t seem to pick up on.
Despite this, and his occasionally miscalculated theatrics, the crowd went home deliriously happy and sated. And why not? Several hours of unadulterated gitbox stomp and boogie is enough to put a smile on even the grumpiest bluesman’s face.
Rising Star Amy to Play Special Gig in Torpenhow
from Whitehaven News: October 16, 2008
by Gillian Ellison
As seen on Jools Holland last week, the next big thing, Amy LaVere, is coming to Cumbria. An up and coming star of Americana music, Amy’s latest album Anchors and Anvils has played to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. She will be performing at Torpenhow Village Hall (between Cockermouth and Carlisle) on October 20, at 8pm.
Memphis-based Amy performs with an upright bass that comfortably exceeds her height. She has appeared in Samuel L Jackson’s Black Snake Moan and also in the Oscar winning Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. Amy opened her UK tour at the Albert Hall. Tickets are priced £12 can be obtained from Keswick Post Office, Billy Bowman Music in Cockermouth or direct by calling 016973 23354.
Something for the Weekend Meets Amy LaVere
from The Sun: October 10, 2008
by SIMON COSYNS
THE sun sets on a balmy autumn day in Nashville, Tennessee.
All over town, the clubs, honky-tonks and concert halls are cranking up the volume. I venture into a small, packed place called The Basement, on 8th Avenue South, which bills itself as a “cellar full of noise”. It’s November 2007 and I’m there for a showcase organised by the Americana Music Association. That night, one of the performers makes a vivid, lasting impression.
Dwarfed by her giant, upright bass, which she plays with righteous fervour, Amy LaVere sings like a bird but her themes are deep and dark. She’s slightly built, with a cloud of raven curls, and looks every inch a star in the making.
I meet her manager, David Macias, and say: “She’s amazing. Britain will love her. I can just see her on Jools Holland’s show.” Then I put him in touch with the influential London publicist Andy Prevezer.
Wind forward to this week and Amy is one of the stars of Later ... alongside Coldplay and country icon Glen Campbell. She’s also just played the Royal Albert Hall as support for bluesman Seasick Steve.
Amy was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, but lives in Memphis, the city that broke Elvis, and records for a local independent label. Her recent album Anchors & Anvils is 40 minutes of aching hearts and broken dreams (and washing machines), mixing originals with a sprinkling of covers, including Bob Dylan’s I’ll Remember You.
It begins with a devastating true-story song about a woman who kills her brute of a husband but professes she still loves him.
“Killing him didn’t make the love go away,” sighs Amy over sultry rhythms.
There’s a song most of us can identify with, called Pointless Drinking, and a deadpan waltz, Overcome, with pin-sharp observational lyrics.
It’s the upright bass that gives Amy her unique selling point, making her as individual as, say, Joanna Newsom and her harp.
“I find it perfectly natural,” she says. “In fact, I don’t know if I could sing without it. I had no idea it was a hard thing to do, it was real natural to me.
“I always thought I had to play an instrument, because I have more respect for artists who play and sing. Also, I struggled with the guitar. I’d basically known cowboy chords since I was a little kid, because my mother played, but that’s about it.
“We lived in a tiny poor-people trailer and she played guitar and wrote folk songs. She would liven up every get-together.”
Magical.
Today Amy enjoys being based in Memphis with it’s great music tradition. “Rock and roll was created there. You can’t really top that,” she says. “There must be something magical in the water there and there are some amazing bands and musicians.”
Her album was produced by Jim Dickinson, who she calls “a legend and home-town hero”. Jim has worked with Dylan, the Stones and Aretha Franklin but has always stayed true to his Memphis roots.
All that’s left to say is: Let’s extend a big, warm UK welcome to Amy LaVere and her big bass.
Another String to Amy LaVere’s Bow
The singer’s new album is the bassist’s latest triumph in a long list of creative achievements
from Sunday Times: July 27, 2008
by Dan Cairns
When Amy LaVere was young, her mother said of her daughter that she was “the only child I know whom you could drop off, naked, in the middle of New York City with a $1 bill and she’d come out, clothed, with $100”.
Today, the diminutive 25-year-old singer, who performs with an upright bass that comfortably exceeds her height, is as determined as the child her mother once perceived so acutely. A pint-sized pugilist whose charm-sweetened combativeness recalls the television-producer character played by Holly Hunter in the film Broadcast News, LaVere is on a creative roll.
Her new (second) album, Anchors & Anvils, has just come out, and her acting career — roles to date have included Wanda Jackson in Walk the Line and a part in the Samuel L Jackson/Christina Ricci film Black Snake Moan — is also taking off. In person, her self-deprecation seems natural, not calculating; but an iron will coexists with it, and the conflict, LaVere herself implies, is her fuel.
This perhaps explains new songs such as the self-written Cupid’s Arrow, on which a lyric as deliciously dark as “I set off on a hunt with my arrow and my bow / Till in my sights had fallen one who hurt me long ago” is delivered in a swoonsome croon over a fiddle-flecked, Nancy Sinatra-like canter. And on Killing Him, which is based on a true story of a wife murdering the unfaithful husband she still loved fiercely, LaVere relishes lines such as “She’d have to kill him to get him to stay”, over a wonderfully contrasting country-blues shuffle, her voice a languid sigh worthy of Loretta Lynn.
At one point in the interview, when LaVere’s serenity seems so suspect that I raise a doubting eyebrow, she says: “You don’t think I’m laid-back? Why? Do you think I’m a walking storm?” She immediately laughs and concedes: “I really love a frenzy. I find that I’m never more calm than when I’m in the middle of some extremely erratic experience. I have no idea why. That’s a sickness, isn’t it? Help me.”
Baggage, its weight and the shedding of it, clearly preoccupies her, as does a strong impulsive streak she seems to find both energising and scary. Shortly after settling in Nashville, Tennessee, after a childhood in which she moved 13 times, LaVere eloped with a penniless artist and musician, with whom she formed a duo called the Gabe & Amy Show. It was while performing in this setup that she moved to Memphis (where she still, to this day, works as a part-time tour guide at Sun Studios), took up the upright bass and began edging towards the front of the stage to sing a few of the numbers herself.
“It became obvious that people enjoyed what I did equally,” she says. “And didn’t exactly love that. When I met him, I’d always had that balance of knowing I had to pay my bills, this pragmatic side I felt could not equal genuine artistry. Whereas Gabriel, he was totally, like, come hell or high water, he was going to paint and not work. So I fell into the supportive role, as a caretaker.”
Earning the right to sing, to perform her own songs, was a process LaVere felt she had to go through. In part, she says, this was because “the musicians I’ve worked with have always been way more ahead of the game than me”. But it was also about finding her own voice. Intriguingly, like another singer, Feist, LaVere once fronted a punk band, where she in a sense betrayed, or did her best to disguise, a natural talent, shouting and wailing where she now coos and deploys restraint. You can hear that search on her first album, This World Is Not My Home (2005), where she sounds tentative and lacking in confidence.
“I was nervous,” she admits. “It was a very, very invasive and strange experience.I was really insecure. I mean, I’m still insecure, but I was even more so then, surely so. We beat the vocals to death, to the point where, yes, perhaps they did become a caricature. Then you get all this pressure about what the image should be and, well, one day, I feel like wearing high heels, the next, you know? I have no style; there’s no stamp. I’m not Amy Winehouse. And I won’t be busting out pornographic pictures of myself any time soon.”
On Anchors & Anvils, LaVere got to work with the Memphis producer Jim Dickinson (the Stones, Ry Cooder, Big Star et al), who got most of her vocals down first take and who clearly understood the need to liberate LaVere from her doubts. The results, she feels, are “what I actually sound like. It is definitely more honest”. A mix of her own songs, those of her boyfriend, the drummer and producer Paul Taylor, covers of Dylan (I’ll Remember You) and David Schnaufer (a straight-up and heartbreaking serving of Tennessee Valentine), and songs by her friend Kristi Witt, a Memphis musician, the album cleaves to no one genre — and LaVere admits to a horror of being described purely as a country singer. This is not because of any dislike of the music, merely a sense that being boxed in (that baggage again) restricts her right to roam. And roam she does, on a record where even a song such as Overcome, which is notionally an uncomplicated country song, soon wanders off in directions that include show tunes and Viennese waltz music.
LaVere, whose father oversees the building of car plants — “I was a General Motors brat,” she jokes — maintains that the nomadic element of her childhood didn’t bother her at all. “I was quick and easy to make new friends,” she says, “so I enjoyed it.” She still moves house or apartment regularly. “And neighbourhoods, too,” she adds breezily. When her parents divorced, she was a teenager who went off the rails, and she still conveys a slight sense of danger. Her mother was a songwriter, “but she wouldn’t write clean country songs”, LaVere laughs. “They were about acid trips, smoking marijuana and expanding your mind.” From her, LaVere says she gets a sanguine approach to life, “that what will be will be, that the universe will provide”. Her father, on the other hand, “makes lists each morning, and knows exactly what they will entail”. Later, discussing what she thinks their opinion is of her, LaVere says: “They had ultimate confidence in me, just in terms of my ability to be very crafty.”
Of her chosen instrument, LaVere says: “It’s something I get to interact with, to dance with and to hide behind when I’m feeling uncomfortable. So it is a bit of a prop, and thank God for that.” Her opinion of her voice hasn’t changed, she says; it’s the confidence that has. “I’m more a storyteller than a singer,” she suggests. “I’m not a vocal acrobat. I have to use phrasing and discretion. I’m not going to bring you to your knees with this amazing held note.”
She’s being a touch too modest. LaVere, after all, is someone you could drop off, apparently lacking in confidence, in a recording studio, and she’d come out, wilful and self-assured, with a great album. Which is, it occurs to me, exactly what has happened.
Anchors & Anvils is out now on Archer
Flash Forward: She Grew Up in the Backwoods and then Led a Punk Band
No wonder Amy LaVere is something other than your usual Southern belle
from Observer Music Monthly: July 13, 2008
by Sarah Boden
In the late afternoon before her Austin gig, Amy LaVere looks right at home wandering through the cattle stalls at the Star of Texas state rodeo, home of bucking broncos, gunslingers, lasso tricksters and chilli cook-offs. The 26-year-old grew up on the Texas/Louisiana border in a place that sounds like the setting for a Leadbelly song. ‘It was called Piney Woods, because it’s part of the country where there’s nothing but big old tall pine trees,’ says LaVere, in her mellifluous sing-song twang. ‘The population was nothing ... nobody. We lived down a little dirt road.’
LaVere’s love of country was inherited from her parents; her dad was a Willie Nelson fan, but it was her mum’s affection for folk and ‘creepy ballads’ that made a lasting impression on her. ‘Early on, I really wanted to be her. When we had family get-togethers my Mum would get out her guitar to sing and everyone would light up.’
LaVere’s new album, Anchors and Anvils (her second in the US), was recorded with sometime Dylan and Rolling Stones producer Jim Dickinson in rural Mississippi, and is a rich, exquisite 10-song set of classic country that unfolds to reveal flavours of tango, blues, and jazz noir.
Beneath the Southern belle edifice and velvet manners, there’s a nonconformist sensibility that places LaVere outside Nashville’s saccharine mainstream. Her family moved 13 times before settling in Detroit, and, as an angry, muddle-headed teen, Amy fronted a punk band called Last Minute. ‘I guess I was doing drugs and my parents were divorcing and I wasn’t doing good at school,’ she says. ‘If you’re going to be an honest artist you’re going to be expressing where you’re at.’
Now, she says, there’s still angst but she’s no longer screaming at the audience. Live, she plays a doghouse bass that dwarfs her tiny frame, while singing in a sad, whispering smoulder. Her subject matter yanks her into country’s fringe, with mordant paeans to murderous passion (‘Killing Him’), emotional breakdown (‘Overcome’) and everyday drudgery (‘Washing Machine’).
Her shows have garnered such critical acclaim that it’s unlikely she’ll continue her occasional job as a guide at Sun Studio in Memphis, where she’s currently settled. The silver screen beckons, too, after a recent cameo as rockabilly dame Wanda Jackson in Walk the Line left her with a taste for acting. You sense that LaVere won’t succumb to Hollywood hubris, though.
‘I’ve always been a bit of a haaam,’ she says with a phlegmatic drawl, stretching the last word out like bubblegum. ‘But the self-importance that everyone puts on themselves on set ... there’s something very comic about that to me.’
a Southern Star Is Born
from London Evening Standard: July 11, 2008
by David Smyth
She’s only 25 but Memphis based Amy LaVere is so immersed in rock ‘n’ roll history that she and her upright bass might have time-travelled here from the mid-Fifties. She has jetted in for three dates at Soho’s 12 Bar Club and there are several good reasons to catch her.
First there’s her swoonsome new album, Anchors & Anvils (Archer Records), recorded in the depths of the Mississippi Delta by Bob Dylan collaborator Jim Dickinson. It features 10 acoustic, retro songs with countrified titles such as Tennessee Valentine and Pointless Drinking, all sung in a gentle croon that recalls Norah Jones with a downhome twang.
Though LaVere is new to London audiences, Anchors & Anvils is her second album - and she has spent enough time living in the past to feel like a veteran. when a casting director spotted her covering Funnel of Love, originally done by Fifties queen of rockabilly and Elvis Presley’s former girlfriend wanda Jackson, she was invited to play Jackson in the oscar-winning Johnny Cash biopic walk the Line. “I’m in that movie for such a blink it’s barely worth talking about it,” she confesses, but the connection hasn’t done her music career any harm.
Nor has the fact that when she’s not touring she spends her days working as a tour guide at Sun Studios, which has a strong claim to being the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll as the regular haunt of Roy orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and, of course, Cash and Elvis. “I get to talk to people about rock ‘n’ roll all day. What an amazing place to go to work.” when we meet between radio spots, she’s still reeling from being introduced live on Radio 4’s Midweek programme as “a country singer who looks a lot like Alanis Morissette”. If I had to choose which of the two made her bristle more, it would be the country tag. She’s not keen to be lumped in with the Nashville crowd, and seems happier when her sound is described more broadly as Americana. on the album that incorporates sultry gipsy fiddle on her cover of Carla Thomas’s That Beat, chugging rock on washing Machine and bright mandolin on Cupid’s Arrow.
Then there’s the jazzy feel of Killing Him, a murder ballad about the revenge of a two-timed wife, which shows she isn’t as sweet as she sounds. There’s also a Bob Dylan obscurity, I’ll Remember You, thrown in.
As a child, LaVere was inspired by her folk-singing mother to pick up the guitar, then took formal piano lessons. She can competently play drums, too, but likes her double bass the best, which she learned from a musician flatmate much later on. “The first time I ever picked it up I was able to slap it rockabilly style. I didn’t realise that was supposed to be hard. I truly fell in love with it. I love having it as a prop onstage, and as something to hide behind. It’s bigger than I am.”
Next on her career ladder is more acting, in the next film by writer/ director and LaVere fan Craig Brewer, who has cast her before, in his Samuel L Jackson vehicle Black Snake Moan. And the continued conversion of European audiences, who would surely fall for her low-key charms as they have those of Norah Jones or Alison Krauss. watch out for a new Southern star.
Amy LaVere: Anchors and Anvils (4 stars)
Upright Bassist’s Second Album. Gorgeous.
from Q Magazine: July 1, 2008
by David Smyth
Memphis resident Amy LaVere played rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson in Walk The Line, but here she’s a crooner, not a bawler. With a creamy voice that seems to be cooing inches from your ear, her collection of tasteful covers (Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You,” Carla Thomas’s “That Beat”) and a few originals has as soothing a sound as you’ll find this year.
Gypsy violin and the darkness of murder ballad “Killing Him” edges her away from Norah Jones territory, though the downhome charm of simple slowies such as Tennessee Valentine makes any edginess superfluous.
Classic Americana
from Malton& Pickering Mercury (UK): June 25, 2008
The Band Room is preparing to welcome a singer who has been called a “rootsier, more dangerous Norah Jones” next month.
As a follow up to her low-key UK debut earlier this year Amy Lavere is back to tour the British release of her second album Anchors & Anvils in Farndale on July 12 at 7.30pm.
The album - a mix of self-penned originals and well-chosed covers such as Bob Dylan’s I’ll Remember You - has already been released on an American independent label and complements her debut release This World Is Not My Home in 2006.
Described as a country-soul belle from Memphis with her own take on classic Americana, critics say she will appeal to fans of Norah Jones and anyone who loves Robert Plant’s and Alison Krauss’s Raising Sand.
She said: “The songs are all about relationships, but that was never a conscious thing. I like my songs to be theatrical. I want people to be lifted out of the moment and taken on a journey.”
Amy, who also plays the double bass, added: “There are some artists who can get away with being different. I’d like to think I can be one of them.”
Born in a small town on the border between Texas and Louisiana, 25-year-old Amy spent time in Detroit and Nashville before moving to Memphis in the Nineties.
She fronted a teenage punk band, Last Minute, before developing her mix of sultry country and playful, funky soul. Despite a burgeoning acting career that saw her land cameo roles in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line and Black Snake Moan, music is Amy’s first love.
Tickets are available from The Band Room box office.
Southern Charm to Die For
from the Waster: June 23, 2008
by Martin Halo
Since the turn of the 20th Century Memphis has always been a hub for the musical minds, the open cased street beggars, and the ghostly spirits of mythical legends. Originally settled by Scottish immigrants, who forged west through the Application frontier before being over run by the blues tradition buried on Beale Street, the city limits strut with the scars of American art. Its most important characteristic, the railroad, became the lifeline for freed black slaves to migrate north in order to land industrial job opportunities in Chicago during the 1930s. With all Southern trains running through Memphis the line created a hot bed for scorching juke joint moans. Those musicians who were not good enough to get paid in the clubs littered the streets.
The times have changed since then and so has the cultural makeup of Memphis. The railroad still exists, the city is still tough with resilience, but instead of an eerie wooden outpost of oozing groove sits a commercialized district that has pushed out the ol’ time tradition of mojo workers in favor of the edge and modernization surrounding garage rock and indie music. Amy LaVere is in the middle of the cultural inundation as an Americana, bass-swindling, brunette with a voice filled with just enough southern charm to melt the heart.
With the release of her sophomore LP Anchors and Anvils, in May of 2007 alongside longtime Bob Dylan producer Jim Dickinson, LaVere has gained national buzz and recognition through embarking on road work with Langhorne Slim, The North Mississippi All Stars, and most recently a European adventure that passed her through the thrown of Jools in Holland.
“It is a real incestuous music town, if you don’t feel the mojo down here then you are not paying attention” says Amy LaVere from the backseat of her touring van, still idling in the Southwest corner of Tennessee before an over night journey to New York City. “I went to Memphis because that is where all the cool rock n’ roll shows were traveling through,” she offers with a soft, sweet, tone. “I spent three years down on Beale Street playing afternoon gigs. Memphis is not what it was when I first moved here in 1999. The blues is hard to find here; the really good blues that is. Believe it or not there is a hotel lounge at the airport where the traditional blues players perform. Every now and then I will try and catch some, but you just don’t find it there much anymore.”
She addresses the shift, “there is a strong indie and garage rock scene in Memphis, much more than you would find in Nashville or Knoxville. The further you get east, into Mississippi and Atlanta you will find towns sticking to roots music more so than Memphis. I would say as a cultural center it is pretty cutting edge.”
“But in Memphis there are so many great musicians in such a small area,” she continues. “Everybody is hungry and everybody is in three or four bands. Those that have grown up there can’t help but to be infused by the blues tradition; it is so powerful.”
“But that isn’t want is going on in town now, kids are not studying blues music anymore. I think that is because the important founding fathers of the genre are no longer arounde. Just in the last few years we lost Ike Turner, Bo Diddley, and R.L. Burnside. Being able to get out and touch the stone, so to speak, just is not that easy. Even the rockabilly bands coming out of Sun Records—nobody plays rockabilly anymore. It has seemed to go out of fashion, which is crazy to me because it is rock n’ roll music for crying out loud,” LaVere exclaims.
With LaVere fronting her Americana exploration alongside Steve Selvidge (guitar), and Paul Taylor (drums), the trio is no stranger to the community of artists bubbling up from the murky South. One of them is friend and North Mississippi All Stars’ axe cannon Luther Dickinson, son of Anchors and Anvils producer Jim Dickinson.
While fresh off a tour leg with the NMA and leaving just as fast as he arrived for the airport to rendezvous with the Black Crowes, Dickinson sheds some light. “We have known Amy for many years around the Memphis music scene. Her band mates grew up with my brother Cody and I. Her drummer Paul Taylor used to live with us and we had a band together from 1990 to 1997. And Steve, her guitar player, has a band with my father called Mud Boy and The Neutrons. I grew up inspired by them.”
“As for this past leg of dates with Amy,” Luther Dickinson continues, “we had a blast,” as laughter follows. “We would always push the shows back a little bit to make sure she had a good crowd and the people ate her up. It is cool because, in the middle of those mellow songs, Amy is holding it down with that fat ass bass. What she does musically I always found to be very interesting.”
Though Luther is by Amy’s side while nestled in on the road, it was papa dukes, Jim, which nurtured her in the studio.
“I was in a pretty insecure place going into recording this record. I had it all mapped out in my head and I knew what I wanted to do. I felt as if I was taking a leap of faith by picking some musicians to work on the record; musicians I didn’t think I deserved. I just had to suck it up and ask,” LaVere offers. “Then working with Jim [Dickinson] was terribly intimidating.”
“Is he still intimidating to me?,” she responses with a smile on her face, “he is a very large man in the sense of his reputation, knowledge, and what he has accomplished. He is such a generous storyteller and everything that he has done over his lifetime, for my purposes at least, adds to the pressure.”
“To ask somebody to help you with your art is nerve racking because you never know how influential they will be. But with Jim, by the time it was over we had such a relationship, and I admire him so much. I felt like he nurtured the project. I don’t know how better to explain it. He really is a ‘man behind the curtain’ kind of magic. If a guitar player wasn’t laying down what we were looking for he could just tell him a story that would realign a musician to a place where he needed to be,” concludes LaVere.
Show Reviews: Langhorne Slim/Amy LaVere
The Mohawk - Austin, TX 5/10/08
from Jambase: June 4, 2008
by Sarah Hagerman
Perhaps the most telling image of the night was the sticker subtly slapped on the side of Amy LaVere’s bass. It was that famous picture of Johnny Cash flipping the bird, his face creased in fuck-you rage but his dark eyes laughing underneath the tough exterior. A DIY homage to towering legends and the true grit to weave something original out of homespun traditions, the icon spoke to the deep rebellious undercurrent of Americana that both she and Langhorne Slim ride, constantly challenging the assumptions of their musical heritage while walking the line. Their quirky subversions of country, folk and several points in between swept us up in that tide as the heavy rains let up into a humid night, where we swam in beer and lovelorn tales.
Lord almighty was it a sweaty Saturday, even once inside The Mohawk. LaVere herself remarked, in her slight, lilting voice, “I love Austin, but my bass doesn’t like this humidity - and neither does my hair.” Although LaVere channels Patsy Cline’s class and composure, there’s a rough and rocking edge to her music and a sardonic wit beneath those brown curls. Her songwriting paints vivid pictures and weaves unforgettable scenes and characters, such as “Killing Him” (which is based on a true story):
She gave him everything that she had
Changed anything he said was bad
Love weighed on her heart like marble stone
A flash of the knife and he was gone
He said he would give her the sun and the moon
Now all she has is this eight-by-eight room
But killing him didn’t make the love go away
While standing poised next to her upright bass, her fingers were a flurry of movement as she picked out deep grooving rhythms that made you move in spite of yourself, resonating throughout The Mohawk with turns both funky and crunchy. Adding swirling jams and bluesy fret-work, guitarist/flurry of curly hair Steve Selvidge is the kind of unassuming yet obvious talent that makes even drunk hipsters pause to watch what he’s doing. Paul Taylor rounds out the trio, and having penned one of my personal favorite pastimes… er… I mean songs, “Pointless Drinking,” one can be assured he shares the same sort of sly smarts and lack of rock star bravado that make LaVere and her backing musicians unique. LaVere and co. are that damn good they don’t need flash. They are simply down home, even if it’s the home you have to bolt from with a shotgun in tow.
To see more visit jambase.com.
The Majestic and Graceful Music of Amy LaVere
from Swampland: May 27, 2008
by James Calemine
Amy LaVere ranks as one of the most talented musicians on the rise. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, LaVere was raised in a musical family where she began honing her musical talents. The humble Amy LaVere’s voice evokes true emotion. She portrayed Wanda Jackson in Walk The Line as well as appearing in Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan, which will surely lead her to larger roles in film.
LaVere’s two albums This World Is Not My Home and Anchors & Anvils encapsulates her depth, aptitude and power regarding her musical ethos. As a Memphis resident, LaVere soon fell in with the nucleus of Memphis musical company when she began working with Jim Dickinson, The North Mississippi All-Stars and the wide network of musicians located in those environs. LaVere is now out on the road opening for the North Mississippi Allstars. She intends to tour until it’s time for her to record this fall.
In this Mystery And Manners interview, LaVere discusses her musical upbringing, musical influences, the Memphis music scene, literary preferences, Jim Dickinson, Anchors & Anvils, Bob Dylan and various other avenues of interest. Her inspirational voice and talent behooves one to seek out her soulful work. We’re proud to have her in our rotation…
Congratulations, Anchors & Anvils sounds great…
AL: Ah, thank you…
You recorded it last year…
AL: Yeah, it’s been a little longer than a year at this point. We released it last May a year ago.
You were born in Louisiana…
AL: Yeah, Shreveport.
And your parents were pretty musical, right?
AL: Right. My dad was a drummer. My Mom was a songwriter and guitar player. They really didn’t play in a band together. My dad played in a band and my mom was a folksinger. I saw my Mom playing a lot more music than my dad. She would play at home all the time.
Did you get an instrument at Christmas one year and that’s how it started?
AL: No, nothing like that. Just one old Alvarez guitar that was beaten around the house…I never got great at it, but enough to play country chords.
From what I’ve read you family moved like 13 times before you settled in Detroit. Did you decide early music was going to be your ticket out of town?
AL: Yeah, it was always music. My parents were real social. There were always parties at the house with people coming and going. Mom would entertain everybody. I guess I just wanted to be her. I wanted to light up the room like she did.
When you were in Detroit, was that when you played in your first band?
AL: My very first band was called Blatant Death Mongers, which was a group of 13 year old kids who started a band in a garage. I played drums. The kid lost his drum sticks and I played with wooden spoons. We had two shows at school. That was my first band. After that I was invited to sing for a band that had already been around for a about a year—they were called Last Minute. It was two brothers—a drummer and a bass player…we had a few different guitar players over the years. They asked me if I wanted to sing for them. We were together in an on and off again way for about six years. Then we’d go through spells where we’d go into Detroit and Flint and play shows. Then we would hole up in the basement. We rehearsed every single week—it was more of a party than anything else. It was a blast. I want to clarify—initially, I think I wrongfully said it was a punk band, where I was probably selling short my interviewers short because it was so much more aggressive than what I do now…it was an alternative-teen angst thing.
What instruments can you play?
AL: I won’t pretend I can play anything with any real virtuosity. The upright bass—not to sell short any other upright bass players, but the way I play it—it’s more percussive—holding down the big notes. It’s something to hide behind. I enjoy playing and singing at the same time—having to do something besides just sing onstage. Like any other hack, I can play a little piano, drums, guitar, bass—the only lessons I really ever took formally was mountain dulcimer from David Schnaffner who I wrote one of the songs on the record with who passed away before he could play on it.
What song?
AL: He wrote “Tennessee Valentine”…it’s pretty far removed from something that I would write, but it always struck such a sweet chord with me. I always loved it. When we got ready to do this record I asked him if I could record it and he said I could. Of course, I insisted he play on the song, but he passed away just a few weeks before we got to do it…
I’m sorry…
AL: …I know…it was awful. I loved him so much. He was my neighbor. That was the only thing I took lessons for…
Eventually you moved to Nashville…
AL: Yeah, Nashville was the second place I ever moved to on my own…outside of my family moving around all the time. I tried to move back to Louisiana because I felt like I didn’t know my extended family. We’d go back for Christmas, but I never really had that big family feeling. It was always the four of us against the world. So, I wanted to get to know my cousins, aunts and uncles so at the last minute I went down there and it only took me three months to realize I didn’t like it at all. The only reason I moved to Nashville was because I had an offer for a job to work in a management office. I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got a job waiting on me there if I want it and I’m not quite 21’, so I decided to go try it out. I lasted almost two years in Nashville.
Let’s talk about your appearances in a couple of films…
AL: Well, I didn’t do any acting until last year when I did a little indie film project. I’m not sure what happened to it.
Well, you played Wanda Jackson in Walk The Line…
AL: Yes, I did. That was totally surreal. I’m a total fan of Wanda’s work. I really admire her. It was very strange how it came about. I was playing at this little club called Murphy’s In Memphis. I had a regular gig there and the assistant casting director happened to be in the room unbeknownst to me. Every now and then I’d cover a Wanda Jackson song, and that night I happened to do one. He told me I should audition. So I did and somehow I got the part. I even went in there with a guitar. They had a handful of girls in there that had some semblance of likeness to Wanda Jackson with their acoustic guitars and I just thought I was awful, but somehow I got the gig. It was a real honor. It led to getting to meet her. I opened some shows for her. I think she’s really amazing.
The next movie was Craig Brewer’s film Black Snake Moan…
AL: Yeah, Craig Brewer is the first person who gave me a true acting opportunity. The Wanda Jackson role was nothing more than just having the appearance of Wanda Jackson in one particular scene. Then there was a duet with the other actor—Waylon Payne—who was playing Jay Lee—who finished the duet, but it didn’t make it into the scene. You could just hear us in the background, but they cut to Johnny Cash trashing his dressing room—so that scene got cut out, but it wasn’t an acting role, it was just…I was an extra that got to portray a famous singer.
Craig Brewer really gave me my first role. He—I guess you could say he was a fan of mine. Craig would come see us play. He liked my band and he just basically said there was a role that looked like me, and he thought I could do the role.
You were Christine Ricci’s friend, right?
AL: Yeah, but it’s a real brief role. It’s hardly a role. I’m just in a scene, but that was—aside from being both Dorothy and Cinderella in the school plays (Laughs) I’d never done any acting. Do you remember those Fischer-Price little black and white video cameras?
I think so…yes…
AL: …That look like a toy? My sister and I made a ton of film when she had that, but…nothing…
…significant…
AL: …Yeah…so that was really my first role. Since then, I’ve had a few other indie film projects with much more meatier roles where I got to explore the craft of acting…
Where you actually had to remember some lines?
AL: (laughs) Yeah, I really enjoyed it. But at this point in my life I haven’t spent my life honing the craft of acting. At this point I feel like I do have an actual ability to do it, but it would be very assumptive to say I could step into some great acting career. I hope I get another opportunity to work on a major set at some point because it was really fun.
Well, nonetheless, those two films look really good on paper…
AL: I guess so because I see it a lot (laughs). I’m so thankful for the opportunity—it is making mountains out of mole hills. I hope one day I get to make a mountain out of it.
Well, a great voice like yours leads to other opportunities. So, you moved to Memphis in 1999. How did you meet the great Jim Dickinson?
AL: Well, I actually had become aware of Jim—living in Memphis I rented a room from this girl named Misty White. Her and her sister and some other girls have a pretty popular rock and roll band called the Hell cats. Misty was really wrapped up in the music community. She’s a great storyteller. I just got a lot of the history of Memphis music living in that house because she was all about it. I was already in love with Big Star, the Replacements—and to find out he had something to do with that I just couldn’t wait to meet him. I had brushes with him—we were aware of each other but it wasn’t until I started to play with Paul Taylor—my drummer now—who grew up with the Allstars. He was in a band for years with Luther and Cody called D-D-T, which was Dickinson-Dickinson and Taylor. Paul even lived out at their house some when he was a teenager. They’re family to him. It was Paul who truly made the connection. I actually got to back up Jim Dickinson on a couple shows before I ever got the nerve up to ask him to produce my first record (This World Is Not My Home). Without Paul playing in the band I don’t know if I would’ve had the nerve. He’s a huge presence…intimidating in his own right, but getting to know him…he’s so…
…Imposing…
AL: …Yes, imposing…that’s a good word for him. He’s imposing, and he deserves every bit of credit he gets. I’d been playing around Memphis a while—doing my own thing by playing corporate and private parties. I’ve got that natural flap ability of the upright bass, and I could stand in on any country, blues or rockabilly outfit to make a living on. I had my own band too—so I’d get hired for all kinds of random events. It was a helluva lot more profitable than what I’m doing now, but this is more rewarding. It was Ward Archer—Archer Records—is a huge music lover who made things happen. I think the first band he signed was the Gamble Brothers. It was kinda like he loved music and he saw the need. They were really taking off in some ways but they just didn’t have any support or label help. Ward had a little bit of money to put a label together and he decided to do it. So, he signed them and he signed Sid Selvidge—who is actually my guitar player’s dad, and then he signed Lily Ashar—an Iranian classical guitarist—just a totally eclectic mix of bands and he also had a girl named Kelly Heard—this beautiful black jazz singer. So, he had this really weird mix of people that he was helping. There was no discrimination—if he loved it and thought it was quality…he helped.
When I met Jim…I was actually playing one of those private parties. I had been hired by the Arts Commission for some sort of fundraiser and it was the first amalgamation of my original band called Amy & the Tramps. It was Scott Bomar on guitar who is the guy who did the music for Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan. Paul Buchignani, who played with the Afghan Wigs was there. Scott Bomar was really helpful when I started out because I had my smattering of original material, but he was bringing things to the table. It was so long ago, but he was the one that bought me the Carla Thomas tune “That Beat” that I recorded on Anchors & Anvils. I guess that was four or five years ago that he brought that song to me. So, ward of Archer records approached me and it was probably a few months before that he called and invited me to lunch. I had actually…Young Avenue Studio was trying to start a new label, but I actually had a contract in my hand from Young Avenue, but I just got a feeling from Ward that really seemed much more homespun. It was a strange deal and I felt more comfortable with Ward. I’m so thankful that I did because he’s so much more of a friend than a label. I wouldn’t call him a benefactor—he was totally artist friendly and it felt more like a collaboration—as far as creating the way we’re going to do…it’s so loose and open-minded. It’s great working with Ward. He’s continually helped me me not to fail as far as being able to go on the road.
It’s just not as easy as people think…
AL: Oh, man. Especially now that I’m at this very strange level where it’s not like go to the club and make what you can. It’s getting to the point where I’m getting invited to open shows for people like the Allstars. We had wonderful fun with this guy Langhorne Slim. I hadn’t heard of him before being invited on that tour, but they’re amazing. When you do that you’re getting $100 guarantees a night—y’know because you’re big enough to get invited on a tour—they think you might bring some people to the table, but you’re not getting the door or getting a percentage. You’re just getting the guarantee. A week on the road with them for that amount a night when gas is $4 a gallon and I’m making sure Paul and Steve are making $100 a day or whatever…there’s no way we could do this without tour support at this point. What’s weird—though we’d be keeping the money if we went back doing what we were doing (laughs).
You still live in Memphis?
AL: Oh yeah.
But you’re in California today…
AL: Yeah, I’m in Santa Cruz in the middle of these fires. It’s really unbelievable.
What’s your approach to songwriting? Is that your main focus? I know you’re an Emmylou Harris fan—I also love her because Gram Parsons discovered her—she’s not necessarily a great songwriter, but she sure does convey an emotion with any material…
AL: Oh, I love Gram Parsons. I’m a huge fan of his. I labor over songwriting. I beat myself up over it. Songwriting is something that I feel like I have to do. There is a reward when you finally do something that is clever, meaningful or worthwhile—they’re just too few and far between for me. I’m totally critical. I know a good song when I hear one, but they’re not necessarily mine. I really don’t have any shame in that. I write constantly, but I make no apologies for playing someone else’s song. Paul is a wonderful songwriter. He’s more prolific than I am. I have a really close friend named Kristy Whitt—she’s not a performer—she’s got a whole other creative outlet, but songwriting is something she loves to do. It’s something she relaxes with and she’s always bringing me songs. I love that. Her songs deserve to be heard. I like being able to be a vehicle for other songwriters’ material.
It’s always indicative of an artist’s depth by what material—other than their own—they choose to cover. I’m very impressed with your rendition of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You”…
AL: Yeah? Well thanks…
Through Luther and Paul you met Jimbo Mathus…
AL: Yeah, that was another Paul connection because Paul had been on the road with Jimbo. Actually it was Paul. I admired Jimbo, but it was Paul who said Jimbo would be good, and Jimbo just out of the blue brought me a song called “Nightingale” he wrote and he thought I’d be great on it. I just loved it, that’s one of my favorites on the road. I love Jimbo—we’ve become really good friends.
So, once again, we’re back recording Anchors & Anvils with Jim Dickinson.
AL: Oh yeah. I really hope I make the next one with Jim. We’re going into the studio during the fall. I’m so excited. It feels like forever since I’ve recorded. They’re releasing Anvils and anchors in the UK like it’s new. They didn’t want me to release anything else until the first of the year so I had to wait, which is probably for the best because every day you discover something new about yourself or a different song you want to record. It’s always a process. I guess it’s only right to do it when you do it. But I’m excited to do record again…
There’s a cohesive mood on Anchors & Anvils—it’s sequenced great. The opener, “Killing Him” is a spooky kind of song. By the way, how long did it take to record Anchors and Anvils?
AL: We paid for the studio for 20 days. It wasn’t a fill 20 days. It was a lot of fitting in musicians schedules—there’s a large cast of people on this record. Nobody came all at once. It was a scheduling nightmare. Some days it would be going down and just goofing off. Other days it might be someone just putting this or that on there. The bulk of it was all recorded live in two or three days. The meat and bulk of the record was just recorded with me, Jason Freeman—my longest running guitarist—who doesn’t play with me any more because he doesn’t like to tour, and Paul cut the record within the first three days. Then everything else was built upon from there.
Jim doesn’t fool around in the studio with un-necessary takes.
AL: You’re right. He doesn’t. Probably being the least experienced of anybody that was in the studio I definitely demanded more takes than necessary. I guess because I felt insecure and I wanted to do it better. But Jim was always right. Always…
“Pointless Drinking” is another favorite of mine.
AL: That’s a Paul Taylor song—my brilliant songwriting drummer. He just played it for me and apparently it was an old one from a couple of years ago. He didn’t want me to record it. He’s got a record out and then he’s got another one in the can that he hasn’t found the right home for. He’s really a genius. He’s got boxes around the house with all these projects around that he hasn’t done anything with but they’re just brilliant. But I heard that song and I felt it was very moving. It’s a funny song, but it’s so true. I just wanted it so bad—it took a couple of weeks before he agreed to let me record it because I think he was saving it for himself. I hope he still releases it. I don’t do it justice.
Well, tell me about recording the Bob Dylan song, “I’ll Remember You” from his Empire Burlesque album. Interesting choice…
AL: There was this concert of his and I can’t remember what it was, but it was an old Betamax concert that I loved of Dylan’s. I just loved it. I didn’t know it was on his Empire Burlesque record. It wasn’t until I went to record it on the first record when we tried to cut it. In my opinion that was the worst Bob Dylan record…
Yeah, but even at his worst, songs like “Seeing The Real You At Last”, “Something Is Burning”, “Dark Eyes” and “I’ll Remember You” are classic songs for anyone else.
AL: It’s a gem of a tune. Every time I sing it, it makes me think of somebody else. I’ll be singing it in my head to the person I met the night before or some old loves, or whatever—I can never go wrong performing that one. I can always think of someone to sing it to. It’s quite a pop song for Bob Dylan to sing isn’t it?
Certainly when you hear your version of it…
AL: The production that album is so bad…
The sonic production in the mid-80s was not a good time for the older rock and rollers…
AL: (Laughs) No, I guess not…
I intend to make your show here in Atlanta next Friday. I’ll bring you some 1940’s produced songs.
AL: Please do. Hey, before you go I’d really like to mention my band I’m touring with. We’ve talked a little about Paul on the drums. Steve Selvidge—he’s a longtime friend of Luther and Cody. Steve’s band was Big Ass Truck. This band that I have right now is definitely the closest thing to having a real band together on the road that I’ve ever had.
It’s a nice rock and roll trio.
AL: Yeah, at first it was economics—I couldn’t afford to bring along anyone else. We don’t even have a tour manager—I do all of that, but it’s grown into such a tight three piece that I prefer it more and more. I don’t think it’s lacking at all. We have a fantasy about doing a band record. The next one we want is true to what we’ve been doing. Sometimes with a couple new songs I say, ‘Oh, I can really hear a violin on this.’ Whatever my little whim is that day. But the next one I’m going to try and keep it close to a band record. I’m hoping when we get home we’ll be more collaborative instead just my ideas or the producers ideas. I want it to be more of a band experience.
What are you listening to in the van?
AL: We’ve been listening to a lot of Captain Beefheart. It’s funny, I have trouble reading in the van. It makes me sick. I get car sick. If I’m lying down it doesn’t bother me.
What are you reading?
AL: This trip I’ve been reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
A girl who sings Bob Dylan and reads Cormac McCarthy…what a dream…
AL: (laughs) I read The Road in the first week.
Read some of the older stuff like Outer Dark, Suttree and Blood Meridian.
AL: I’m almost finished with The Crossing. When I bought it, I didn’t realize it was the second one of the trilogy.
It’s all great…but Suttree and Blood Meridian rank as his best.
AL: I’ve heard about Suttree, I think I’ll read that one next. It’s been a Cormac McCarthy tour for me.
Well, next week, I’ll try and bring you a copy of some old music or maybe a new copy of Cormac for the road…
AL: I would love that so much. Please don’t forget. That would really be awesome.
I look forward to keeping you in our rotation.
AL: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you bothering to write something about me.
I’m sure it won’t be the last time.
AL: I hope not.
South by Southwest
Tennessee heats up Texas
from The Commercial Appeal: March 18, 2008
by Bob Mehr
AUSTIN, Texas—In 2008, the South by Southwest music conference reached what may be a peak in its nearly quarter-century history. Music experts, casual fans and everyone in between descended on the Texas capital for a perfect storm of day parties, nighttime showcases and after-hours events. If you said there wasn’t a single second of the four-day festival where someone wasn’t playing somewhere, you’d not be far wrong.
With so many sounds clattering from every club, corner and crevice of the city, it was hard for anyone to be heard over the din, and yet Memphis certainly made its presence felt, dispatching its largest ever contingent of local performers to SXSW. And those acts covered a wide spectrum, from the progressive hip-hop of Free Sol to the frenetic punk of Jay Reatard.
If there was a true “buzz” act (apart from the well documented and white-hot Reatard and the Memphis-connected but Brooklyn-based MGMT) it was Amy LaVere, who made a pair of showcase appearances, and had many repeat customers coming to catch her at both Antone’s on Thursday and Opal Divine’s Freehouse on Friday.
Since the release of her 2007 sophomore LP Anchors & Anvils, the roots-pop chanteuse has slowly but surely won over a legion of fans and critics—she most recently earned a nod from Esquire Magazine as “like Norah Jones but too sultry for Starbucks,” which is perhaps as good a description as any of the nature of her appeal. LaVere, backed by her crack unit of players, including guitarist Steve Selvidge and drummer Paul Taylor, charmed and beguiled the crowds during both sets, surprising many seeing her for the first time with the rockabilly intensity and spunk of her live act, which is a far cry from the simmering diffident cool of her studio work.
To read the rest of the article click here.
The Next Big Thing: Amy LaVere
from The Daily Mail, UK: March 8, 2008
by Adrian Thrills
A country-soul belle from Memphis with her own take on classic Americana. She should appeal to Norah Jones fans and anyone who loved Robert Plant’s and Alison Krauss’s Raising Sand.
Amy’s new album, Anchors & Anvils, is picking up plaudits in her homeland. A smart and sexy blend of self-penned originals and well-chosen covers such as Bob Dylan’s I’ll Remember You, it came out last year on a small American independent label, Archer Records, and gets a UK release in June. Like Aristazabal Hawkes, of the Guillemots, LaVere also plays the double bass. So, we wait years for a female double bassist to come along and then two arrive at once.
Born in a small town on the border between Texas and Louisiana, 25-year-old Amy spent time in Detroit and Nashville before moving to Memphis in the Nineties. She fronted a teenage punk band, Last Minute, before developing her seductive musical mix of sultry country and playful, funky soul.
Despite a burgeoning acting career that saw her land cameo roles in two Hollywood films, Walk The Line and Black Snake Moan, music is Amy’s first love. She released her debut album, This World Is Not My Home, in 2006 before hooking up with Memphis legend Jim Dickinson, an occasional keyboardist with the Rolling Stones, who produced Anchors & Anvils.
“The songs are all about relationships, but that was never a conscious thing,” says Amy. “I like my songs to be theatrical. I want people to be lifted out of the moment and taken on a journey.”
Amy, who made a low-key UK live debut last month, is expected back here to coincide with the British release of Anchors & Anvils. “There are some artists who can get away with being different,” she says. “I’d like to think that I can be one of them.”
Hear more at: http://www.myspace.com/amylavere
Amy LaVere: Anchors and Anvils
from Popular Music and Society: by George H. Lewis
OK, so here’s a girl who was born in Louisiana, fronted a punk band in Detroit in her teens, drifted down to Nashville, eloped with a bass player, painted houses for a living across Tennessee and Kentucky, landed at Misty White’s boarding house in Memphis. By then, she could slap the upright with the best of them and played on Beale Street for spare change during the day while trading stories with Misty at night (Misty toured with Townes Van Zandt and was also drummer for Cat Soko and the Hellcats). Then, to cap things off, she gets a job as tour guide for Sun Studios and winds up playing Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic, I Walk The Line. This is someone who, when she decides to cover a Bob Dylan song on her stellar Jim Dickinson produced album, Anchors & Anvils, certainly seems entitled to do so. From changing her name (from Fant to LaVere), reinventing herself as she roamed the country collecting tall tales and experience, challenging established musicians in a musicians town, capturing the hearts and imaginations of the locals with wistful, almost comic performances laced through and through with huge talent, and recording an album that became the talk of that town, she and Dylan (in his earlier formative years) certainly have some things in common.
Amy’s voice, like Bob’s, is unique and distinctive. Each has developed a personal style and phrasing that helps to capture any song, whether penned by themselves or another, making it instantly recognizable as their own. If Bob’s early vocals referenced Woody Guthrie, Amy’s seem to reference another Amy—Amy Allison (Mose Allison’s hugely talented daughter), And, to push a point, both Amys echo the sound and vocal styling of Rosie (Hamblin) of The Originals, who had a huge teen radio hit in 1960 with “Angel Baby,” a song no doubt dear to Dylan’s heart. Picture a young woman in a local Memphis club like Murphys, slapping an upright bass that is taller than herself, singing homegrown songs like “This World Is Not My Home” and “Time Is A Train” and you perhaps begin to get the picture. Amy LaVere is a large talent who, in Memphis, is just beginning to blossom. And Anchors & Anvils, her second album for local Archer Records, is proof—as innovative and fully realized a musical work as any I have heard in these times.
No small partner to LaVere’s triumph in Anchors & Anvils is it’s producer, the legendary Jim Dickinson (who has worked on and off with Bob Dylan for four decades) and who also plays wurlitzer across the album cuts and contributes mightily to the feel and musical texture of this work. Recorded at his own Zebra Ranch Studio, Dickinson feels it is one of the best albums he has ever helped make. “As a producer,” he has said, “you take the artist out to the edge of the cliff, where they have to learn to trust you. And of course you push ‘em off. Amy has the wings to fly…plus she can triple-slap the upright bass like Willie Dixon on steroids.” Other terrific players on this album include multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor on drums and guitar (even sitar, at one point), Chris Scruggs (grandson of Earl) on steel, and Bob Furgo, famed Leonard Cohen sideman, on the aptly named “gypsy” violin. Together these artists create a unique sound—a sort of swamp country swirled with gypsy jazz, all wrapped in the musical aura of Memphis.
Anvils and anchors—those relationships that tie us down, but also bind us to love, to others and to ourselves—are the literal themes of this album. It kicks off hard with a LaVere original, “Killing Him,” with Amy’s at-once childlike and weathered voice telling a tale of homicidal passion as the singer, after murdering her lover, keeps repeating “killing him didn’t make the love go away,” over and over, as a near mantra of devotion. Based on a news clip LaVere saw about a woman who murdered her husband of 30 years, the song rides on a swampy bass & drum line through which Furgo weaves dark ribbons of gypsy violin to create a spooky feel of inevitability and regret. LaVere and Furgo later combine in teasing Memphis Queen Carla Thomas’ song “The Beat” into a ragged tango, played out walking down a lonesome highway where the singer, rejected by her lover and “lost in a trance,” begins to hear the song of her own two feet, the possibility of an unrealized steadiness in her life—as they sound the strange beat of striding a now empty road. Alcohol, another well documented anvil and anchor of country songs (especially) is addressed head-on in Paul Taylor’s “Pointless Drinking,” where the firmly hit notes of a gospel piano lead into a poignantly frank admission that “I’m not an actor, but I act like I am…pretending my days hold the value of gold, when they only hold one thing, and it’s all that I’ve got…pointless drinking.”
Yet, just as all sounds lost, LaVere hits us with the sweetly tender “Tennessee Valentine,” a classic country waltz, all romantic violins and smooth pedal steel, in which the singer is dancing under the moon with her lover and kissing beneath the pines—“you hold the key to my melody, a song that is just you and me.” And further on, near the album’s close, she has us contemplate in the mischievous and sly “Cupid’s Arrow” a situation in which the singer discovers Cupid’s bow and arrow in a general store “full of nothing I was there for.” She exchanges one of her songs, which she has saved in her pocket, for the bow and arrow, then heads to the town park to practice her aim. When she gets really good, the singer goes hunting for a lover who had “hurt her long ago,” intending to send a bolt flying towards his heart. But, ruing her ideas of “revenge and redemption” and realizing she could never “kill him all alone”—that even that would not make the love go away—she winds up returning the bow and arrow to the store, getting back “this song”—the price of their purchase in the first place.
Fittingly, Anchors & Anvils closes with a Bob Dylan song. Seldom are other artists able to bring enough of themselves to a Dylan song to make it their own. Here, Amy LaVere does just that with the wistful and delicate “I’ll Remember You.” Dylan’s bitter-sweet lyrics of a long ago lover, sung by LaVere as part regret and part fragile affirmation, close this album perfectly; “Though I’d never say that I’d done it the way that you’d have liked me to…in the end, my dear sweet friend, I’ll remember you.”
Made For Music
Amy LaVere also finds time for Hollywood, Sun Studios
from Creative Loafing: March 5, 2008
by Jeff Hahne
Music runs through Amy LaVere’s veins. You can hear the passion she has for it in her voice. She even finds time when she’s not performing to give tours at Sun Studios in Memphis—for the money, but also for the enjoyment.
Acting? Sure, why not throw that into the mix, as well. “I love acting, but I started playing in my first band when I was 14 and fell in love with that type of performance,” she says by phone from a Vietnamese restaurant in Memphis. “I’ve done a couple of bit parts that will turn up at film festivals this year, but I haven’t really had time to really pursue acting.”
The roles she has taken so far—small parts in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and the Samuel L. Jackson/Christina Ricci movie Black Snake Moan included—have found her while her focus remains music. “Either of those professions takes so much energy, you have to choose one,” she says. “I enjoy both a lot and I wouldn’t turn down a great part, but as far as searching for an agent and jockeying for a great role—I don’t have the energy to put into that.”
She says it’s not a stretch to think of doing both because she views each as a form of artistic expression. When you look at the Hollywood list of those in both fields, it can take a while to find them all—Billy Bob Thornton, Jared Leto, Juliette Lewis, Keanu Reeves, Jack Black, Kevin Bacon, Jada Pinkett Smith, Russell Crowe, Jamie Foxx and the list goes on ...
“I’m not an actor, but I act like I am/ I really am awful, but I act like I’m not,” she sings on “Pointless Drinking.” Though the song is actually written by her drummer, Paul Taylor, LaVere says she relates to the lyrics. “I begged and begged to record that song because I related to it so well,” she says.
LaVere’s second album, last year’s Anchors & Anvils, showcases her sweet, high-pitched vocals over a mix of music that lies somewhere in the middle of jazz, country and swing. While the album has a few guest spots taken up by Jimbo Mathus of the Squirrel Nut Zippers and legendary producer Jim Dickinson, her touring band remains a trio.
“When we scale down to a three piece—which is how I’ve always played live—it has a lot more energy and punch,” LaVere says. “The three-piece becomes a little bit more aggressive.”
It’s hard to imagine that the soft vocal stylings of LaVere were initially honed in the punk outfit Last Minute. “I fronted a band and flailed my arms and screamed,” she says. “It was probably more of a teen angst band instead of what people think of when you hear punk band. It was definitely some sort of strange.”
While she doesn’t like to limit herself by a particular genre, she says that the music records is the right fit for the moment. “I’m not as angry as I was when I was 15 years old,” LaVere says, “but I’m also not as content and relaxed as I was when I recorded Anchors & Anvils.”
Her first album, ‘06s This World is Not My Home, is looked at as a good representation of her at that time and she says she doesn’t like or dislike it when compared to her more recent effort. The only thing that has changed is the energy that comes forth when performing those songs when compared to the energy you have to find when creating music in a studio.
She’s tried to tour consistently over the last year and recently made their first trip to London. With any luck, she’ll wrap up a third album this year and release it early in 2009.
“I’m moving in a more aggressive direction,” LaVere says. “I’m obsessed with (working on it). If you asked me last month, I would have said it’s going to be a band record as a three-piece to represent what we’re doing live. This week, I’m thinking more about a random instrument that I’d like to hear on a given song and would encompass more than a three-piece. I’m still developing it in my mind, I suppose.”
Amy LaVere will perform at The Milestone on March 6 with The Bittersweets and Andy the Doorbum. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 on the day of the show.
Amy LaVere
from San Francisco Examiner: November 16, 2007
Memphis-based bass player and songwriter Amy LaVere was recently nominated as best emerging artist by the Americana Music Association. LaVere played Wanda Jackson in “Walk the Line,” but her gypsy-jazz-meets-honky-tonk music is about as far from rockabilly as you can get.
“Anchors & Anvils” (Archer) lets LaVere apply her sultry, late night vocals to a collection that blends originals with well-chosen covers as her backing band moves from blues to country to jazz without missing a beat.
LaVere’s sly vocal is full of dark humor on “Overcome,” a despondent waltz that describes a messy house in the midst of a rainstorm that’s emotional as well as actual. “Pointless Drinking” blends Memphis soul and country to deliver a heartbroken lament spiked by a bit of mordant humor.
American Gypsy
from The Santa Barbara Independent: November 15, 2007
by Joel Aurora
It’s no surprise that singer/songwriter and stand-up bassist Amy LaVere lived in 13 different towns throughout the country before entering high school. The country-jazz-gypsy-funk stylings of her first two albums could have come only from a girl well-versed in Americana. In LaVere’s latest offering, Anchors & Anvils, her swooning vocals merge with twangy bass, jazz-lounge percussion, and a deliciously baleful musing on a murder of passion that “didn’t make the love go away”?—?and that’s just in the opening track. While decidedly unclassifiable, LaVere’s style is reminiscent of Norah Jones at her darkest and most world-weary, and the Southern folksiness of Dolly Parton. Wildly innovative and several decades in the making, LaVere’s sound is one of the coolest to emerge out of the modern alt-country movement in recent years.
LaVery Cool
from Nashville Scene: November 8, 2007
If Guinness World Records had a listing for the most occurrences in one night of the phrase, “I mean, I’m not a lesbian, but I’d do her,” then Amy LaVere’s Friday-night set at The Basement, part of the Americana Music Festival, would be the record-holder. (Undercover Spin agents overheard the phrase at least six or seven times.) The sultry, coquettish singer hypnotized the crowd—her prodigious skills on the upright bass and alluring sex-kitten voice were a narcotic combination. Oh, and her music’s pretty good too.
LaVere was our nightcap on an evening that started at Mercy Lounge, where Buddy Miller kicked things off with a typically superb set featuring probably the best band of the festival—drummer Brady Blade, bassist Chris Donohue and keyboardist/accordionist Phil Madeira. Country star Lee Ann Womack surprised the crowd by jumping onstage for one of Miller’s tunes. Other Friday highlights included the Kane Welch Kaplin set at 3rd & Lindsley and Blue Mountain, who put on a rollicking performance at The Basement before LaVere. (Btw, did we mention how awesome LaVere was?) Saturday’s highlight was Dale Watson’s early set at Mercy Lounge. The Texas honky-tonker has it all—charm, guitar licks and a baritone voice to die for. Our favorite moment was his introduction to “Where Do You Want It?”—a song about the statement Billy Joe Shaver allegedly made before shooting some poor sap outside Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon in March. “He asked him where he wanted to get shot,” Watson said of his friend Shaver. “Now that’s a kind son of a gun! How many people are that nice?” After Watson’s real-deal set, the Texas Sapphires—the final act on Saturday’s Mercy lineup—came off like a bunch of hipster honky-tonk posers, which highlighted everything we love (authentically brilliant roots artists) and hate (punk rockers recasting themselves as down-home country folk) about the Americana scene. And how about that LaVere?
It’s Anchors Away for Amy LaVere
from An Honest Tune: October 31, 2007
by Andria Lisle
What if the proverbial girl next door traded in her loose ponytail and cut-off jeans for an upright bass and a trick bag of sultry vocals? She’d probably seem a lot like Memphian Amy LaVere, who, at 32, looks like a seventeen-year old Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz, yet sings like the prodigal offspring of Bob Wills and Lotte Lenya.
Take the opening track on LaVere’s sophomore CD, Anchors & Anvils. “He didn’t come home ‘til the light of the day/She’d have to kill him to get him to stay,” she muses in a self-penned campfire rave-up of Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, sadly concluding, “Killing him didn’t make the love go away.”
Oh well - on Anchors & Anvils’ next track, “Tennessee Valentine,” LaVere has a new suitor to conquest, as she bends the melody like a mythological siren, luring her target to an easy death.
Offstage, her seductive side takes a back seat, leaving LaVere more humble and down-to-earth than her bass-toting, bad girl persona might reveal. A mere minute of conversation, and it’s clear that the flurry of attentive males who join her on the album - including Memphis musicians like iconic producer Jim Dickinson, drummer Paul Taylor, and violinist Tommy Burroughs, and Nashville-based steel guitar wunderkind Chris Scruggs, who dubbed her “an Annie Oakley of the bass” - are fully tuned into her down-to-earth nature and bona fide musical sensibilities.
“It’s been a little dream of mine since I moved to Memphis to meet Jim, let alone have him produce my record,” says LaVere, also an accomplished actress who portrayed Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, and more recently, played Christina Ricci’s partying gal pal in Black Snake Moan.
“When I got the budget, Jim was the obvious way to go,” LaVere explains. “I handpicked the material, and I knew the cast of characters I wanted to be involved with. Jim was more supportive, as opposed to providing so much input on the front end.”
Now that Anchors & Anvils is garnering rave reviews, the Louisiana-born LaVere, who settled in Memphis eight years ago, is hammering the highways to promote the new record. “We’re shooting for 35 dates in six-and-a-half weeks,” she says of the tour, which includes stops in New York, California, and Calgary, Canada.
“I got to open up for Amos Lee at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta recently,” she says. “It was a 1500-seat theater, a sold-out concert, and I never had a better show.”
“A few days ago, we played the Two-Stick in Oxford, Mississippi,” she continues. “At first, I was concerned that all the [Ole Miss] students had gone home, but the 25 or 30 people who were there were really appreciative, and I sold thirteen CDs. You know, any club that’s got great sushi and cold Pabst Blue Ribbon is close to my heart!”
A perennial optimist, LaVere notes that, “making a good living playing music is a lifelong commitment.” Invoking country road hog Willie Nelson, she declares, a little starry-eyed, “I really admire the way he’s set up his lifestyle.”
Letting out a heady sigh, followed by a captivatingly earthy giggle, LaVere pauses, then proclaims wholeheartedly, “This is really the dream for me.”
IndieBrew presents Amy LaVere
from NUVO: October 25, 2007
by Scott Hall
Amy LaVere sings with the wisdom of a world-weary barfly and the innocent voice of a small girl, and it’s no put-on.
“People call my house and ask if my mom is home,” the 32-year-old artist admits with a chuckle. “It’s not an athletic voice. It’s a storytelling voice.”
But the full effect comes through only in her live show, as the petite, auburn-haired beauty fronts a band while manhandling a towering bass.
“It suits me ergonomically,” she says of her chosen instrument. “To me, it’s easier than guitar, because it’s just one note at a time, and I don’t have to wear something heavy strapped over me. And you can dance with it!”
Lovers of warm and witty roots music can see for themselves Saturday, when the Memphis-based performer brings her trio to Danville, Ind.‘s historic Royal Theater. The evening is part of IndieBrew’s series of beer- and family-friendly concerts at the venue, just west of Indy on Rockville Road.
LaVere, who also plays on Friday at Bear’s Place in Bloomington, Ind., began her music career as a teenage punk rocker but later made her name on Nashville’s retro-country scene. After relocating to Memphis a few years ago, she released her 2006 debut album, This World is Not My Home, on the local Archer Records label. Jim Dickinson, known for his work with Big Star, The Replacements, Ry Cooder and countless other acts, produced her latest effort, Anchors & Anvils.
Like its predecessor, LaVere’s second album is rooted in classic country and ‘20s gypsy jazz, but with hints of rock, funk and other flavors. A glowing review this summer on NPR’s Fresh Air has given LaVere’s career a boost, as have small acting roles in Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan and Walk the Line.
She writes about half of her material. Two standout cuts on the new disc, including “Pointless Drinking” and “People Get Mad,” were penned by her drummer, Paul Taylor. The album closes with a glorious take on Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You.”
Though she feels pressure to be more prolific, she also takes pride in selecting and interpreting other writers’ songs. “I’m hypercritical of my own stuff,” LaVere says. “I wouldn’t want to throw crap out there just because it’s mine.”
Artist offers style and substance on provacative new album
from Cordele Dispatch (Indianapolis): October 23, 2007
by Wade Coggeshall
Don’t let the good looks, intoxicating melodies, and bewitching voice fool you. There’s something innately sinister about Amy LaVere’s second CD, “Anchors & Anvils,” a beguiling set of classic country music with an obvious jazz influence.
Maybe it’s the devilish stories she tells in her signature voice — seductive and coy all at once. LaVere was inspired to write the sultry “Killing Him,” for example, after watching a woman on the news arrested after murdering her husband who was screaming, “Killin’ him didn’t make the love go away!”
Such is LaVere’s antithetical nature.
One area she seemed destined for was a life in country music. Born in Shreveport, LaVere grew up in the small town of Bethany on the Texas/Louisiana border. Her parents, both musicians, instilled in her a passion for country music.
“We were definitely country folk,” LaVere said. “We hunted most everything we ate and kept an acre garden.”
By the time she entered high school, her family had moved 13 times because of her father’s job with General Motors. LaVere fronted an art-rock band while living in Detroit.
“I guess you get to that age where country music just isn’t angry enough,” she said. “You’re pretty frustrated somewhere between 14 and 18. At least I was anyway. It was natural for me to go that route.”
Her itinerant upbringing contributed to LaVere’s discreetly amalgamable style. By age 23 she was living in a Nashville boarding house that doubled as an artist alcove. That’s when she discovered the upright bass — now her instrument of choice.
“What’s not to like?” she said. “You don’t have something strapped on you. You can dance with it while you play it. It is a bit of a prop, I know. I was a drummer in my first band, and I’ve always had a natural ability at percussion. It just suited me.”
It also helps make her unusual sound accessible to a wide audience.
“I’ve played all kinds of places,” said LaVere, who was nominated for Best New Emerging Artist by the Americana Music Association. “We can play a punk rock club, and then the next night we’re at a winery. For whatever reason, it doesn’t seem to matter. I don’t have a particular market. I just think we play good music. It seems to appeal to a lot of people.”
She credits much of the success of “Anchors & Anvils” to producer Jim Dickinson, whose musicianship has appeared on recordings by such legends as Aretha Franklin and The Rolling Stones, and who’s performed with Bob Dylan for some 40 years now.
“He has such a strong personality and reputation,” LaVere said. “I wanted to work with him so badly because of who he had worked with previously and the records I really admired that he played on.”
LaVere admitted to an initial fear of how much control Dickinson may try to assume during the recording process. Instead the experience was an affirmation of everything she’s done with her music career so far.
“He was very encouraging,” LaVere said. “Everything I said, he just kept saying, ‘Let’s try it.’ By the time it was all said and done, it felt like we had just gotten started and I was just starting to feel comfortable with him and myself.”
The same mindset applies to LaVere’s burgeoning acting career, which includes roles in “Walk the Line” and “Black Snake Moan.” This medium scares her the most.
“I’ve found acting to be more of a vulnerable position to be in, but I love it just the same,” LaVere said.
There’s something permanent about it. She cites Alison Arngrim, who portrayed Nellie Oleson, Laura Ingalls’ enemy on the TV show “Little House on the Prairie.” Arngrim once described the role as “like having PMS for seven years.”
“Apparently even today people still flip that woman off when they see her in person,” LaVere said. “They can’t unattach the persona. Where in music I can sing a story about somebody who’s awful or even put myself in the shoes of someone awful, but then I get to sing another song. An acting role can be all or nothing, and at the end of the day people won’t necessarily separate you from the role you’ve played.”
Nonetheless, both sides suit LaVere.
“It’s really the same thing,” she said of music and acting. “Anytime you’re playing music, it’s always a story. I think I’m more of a storyteller than I am a singer or a bass player. And for me acting is telling a story.”
LaVere to Perform This Weekend
from Glen Falls Post-Star: October 20, 2007
by Mike Curtin
Sporting an intoxicating blend of jazz, pop, swing, rockabilly and “old school” country, Amu Lavere is an artist destined not to remain on the club circuit for long. Equal parts Brenda Lee, Dolly Parton and Norah Jones, her feathery voice defies pat categorization, as she creates a haunting ambiance reminiscent of a female Chris Isaak.
It’s a winning formula that has resulted in rave reviews for her two albums, and this year a nomination from the Americana Music Association for best “New and Emerging Artist”.
She’ll showcase songs from her latest recording “Anchors & Anvils.”
Born in Texas, she moved with her family 13 times before they finally settled in Detroit. After first fronting a punk band, she turned her attention to a more earthy sound. By the early ‘90s, she was an accomplished stand-up bass player and half of the “roots” duo The Gabe & Amy Show.
In 2006, she released her solo debut, “The World Is Not My Home,” for the independent Memphis-based Archer Records.
Among her fans was Jim Dickinson, the famed Memphis sideman-producer, whose packed resume includes work with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, Big Star and the Replacements, and who signed on as producer for Lavere’s followup disc.
Her project also attracted a “who’s who” of Southern musicians, including guitarist Jimbo Mathus from the Squirrel Nut Zippers and bluegrass scion Chris Scruggs for a mix of orginal and cover turnes, chief among them a sinuous version of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You”.
Lavere is featured in the recent Farrelly Brothers remake of “The Heartbreak Kid,” joining David Bowie, Matthew Sweet, the Flaming Lips and others on the movie soundtrack.
This is far from her first film work. In 2005 she was cast as the young Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash bio-pic “Walk the Line,” and earlier this year had a supporting role alongside Samuel Jackson, Christian Ricci and Justin Timberlake in “Black Snake Moan”.
Joining her for tonight’s show is guitarist Steve Selvidge and drummer Paul Taylor.
Amy LaVere: Anchors and Anvils
Archer Records
from Offbeat Magazine: September 2007
by Jeff Hannusch
Produced by Jim Dickinson this is quite an interesting one. Amy LaVere is a singer/songwriter/upright bass player (quite a unique combination) who hails from Memphis. (Oh she’s an actress too, having appeared in Walk the Line.) LaVere has several different combinations of musicians backing her here, including two violinists.
That doesn’t sound odd except one plays gypsy jazz, the other classic country. Although the material here often deal with morbid subjects (no less than three songs refer to offing one’s significant other) it’s often quite attractive. The opening track, “Killing Him,” is a bizarre and sad tale set to a hypnotic beat wound by a steel guitar and gypsy violin. Hard to believe that song would be followed by a lush country love ballad titled “Tennessee Valentine.” LaVere covers Carla Thomas “That Beat,” but it’s hardly a straight cover. Dickinson and LaVere take the song and make it sound like Romanian R&B. The title of this CD comes from the telling lyrics of “Overcome” which warns of the dangers of consumerism. Maybe the best way to describe this music is as classic country/gypsy jazz. There are a few awkward moments here, but Anchors & Anvils is well worth checking out, and I’d love to see her live.
Amy LaVere: Songwriter We’d Like to Get to Know Better
from Harp Magazine: July/August 2007
by Randy Harward
Amy Lavere’s voice is a sweet rasp that contradicts the heaviness implied by the title of her Jim Dickinson-produced Anchors & Anvils (Archer) and that big-ass bass she slaps around onstage. The sweetness pervades the Memphis musician’s dreamy pop songs, channeling 1950s proms, Twin Peaks/Badalamenti surreality and just a bit of roadhouse tonk to beguile everyone from truckers to beat poets to ?uestlove and Dickinson…
Even with allergies attacking, Amy Lavere’s voice is a sweet rasp that contradicts the heaviness implied by the title of her Jim Dickinson-produced Anchors & Anvils (Archer) and that big-ass bass she slaps around onstage. The sweetness pervades the Memphis musician’s dreamy pop songs, channeling 1950s proms, Twin Peaks/Badalamenti surreality and just a bit of roadhouse tonk to beguile everyone from truckers to beat poets to ?uestlove and Dickinson.
HARP: So your song “Killing Him” is really gangsta, right?
Well, it works [like a gangsta rap song]. A woman had been married over 30 years and she had murdered her husband. She was in handcuffs on the news, bent over screaming “Killing him didn’t make the love go away!” I thought that was pretty heavy-duty.
HARP:?uestlove is your top friend on MySpace. You guys tight?
I gave a tour to him at Sun Studio and we started MySpacing back and forth a little bit. He said my tour was the best rock ‘n’ roll tour he’d ever taken. I think he’s great.
HARP: Jim Dickinson producing your album is one thing, but it’s quite another for him to say you can “triple-slap the double bass like Willie Dixon on steroids.” Have you ever taken steroids?
[laughs] No, but Jim had seen me play a lot and I do kind of have an alter ego where I do a very high-energy show, when appropriate. And none of my records show the full scope of what I’m capable of on the upright bass because [on the records] I’m more concerned with the songs and the material being strong. But yeah, live, definitely I like to triple-slap the upright bass.
Amy LaVere
Country/Roots
from The Philadelphia Inquirer: July 21, 2007
by Nick Cristiano
Amy LaVere’s second album begins with murder. On her own “Killing Him,” the singer observes that “Killing him didn’t make her love go away.” She uses the third person but sounds as if she’s making a confession, her breathy voice riding over a moody, mongrel mix that includes Wurlitzer, steel guitar, gypsy violin, and her own upright bass.
From this striking start, LaVere and returning producer Jim Dickinson, the Memphis maestro, build on the artistic success of last year’s This World Is Not My Home. Offering up the open-hearted invitation of “Tennessee Valentine,” wallowing in the despair of “Pointless Drinking,” and closing with an airily beautiful reading of Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You,” LaVere is just as beguiling as she was on This World, but even stronger and more self-assured in terms of material and performance.
Anchors and Anvils (Archer)
from No Depression Magazine: July/August 2007
by Roy Kasten
Memphis bassist and singer Amy LaVere’s 2005 debut “This World Is Not My Home” showed a promising touch with jazz swing and country boogie…
Memphis bassist and singer Amy LaVere’s 2005 debut “This World Is Not My Home” showed a promising touch with jazz swing and country boogie but was undercut by somewhat underdeveloped original material. Her second album makes substantial amends; there are only three originals this time, all of them solid.
The riveting opener “Killing Him” gets right all the keen, human details of a love turned toward darkness - “Love weighed on her heart like marble stone/Flash of a knife, he was gone” - and then transitions into a lovely waltz, “Tennessee Valentine,” that sounds like a country pop standard from Tennessee Ernie Ford. “Pointless Drinking” works the kind of sing-song country melody Elivs Costello favors, but with a lyric of warm unforced humor: “Will I ever unharden and stop showing my ass?/Will those eternal bartenders ever stop filling this half-empty glass?”
“Classic country gypsy jazz,” LaVere likes to call her approach, which is close enough for shorthand. Producer Jim Dickinson keeps the setting loose and live, like a mostly unplugged Beale Street session, and too rhythmically physical to feel scripted.
The album’s lone misstep, the funky “People Get Mad,” proves LaVere isn’t ready for the chitlin circuit. But Dickinson rarely pushes the styles beyond the limits of LaVere’s voice, which is supple and youthful, with unaffected traces of Billie Holiday around the edges. When she closes with a smart, unstrained version of Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You,” it’s like hearing it for the first, even finest time.
Standup Lass
Anchors and Anvils (Archer)
from The Boston Herald: July 20, 2007
by Nate Dow
LaVere’s music is as unique as the pretty and petite songstress, who’s half the size of the standup bass she plays. Part sultry torch singer, part racy raconteuse, LaVere both seduces and amuses. Though the three originals, with their ‘50s rock/country sensibility, stand out, the seven covers - from Paul Taylor’s “Pointless Drinking” to Dylan’s obscure “I’ll Remember You” - are delights as rendered by LaVere with help from legendary Memphis, Tenn., producer Jim Dickinson.
Amy LaVere “Anchors & Anvils” Archer
from The Washington Post: July 20, 2007
by Mike Joyce
Singer-songwriter Amy LaVere has a promising film career; she recently appeared in “Black Snake Moan.” But she might have to carve out more time on the road if her new CD, “Anchors & Anvils,” gets the exposure it deserves. Produced by Memphis maestro Jim Dickinson, the album generates a fearless energy, as LaVere freely draws on country, pop, blues and jazz traditions with shrewd assurance. What she lacks in vocal power, she makes up with seductive charm, a propulsive upright bass and a gift for noirish storytelling that’s impossible to overlook on “Killing Him” and other tracks.
Amy LaVere
Anchors and Anvils (Archer)
from American Songwriter Magazine: July/August 2007
by David Meade
As to why Amy LaVere’s nearly flawless “Anchors and Anvils” is being discussed in this particular section [reviews] of the magazine and not in the cover feature, I have no idea. LaVere’s voice, equal parts Dolly Parton, Billie Holiday, Liz Phair and Shirley Temple is a stunningly sensual instrument capable of delivering the line “Killing him didn’t make the love go away” with an egalitarian empathy normally found in God’s most noble creatures, such as, say, angles or unicorns. As if her voice and songwriting weren’t enough…
As to why Amy LaVere’s nearly flawless “Anchors and Anvils” is being discussed in this particular section [reviews] of the magazine and not in the cover feature, I have no idea. LaVere’s voice, equal parts Dolly Parton, Billie Holiday, Liz Phair and Shirley Temple is a stunningly sensual instrument capable of delivering the line “Killing him didn’t make the love go away” with an egalitarian empathy normally found in God’s most noble creatures, such as, say, angles or unicorns. As if her voice and songwriting weren’t enough…LaVere also happens to be an ace upright bassist, capable of triple slapping in the style of Willie Dixon and twirling that non-insubstantial instrument like a child’s toy. These sort of fireworks don’t often enter into the mix of “Anchors and Anvils,” the contents of which remain demurely restrained in their bodice most of the time. There is an undeniable swagger and croon to the proceedings; it’s as if the ablum’s butt is from Memphis but its heart lives in Nashville, circa 1963. When LaVere is not pining for a lover, she is usually thinking of hurting him, often against her better judgment: Witness the aforementioned “Killing Him” and “Cupid’s Arrow.” This is the future folks: get on board while you can still say “I told you so.”
Amy LaVere
Anchors and Anvils (Archer)
from Relix Magazine: July 2007
by Jeff Tamarkin
Amy LaVere’s voice is so slight that at times you expect her to break in half. But she doesn’t need magnum force to make herself heard-the Memphis belle hurls herself fully into every song on this sophmore effort, produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson (Big Star, Dylan, Stones). LaVere, who also plays upright bass throughout the record, glides seamlessly from country weepers (“Pointless Drinking”) to wah-wah-rific funk (“People Get Mad”) and a Gypsy-fied Carla Thomas cover (“That Beat”), supported by a range of keyboards, violin, steel and Hawaiian guitars, even a sitar. Nothing lightweight about this powerhouse.
The Talk About Amy LaVere
—a summary of quotes from the citics
from Karen Leipziger: June 25th, 2007
The critics are talking about AMY LAVERE’s ANCHORS & ANVILS:
“flawless…LaVere’s voice, equal parts Dolly Parton, Billie Holiday, Liz Phair and Shirley Temple is a stunningly sensual instrument capable of delivering the line ‘Killing him didn’t make the love go away’ with an egalitarian empathy normally found in God’s most noble creatures, such as, say, angles or unicorns. As if her voice and songwriting weren’t enough…LaVere also happens to be an ace upright bassist, capable of triple slapping in the style of Willie Dixon and twirling that non-insubstantial instrument like a child’s toy…There is an undeniable swagger and croon to the proceedings; it’s as if the album’s butt is from Memphis but its heart lives in Nashville, circa 1963…This is the future folks: get on board while you can still say ‘I told you so.’” (David Meade/American Songwriter)
“...a sweet-voiced gal with a slightly twisted world view, playing music rooted in old-school honky-tonk (upright bass, which she plays herself, steel, fiddle, crackin’ drums, etc.) singing about revenge and redemption, but also regular stuff — dirty dishes, piles of laundry and broken hearts…There’s a bit of gypsy tango, some funky-tonk and breezy-jazz inflections, but mostly this is barroom country played with heart and soul. Definitely an artist to watch.” (Blair Jackson/Mix Magazine)
“Amy LaVere’s voice is so slight that at times you expect her to break in half. But she doesn’t need magnum force to make herself heard-the Memphis belle hurls herself fully into every song on this sophomore effort, produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson (Big Star, Dylan, Stones). LaVere, who also plays upright bass throughout the record, glides seamlessly from country weepers (“Pointless Drinking”) to wah-wah-rific funk (“People Get Mad”) and a Gypsy-fied Carla Thomas cover (“That Beat”), supported by a range of keyboards, violin, steel and Hawaiian guitars, even a sitar. Nothing lightweight about this powerhouse. (Jeff Tamarkin/Relix Magazine)
“the riveting opener ‘Killing Him’ gets right all the keen, human details of a love turned toward darkness…and then transitions into a lovely waltz, ‘Tennessee Valentine’ that sounds like a country pop standard…LaVere’s voice…is supple and youthful, with unaffected traces of Billie Holliday around the edges. When she closes with a smart, unstrained version of Dylan’s ‘I’ll Remember You’, it’s like hearing the song for the first, even finest time.” (Roy Kasten/No Depression)
“On her second album, the Jim Dickinson-produced Anchors and Anvils, her sweet, wistful voice inhabits 10 gorgeous compositions, many of which she penned…she’s one to keep an eye on.” (Abby White/Performing Songwriter)’
“an alluring mix of country, blues, torch songs and a hint of Gypsy jazz.” (Shay Quillen/San Jose Mercury News)
“Amy Lavere has it all: acting chops, musical prowess, and heart-stopping beauty…[Her new album] Anchors & Anvils, a stunning collection of 10 songs featuring her emotionally potent voice set among songs that waver between genres: country, gypsy, cool jazz, pop…”(Glen Starkey/New Times SLO)
“The upright bass is not an inherently sexy instrument, but put a bow in the hands of bass-player Amy LaVere and pipe in her intoxicatingly-sultry, diaphanous, baby doll voice and you might just have to recalibrate your impression of the instrument…The album’s stand-out track is one LaVere penned—a brazen ode to a murder of passion called ‘Killing Him’, that in flawless film noir-style sports the sinister refrain ‘Killing him didn’t make the love go away.’” (Amanda Martinez/Good Times)
“jazz-influenced country music that is smart and sexy; filled with spooky love, twangy ache, sultry torch and gutsy blues that is totally unpredictable and relentlessly daring.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
“smart and sweet” (Bob Strauss/Los Angeles Daily News)
“5 Reasons To Live: a Memphis stew of R&B, rock, and country-blues produced by Jim Dickinson (Big Star, the Replacements)...sings in a deceptively wispy voice that has a lot of strength coursing beneath it.” (Ken Tucker/Entertainment Weekly)
Folk Rock Blues
Amy LaVere, “Anchors and Anvils” - Archer (5 stars out of 5)
from Chicago Heights Star: June 21, 2007
by John Everson
One of my favorite discs of the year so far comes from stand-up bassist and singer-songwriter Amy LaVere.
Throughout her new disc, “Anchors & Anvils,” you can hear a twinkle of a quietly rebellious smile as she sings of the mundane frustrations of women locked in a thankless world of dishwashing, laundry and unappreciative louts.
The 10-song CD smolders with hidden, understated passions while strolling across a tapestry of classic American music styles.
LaVere sings with an innocence that belies the desperation of some of the lyrics and which ultimately makes the performances even more gripping.
One of my favorite discs of the year so far comes from stand-up bassist and singer-songwriter Amy LaVere.
Throughout her new disc, “Anchors & Anvils,” you can hear a twinkle of a quietly rebellious smile as she sings of the mundane frustrations of women locked in a thankless world of dishwashing, laundry and unappreciative louts.
The 10-song CD smolders with hidden, understated passions while strolling across a tapestry of classic American music styles.
LaVere sings with an innocence that belies the desperation of some of the lyrics and which ultimately makes the performances even more gripping.
LaVere grew up on the border of Texas and Louisiana, and you can hear those influences in her delivery, which is sometimes reminiscent of the girlish whisper of Kim Fox as well as country-pop chanteuses of the 1950s.
In the first track, a LaVere original with a hint of John Fogerty in the guitar, she sings of a couple about to break up:
“She’d have to kill him to get him to stay.”
It is standard frustrated lover fare there, but she immediately follows that with a deadpan delivery chorus that simply repeats:
“Killing him didn’t make the love go away.”
It is that kind of unexpected lyric that pervades this release, even in the songs LaVere did not write, which is actually the majority of the disc.
Later on “Anchors & Anvils,” another cleverly spun LaVere original melds a funky bit of guitar picking with a hint of Mariachi when the singer buys “Cupid’s Arrow” to get a little revenge on a past lover.
Ultimately she returns the weapon:
“I walked around this cold cold town just a maiden who was wishing/she had never had ideas of revenge and redemption.”
One of the best tracks on the disc actually comes courtesy of LaVere’s drummer, Paul Taylor, who offers the honky tonk piano blues of “Pointless Drinking.”
LaVere pines, “Pointless drinking/keeping my healthy dose of resentment/keeping me waking with an empty repentance/keeping me broke, broke as a joke.”
There is a bit of fiddle-imbued waltzing in “Tennessee Valentine,” some somber blue train rhythms in Kristi Witt’s “Time is a Train” and mysterious bayou strains in “That Beat,” which is written by Carla Thomas.
A hint of Rod Stewart “Maggie Mae”-style guitar colors the breaks of LaVere’s sweet cover of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You,” which closes a CD that I can only describe as “too short.”
More information is available at www. amylavere.com.
Americana Artist Spotlight
Amy LaVere - Anchors and Anvils (Archer)
from Radio and Records: June 18, 2007
There is something about a good-looking woman moving her hand up and down the neck of a standup bass guitar and singing in a sweet and seemingly innocent voice. Such is your first impression of Amy LaVere, but there is more to this talent than meets the eye.
LaVere is a well-traveled (she now calls Memphis home) and experienced person who tried out several styles of music before she found the rootsy sound she is most comfortable with. There is also another side to Ms. LaVere’s talent: she played Wanda Jackson in the film “Walk the Line” and recently had a part in “Black Snake Moan.”
For “Anchors and Anvils,” LaVere enlisted the help of uber-roots producer Jim Dickinson to find the correct blend of the traditional and the modern for an album that takes LaVere to some sonic places she hasn’t been before.
“I felt comfortable in doing whatever I wanted to do on this record, “LaVere says.
That open-mindedness has allowed her to create an exciting and expressive album featuring such gems as “Killing Him,” “Tennessee Valentine” and “Time is a Train.”
Album Reviews: Amy LaVere
Four Stars
from Time Out New York: June 2007
by Steve Smith
The sound that introduces “Anchors and Anvils,” the second album by Memphis singer-bassist Amy LaVere, is a relaxed, enticing Southern-soul groove. Her kittenish coo nuzzles your ear like a lover. Then you notice what she’s whispering: “Love weighed on her heart like a marble stone/Flash of a knife, he was gone.” A sultry tale of love gone wrong. “Killing Him” includes the plaintative refrain “Killing him didn’t make the love go away.”
The sound that introduces “Anchors and Anvils,” the second album by Memphis singer-bassist Amy LaVere, is a relaxed, enticing Southern-soul groove. Her kittenish coo nuzzles your ear like a lover. Then you notice whawt she’s whispering: “Love weighed on her heart like a marble stone/Flash of a knife, he was gone.” A sultry tale of love gone wrong. “Killing him includes the plaintative refrain “Killing him didn’t make the love go away.”
It’s not surprising that LaVere is a master of misdirection given her current sideline as an actor: She played a small part in “Black Snake Moan”, and portrayed rockabilly wildcat Wanda Jackson in “Walk the Line.” In a video interview currently posted on YouTube, “Anchors and Anvils” producer Jim Dickinson (Big Star, North Mississippi Allstars) likens the singer’s approach to “Twin Peaks” - suitably Hollywoodesque shorthand for the tales of heartache, alcoholic dissipation and murder tha lurk behind the album’s veneer of normalcy.
LaVere’s playlist includes three strong originals, personalized takes on Carla Thomas’s “That Beat” and Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You,” and five further songs filled with heartfelt twang and clever turns of phrase. A rock-solid bassist, LaVere locks in tight with Dickinson’s keys and a supporting cast that includes fiddler Bob Furgo, guitarist Jimbo Mathus and drummer Paul Taylor. Out front, her voice flutters and bobs, spinning heavy yarns one gossamer thread at a time.
Goth On Her Side
Amy LaVere - Anchors and Anvils
from PopMatters Magazine: June 14, 2007
by Roger Holland
At the end of 2006, I rated Amy LaVere’s debut album This World Is Not My Home as the 11th best country record of the year, and described it as an impressive collection of quirky and cinematic songs that brings together elements of blues, jazz and country into an often dark but always intriguing work. LaVere was, I said, a little bit Jolie Holland—but more indie and less precious—and a little bit Kasey Chambers—but less Australian.
Well, plus ça change and all that surrender monkey nonsense.
Anchors & Anvils continues where This World Is Not My Home left off. The production may be a little more subtle and sophisticated, but the songs remain pretty much the same. Here a little pedal steel. There a classic country waltz. And over in the corner, a healthy dash of syncopated gothic sorrow. Add a couple of thick cut slices of something I believe we have to call “Memphis funk”, and you’ve pretty much got Amy Lavere’s second album right there.
At the end of 2006, I rated Amy LaVere’s debut album This World Is Not My Home as the 11th best country record of the year, and described it as an impressive collection of quirky and cinematic songs that brings together elements of blues, jazz and country into an often dark but always intriguing work. LaVere was, I said, a little bit Jolie Holland—but more indie and less precious—and a little bit Kasey Chambers—but less Australian.
Well, plus ça change and all that surrender monkey nonsense.
Anchors & Anvils continues where This World Is Not My Home left off. The production may be a little more subtle and sophisticated, but the songs remain pretty much the same. Here a little pedal steel. There a classic country waltz. And over in the corner, a healthy dash of syncopated gothic sorrow. Add a couple of thick cut slices of something I believe we have to call “Memphis funk”, and you’ve pretty much got Amy Lavere’s second album right there.
Taken as a whole, Anchors & Anvils is a little less wonderful than its predecessor— some of the songs simply lack the quality she deserves, but it’s still far more compelling than fully 99% of the music that will be released during 2007. And if you can find a better opening song anywhere this year than the magnificent and macabre “Killing Him”, then I’ll eat the hat of your choice.
She gave him everything that she had
Changed anything he said was bad
Love weighed on her heart like marble stone
A flash of the knife and he was gone
He said he would give her the sun and the moon
Now all she is this eight-by-eight room
—“Killing Him”
Soft and brooding, built upon a trance-like repetition and underpinned by LaVere’s own melodramatic stand-up bass and Bob Furgo’s gypsy violin, “Killing Him” tells the story of a woman compelled to murder by her passionate love for an unfaithful man. “She’d have to kill him to make him stay”, but “Killing him didn’t make the love go away”.
Listening to Amy LaVere, I’m frequently put in mind of Lucinda Williams. Now LaVere sounds nothing like Williams. Vocally, she’s more of a cross between Jolie Holland and Hope Sandoval. But her phrasing is so deftly conversational, so assuredly natural, and so very intimate that I can almost hear Lucinda singing LaVere’s songs. Or, indeed, vice versa.
To date, however, Amy LaVere has resisted the temptation to cover “Greenville” or “Pineola”. Fortunately, however, she has chosen to bolster material provided by her regular contributors with three excellent cover versions.
The second song on Anchors & Anvils is “Tennessee Valentine”, a classic country waltz co-written by David Schnaufer and Rachel Dennision. Schnaufer, recently deceased, was something like the Clapton of the Appalachian dulcimer and Dennison, I believe, is the sister of Dolly Parton who starred in the TV series 9 To 5. Of course, this could be a totally different Rachel Dennison, but let’s not let that spoil the image. Because LaVere’s rendition, simple and direct, yet wistful and seductively languid, certainly deserves a slice of country-great-by-association hype.
Following hot on the heels of “Tennessee Valentine” comes “That Beat”, a cover of a “hidden gem” from Carla Thomas, the Queen of Memphis Soul. Where Thomas emoted and wailed, LaVere is relaxed yet equally effective, and the enthralling 1930s violin of Bob Furgo is a more than adequate replacment for the signature Stax sounds of the original.
The next six songs, two more from LaVere and two each from collaborators Paul Taylor and Kristi Witt, all fail to match the quality of the first three. They’re not terrible songs, of course. Just not entirely right. The excellence of the musicians, the production, and LaVere’s performances are simply let down by occasionally clumsy lyrics or by an idea that did not translate. Nonetheless Taylor’s “Pointless Drinking” still offers marvellous moments of exhausted relection, LaVere’s own “Cupid’s Arrow” combines the charm of This World Is Not My Home’s “Last Night” with the nonsense of an “Iko Iko”, and Witt’s “Washing Machine” (the worst song here by some way) still allows LaVere to recall, with not word of a lie, Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin’s “Sick Again”.
Witt’s second contribution to Anchors & Anvils is “Time is a Train”. Half spook, half twang, it’s immeasurably better than “Washing Machine”, but makes the fatal mistake of taking its lead from U2’s “Zoo Station” rather than remembering that a much greater man had already explained that time, actually, was a jet plane. And yet, the last song on Anchors & Anvils is Amy LaVere’s take on Bob “Time is a jet plane” Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You”. Stripping away the original rock gospel arrangement and eliminating the intrusive backing singers, LaVere identifies and isolates the sweetly wistful and lovelorn pop at the heart of Dylan’s song. Truthfully, her performance flatters the original, and how many performers can you say that about?
So, not a bad second album by any means. But I expect greater things from Amy LaVere in the future.
From the cradle to the grave “Anchors & Anvils” are tied and true revenge devices
from Motif Magazine: June 12, 2007
by Dan Ferguson
Amy LaVere is young, attractive and plays stand-up bass, has dabbled in films ( I Walk The Line, Black Snake Moan), and has the seal of approval from legendary producer/sideman Jim Dickinson (Big Star, Replacements, Stones, Dylan). Memphis based and possessing a provocative voice as sweet as it is sultry, chanteuse Amy LaVere calls her stylistically adventurous Anchors & Anvils a classic country/gypsy/jazz thing. Couldn’t describe it better, myself. Produced by Dickinson, Anchors & Anvils picks up where LaVere’s wonderful 2006 debut This World Is Not My Home left off, that being an album anchored in a sea of savory Southern sounds form-fit for her cool breeze of a voice. Visit http://www.amylavere.com
Amy LaVere
from Good Times: June 12, 2007
The upright bass is not an inherently sexy instrument, but put a bow in the hands of bass-player Amy LaVere and pipe in her intoxicatingly-sultry, diaphanous, baby doll voice and you might just have to recalibrate your impression of the instrument. You might recognize LaVere from the big screen—she played Wanda Jackson in Walk the Line and appeared in last year’s Black Snake Moan, but currently the nascent actress is out touring behind her recent release Anchors & Anvils, which LaVere describes as a “classic country, gypsy, jazz thing.” The album’s stand-out track is one LaVere penned—a brazen ode to a murder of passion called “Killing Him,” that in flawless film noir-style sports the sinister refrain “Killing him didn’t make the love go away.”
Amy LaVere
With the Fullbrights. Thursday, June 7, Wilbert’s
from Cleveland Scene: June 6, 2007
by Duane Verh
Back in the day, love-gone-bad drove country crickets like Skeeter Davis to declare the “End of the World” or Sandy Posey to bemoan the fate of being “Born a Woman.” But nowadays, Amy LaVere—delicate and demure as she sounds—would rather take her man out than take it on the chin. Sure, she seems like a sweet lil’ gal who doesn’t mind scrubbing, but what’s she thinking about? Murder’s a good bet—or maybe stuffing her suitcase and stealing away on the next bus out.
Back in the day, love-gone-bad drove country crickets like Skeeter Davis to declare the “End of the World” or Sandy Posey to bemoan the fate of being “Born a Woman.” But nowadays, Amy LaVere—delicate and demure as she sounds—would rather take her man out than take it on the chin. Sure, she seems like a sweet lil’ gal who doesn’t mind scrubbing, but what’s she thinking about? Murder’s a good bet—or maybe stuffing her suitcase and stealing away on the next bus out.
That said, the Memphis singer, bassist, and actress (Black Snake Moan, Walk the Line) does have her moments of classic country-chick vulnerability. LaVere traverses the tightrope strung twixt love and hate with a coolness that conjures an image of Norah Jones’ coquettish down-home cousin.
LaVere is currently touring in support of her sophomore release, Anchors & Anvils, which was produced by Memphis maven Jim Dickinson, whose own creative path has crossed that of the Rolling Stones and the Replacements. LaVere’s bipolar persona finds kindred surroundings in a sound that’s vintage country on top with a restless, jazzy underbelly. Driven as it is by LaVere’s own upright bass, her live sound should be just as compelling.
Amy LaVere thinks murderous thoughts on Anchors & Anvils
from Entertainment Weekly: June 1, 2007
by Ken Tucker
LaVere, who played honky-tonker Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, has released her second album, a Memphis stew of R&B, rock, and country-blues produced by Jim Dickinson (Big Star, the Replacements). She sings in a deceptively wispy voice that has a lot of strength coursing beneath it. The stand-out track is ‘‘Killing Him,’’ a revenge song in which a woman who sounds suspiciously like a stand-in for Amy LaVere says she murdered her duplicitous boyfriend, but, as she says in the irresistibly catchy refrain, ‘‘Killing him didn’t make her love go away.’’ Necrophilia at its best.
Cool Spins: Amy LaVere
Anchors and Anvils (Archer)
from Mix Magazine: June 1, 2007
by Blair Jackson
The tip-off that Memphis-based Amy LaVere’s new CD is going to be pretty interesting comes in the chorus of the first song: “Killing him didn’t make her love go away.” Yep, here’s a sweet-voiced gal with a slightly twisted world view, playing music rooted in old-school honky-tonk (upright bass, which she plays herself, steel, fiddle, crackin’ drums, etc.) singing about revenge and redemption, but also regular stuff — dirty dishes, piles of laundry and broken hearts. Drummer/band leader Paul Taylor wrote two of the best tunes, “Pointless Drinking” and “People Get Mad,” and Kristi Witt two other strong ones. There’s a bit of gypsy tango, some funky-tonk and breezy-jazz inflections, but mostly this is barroom country played with heart and soul. Definitely an artist to watch.
Producer: Jim Dickinson. Engineer: Kevin Houston. Studio: Zebra Ranch (Dickinson’s place). Mastering: Brad Blackwood.
Amy LaVere, Throwing ‘Anchors & Anvils’
from Fresh Air -National Public Radio: May 31, 2007
by Ken Tucker
Fresh Air from WHYY, May 31, 2007 · Anchors & Anvils is the jazzy, torchy, after-a-breakup second album by singer, actress and stand-up bassist Amy LaVere. Jim Dickerson, who’s worked with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and the Replacements, produced the disc.
Hear Interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10576937&sc=emaf
In Love With LaVere
from Connecticut Post: May 31, 2007
by Sean Spillane
Café Nine in New Haven served up another fine show Wednesday night and, unless you were one of the 30 or so people there, you missed out on another gem.
Amy LaVere showed she is even more engaging in concert than on her albums, no small feat considering the level of talent she brings to her two albums, This World is Not My Home, released in January of 2006, and her new album, Anchors & Anvils.
Café Nine in New Haven served up another fine show Wednesday night and, unless you were one of the 30 or so people there, you missed out on another gem.
Amy LaVere showed she is even more engaging in concert than on her albums, no small feat considering the level of talent she brings to her two albums, This World is Not My Home, released in January of 2006, and her new album, Anchors & Anvils.
I realize it isn’t easy for a lot of people to head to a nightclub on a Wednesday night, but surely there must be more than 30 people in New Haven and Fairfield counties who appreciate good music.
In an ideal world, LaVere would have achieved the same level of stardom as Norah Jones, whose fans, by the way, would have loved Wednesday’s performance. LaVere, however, would never be called “Snorah,” as some of the nastier critics have dubbed Jones.
Unlike Jones’ piano-based music, LaVere’s music is driven by the guitar, which she augments with her solid upright bass playing. On tour, LaVere, petite and attractive, is getting stellar guitar work from Mark Miller, the new bass player for country traditionalists BR549. Miller also contributed harmony vocals, which meshed nicely with LaVere’s dreamy voice.
LaVere touched on both albums in her set and added her take on Leonard Cohen’s “Tonight Will Be Fine” in addition to the covers she recorded on Anchors & Anvils, Carla Thomas’ “That Beat” Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You.”
The 90-minute show ended on yet another high note with LaVere leading her band in a rousing version of The Byrds’ “Mr. Spaceman.”
It would have definitely been worth it if you had made the effort to get to Café Nine to see LaVere. You might have been a little tired Thursday, but you could have always caught up on your sleep over the weekend.
Small Town Girl
from Aquarian Weekly: May 30, 2007
by Divya Gunasekaran
What kind of musician would LaVere be if she didn’t bring with her the different styles of music she explored while moving around the nation?
On Anchors & Anvils, for which LaVere is credited with vocals, upright bass, and some songwriting, you will hear a hybrid of country and jazz. While the innocent, unassuming appearance of LaVere leads to expectations of tame lyrics, the girl has a dark side. Sometimes twisted, sinister words are weaved throughout her songs, but a sweetness and sincerity still prevail.
Amy LaVere grew up in a small, southern town, but her eclectic musical
style deserved the diversity of a city. She is certainly deserving of the NYC atmosphere and will perform at The Bitter End on May 31.
LaVere started entering the music scenes of big cities when her family
moved to Detroit when she was a teenager, at which point she performed in the punk band Last Minute. All grown up, she moved to Nashville where she formed the duo The Gabe & Amy Show, and then finally settled in Memphis, where she returned to the classic country music on which her parents had raised her.
What kind of musician would LaVere be if she didn’t bring with her the
different styles of music she explored while moving around the nation? Though you won’t hear punk on her sophomore album, Anchors & Anvils,
for which LaVere is credited with vocals, upright bass, and some songwriting, you will hear a hybrid of country and jazz. While the innocent, unassuming appearance of LaVere leads to expectations of tame lyrics, the girl has a dark side. Sometimes twisted, sinister words are weaved throughout her songs, but a sweetness and sincerity still prevail.
The Bitter End is located at 147 Bleecker St. The show is at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $7. For more about LaVere, visit myspace.com/amylavere or archer-records.com.
Amy LaVere
Anchors and Anvils
from Boudin Barndance: May 29, 2007
by Dan Ferguson
The initial attention grabber is that she’s a young and extremely attractive female playing the stand-up bass with as much grace as she does authority. That, by its lonesome, places her in rare company. The next grabber is that she’s dabbled in films such as I Walk The Line (a cameo as rockabilly filly Wanda Jackson) and most recently, Black Snake Moan. Perhaps most importantly, where her music is concerned, she’s gotten the seal of approval from one of the legends in the business, Jim Dickinson, whose production credits span Big Star to the Replacements to the North Mississippi All-Stars and whose sideman roles have ranged from the Rolling Stones to Dylan to the Atlantic Records house band in its early 1970s soul heyday.
The initial attention grabber is that she’s a young and extremely attractive female playing the stand-up bass with as much grace as she does authority. That, by its lonesome, places her in rare company. The next grabber is that she’s dabbled in films such as I Walk The Line (a cameo as rockabilly filly Wanda Jackson) and most recently, Black Snake Moan. Perhaps most importantly, where her music is concerned, she’s gotten the seal of approval from one of the legends in the business, Jim Dickinson, whose production credits span Big Star to the Replacements to the North Mississippi All-Stars and whose sideman roles have ranged from the Rolling Stones to Dylan to the Atlantic Records house band in its early 1970s soul heyday. Based out of Memphis, Amy LaVere has the makings of the next big thing to come out of that historically rich music town. Possessing a provocative voice as sweet as it is sultry, the chanteuse LaVere describes her latest release called Anchors & Anvils as a classic country/gypsy/jazz thing. Couldn’t classify it better myself. Mixing originals with a bunch of tasty covers (the aforementioned Dylan, Stax queen Carla Thomas, et al), LaVere calls upon some of Memphis’ finest - Dickinson, Jimbo Mathus (ex-Squirrel Nut Zippers), Jason Freeman, Eric Lewis, Paul Taylor - to help fulfill her vision on this stylistically adventurous outing. Also produced by Dickinson, this sophomore release picks up where Ms. LaVere’s wonderful 2006 debut This World Is Not My Home left off, that is an album anchored in a sea of savory Southern sounds form-fit for her wistful, cool breeze of a voice. (Archer Records, 88 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN 38103, or http://www.archer-records.com)
Amy LaVere in NYC
May 31st In Store at J&R, more later at Bitter End Club
from New York Post: May 25, 2007
by Mary Huhn
Producer, singer and pianist Jim Dickinson worked his studio magic on Memphis singer Amy Lavere’s debut disc, “Anchors & Anvils.” The vocalist and stand-up bass player, who fronted Detroit punk band Last Minute in her teens before landing in Nashville’s Lower Broadway honky-tonk scene, now plays what she describes as “classic country/gypsy/jazz thing.”
She brings a band, including gypsy violinist Bob Furgo, to J&R Music World (23 Park Row) for a lunch-hour show at 12:30 p.m. and to the Bitter End (147 Bleecker St.; [212] 673-7030) Thursday evening.
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Amy LaVere in NYC
May 31st In Store at J&R, more later at Bitter End Club
from New York Post: May 25, 2007
by Mary Huhn
Producer, singer and pianist Jim Dickinson worked his studio magic on Memphis singer Amy Lavere’s debut disc, “Anchors & Anvils.” The vocalist and stand-up bass player, who fronted Detroit punk band Last Minute in her teens before landing in Nashville’s Lower Broadway honky-tonk scene, now plays what she describes as “classic country/gypsy/jazz thing.”
She brings a band, including gypsy violinist Bob Furgo, to J&R Music World (23 Park Row) for a lunch-hour show at 12:30 p.m. and to the Bitter End (147 Bleecker St.; [212] 673-7030) Thursday evening.
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Amy LaVere at Cafe Nine
from The Hartford Courant: May 24, 2007
by ERIC R. DANTON
After releasing an excellent debut record in 2005, Amy LaVere brought in some A-list firepower for the follow-up.
Legendary producer Jim Dickinson helps out behind both the control board and the keyboards, and ace guitarist Chris Scruggs settles into a deep pocket.
Yet it’s LaVere’s sultry voice and stylistic shape-shifting that makes “Anchors & Anvils” such an engaging album.
After releasing an excellent debut record in 2005, Amy LaVere brought in some A-list firepower for the follow-up.
Legendary producer Jim Dickinson helps out behind both the control board and the keyboards, and ace guitarist Chris Scruggs settles into a deep pocket.
Yet it’s LaVere’s sultry voice and stylistic shape-shifting that makes “Anchors & Anvils” such an engaging album. It’s rootsy and twangy and just a little bit wry on her own songs and tunes by the likes of Bob Dylan and her drummer, Paul Taylor.
Catch LaVere live Wednesday at Café Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. Tickets are $6; call for set times: 203-789-8281.
Amy LaVere Steps Back to Musical Road
from Connecticut Post: May 23, 2007
by Sean Spillane
Like her debut album This World is Not My Home, which came out in January of 2006, LaVere has been garnering rave reviews for her latest, Anchors & Anvils, which was produced by the eminent Jim Dickinson, who was worked in one capacity or another with the likes of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder and The Replacements.
The experience also made an impression on Dickinson, who is quoted as saying, “Amy LaVere is the most promising emerging artist I’ve seen in years. She has the whole package — the songs, the voice, the looks. . . . You run across artists all the time that have part of it, but Amy has it all.
Amy LaVere had already issued one well-reviewed album and, for her second record, she seemed to have the perfect promotional tool — a small part in a blockbuster movie. But things didn’t work out so well for LaVere as her portrayal of rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line” ended up, for the most part, on the cutting room floor.
“At first I was just so, so, so heartbroken about it when they called to let me know that my part had been cut,” LaVere recalled in a recent phone interview from her Memphis, Tenn., home. “I assumed that I wasn’t in the movie at all and later it came back that I had a cameo. “I’m in it, but they cut my speaking lines and the scene where I sing a duet with the actor, Waylon Payne, who was playing Jerry Lee [Lewis]. So I went from being really, really upset and sad about it to being thankful that at least there’s a moment I can see me in there.
“Still, it was an amazing experience,” she added. “Whether I’d been in [the movie] or not, I would still have been glad I did it.”
LaVere, who performs Wednesday night at Caf Nine in New Haven, faced further disappointment when her deleted scenes didn’t make the DVD release.
“Yeah, I had hoped for that, too,” she said. “I did find out from an intern in the editing department — when we were trying to find out if I’m in it or not — that it was an eight-hour movie they were editing. So I can understand how — for what it was about, Johnny Cash — that Wanda Jackson’s part was dispensable.”
Despite not making the final cut, LaVere was happy that she got to meet Jackson, the diminutive Queen of Rockabilly, now 69. “She was really sweet,” LaVere said. “It’s funny, but in the photographs you see of her she’s just this very voluptuous, tall-looking woman and I was really shocked. I kept thinking that I wasn’t voluptuous enough or of her stature to portray her and then when I met her in person I thought, ‘Well, jeez, I’ve got three inches on her and I’m only [5-foot-2].’”
LaVere had better luck in her second shot at a major motion picture, getting plenty of face time in the recent Christina Ricci-Samuel L. Jackson flick “Black Snake Moan.”
“It’s just one scene, but I talk and stuff and my head takes up the whole screen at one point,” she said with a hearty laugh.
“I really lucked into both of those parts for different reasons,” LaVere said. “I do think I have a natural ability at [acting] and I’d love to pursue it, but my heart belongs to making music. It comes first at this point. “But I sure as [heck] wouldn’t turn down a good role and I do want to knock on the doors of an agent or two come fall when my touring schedule settles down a bit.”
Like her debut album This World is Not My Home, which came out in January of 2006, LaVere has been garnering rave reviews for her latest, Anchors & Anvils, which was produced by the eminent Jim Dickinson, who was worked in one capacity or another with the likes of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder and The Replacements.
LaVere was introduced to Dickinson by Paul Taylor, who produced This World is Not My Home and, prior to that, had been in a band with Dickinson’s sons, Luther and Cody, who are now the driving forces of The North Mississippi All-Stars.
“He is someone that I’ve been very familiar with since I’ve lived in Memphis . . . and I’ve always respected what he did,” LaVere said of Dickinson. “[Paul Taylor and I] are really close and so he kind of introduced me to that camp of people and it was something that I wanted to do that amazingly came to fruition.”
The experience also made an impression on Dickinson, who is quoted as saying, “Amy LaVere is the most promising emerging artist I’ve seen in years. She has the whole package — the songs, the voice, the looks. . . . You run across artists all the time that have part of it, but Amy has it all. And it just keeps growing.”
While praise from a respected music veteran, she knows she will never sell records in the same quantities of the underdressed “pop tarts” of the world.
“That’s never really been my thing, though,” she said. “I dream of having the credibility of an Emmylou Harris. I see myself down the road as having a long gray braid, still writing and performing music.
“It’s taken me a really long time. I’ve been performing live and playing in bands nonstop since I was 14 years old and here I am 30 and I’m just now getting to the point where you would want to call and interview me.”
Amy LaVere performs Wednesday night at 9:30 at Caf Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. For tickets ($6) or more information, call 789-8281.
For more information on Amy LaVere, visit http://www.amylavere.com.
Amy LaVere
Anchors and Anvils
from Womenfolk.net: May 23, 2007
On her beautiful second album, Anchors & Anvils, singer-songwriter Amy LaVere is sure to receive further notice as a talent to watch. Mixing a love for country and rock styles with a talent for writing unique songs (plus, she can play a mean upright bass), LaVere teamed up with celebrated musician/producer Jim Dickinson and has crafted an envious batch of tunes.
The album opens with ‘Killing Him,’ a song one critic has described as a “…sinister ode to homicidal passion that smolders like Norah Jones with a razor in her boot.”
While decidedly a country tune, there’s no twang in LaVere’s pleasant, honey-lined voice and the music rolls and whirls with a fine mixture of violin, drums and groovy basslines.
Big Sound, Little Bucks
from Portfolio Weekly: Tuesday, May 22, 2007
by Jerome Spencer
I’ve never written about Amy LaVere before so no risk of repetition here. I am excited about her appearance at The Jewish Mother this Fri., May 25, so I’m writing about her now. Amy LaVere is a little girl who plays a big bass and best describes her own style as “classic country/jazz/gypsy music.” You may have seen her scene-stealing cameos in the films Walk the Line and Black Snake Moan, but it’s her intoxicating, whispery voice that really takes the spotlight.
I’ve never written about Amy LaVere before so no risk of repetition here. I am excited about her appearance at The Jewish Mother this Fri., May 25, so I’m writing about her now. Amy LaVere is a little girl who plays a big bass and best describes her own style as “classic country/jazz/gypsy music.” You may have seen her scene-stealing cameos in the films Walk the Line and Black Snake Moan, but it’s her intoxicating, whispery voice that really takes the spotlight. Once the singer for the infamous punk outfit Last Minute, Amy has expanded her horizons to explore the vast landscape of classic country and Americana with a worldly twist. She’s one of the most original and freshest voices in any music scene in a long time and you should be prepared to be amazed, enthralled and woozy from her performance. You can’t say no to that - especially not for a mere $6. Be there by 9 p.m. or you might miss something.
What Would You Do For Love?: Amy LaVere
from Culture Bully.com: May 21, 2007
by Chris Deline
There’s some strange romanticism I have with strong female leads and in the Amy LeVere story “Killing Him” I find myself helplessly falling for the passionate murderer. “Killing him didn’t make the love go away.” Can I say that I’ve never felt anything similar? Not really, in times gone by I’ve wondered what would happen if someone would disappear from life despite my immense love towards them, but her tale is that of a true story. Written as a reaction to an evening news story about a woman, who hysterically kept yelling the chorus during her arrest, the tale is as sad as it is romantic.
There’s some strange romanticism I have with strong female leads and in the Amy LeVere story “Killing Him” I find myself helplessly falling for the passionate murderer. “Killing him didn’t make the love go away.” Can I say that I’ve never felt anything similar? Not really, in times gone by I’ve wondered what would happen if someone would disappear from life despite my immense love towards them, but her tale is that of a true story. Written as a reaction to an evening news story about a woman, who hysterically kept yelling the chorus during her arrest, the tale is as sad as it is romantic. “She’d have to kill him to make him stay;” it depicts an overt dedication to what you think in your head is right and the only way, and while it’s an absolutely bizarre way of proving one’s love, I suppose in some weird way I can see how it could make sense.
“Pointless Drinking.” It’s a place I’ve been many times, you start with one but slowly you’re drinking to forget absolutely nothing, drinking till collapse for reasons you can’t remember, drinking because you’re drunk. “I’d keep going but let’s pause for the cause.” It’s right then, when you have what should be your last sip of the night, that you realize that while it’s an entirely useless way of facing whatever it is that haunts…and you have another. That’s the charm of this Louisiana native, her stories aren’t entirely a celebration of the traditional romantic but they speak volumes to the souls of those in need.
Singer Amy LaVere’s love of upright bass not just a novelty
from Knoxville News Sentinel : May 18, 2007
by WAYNE BLEDSOE
Singer Amy LaVere couldn’t be much more of a part of Memphis. She plays an upright bass and can play some topflight rockabilly. She played the part of rockabilly great Wanda Jackson in “Walk the Line” and has a supporting role in “Black Snake Moan,” the most recent film by Memphis director Craig Brewer, and her new album, “Anchors & Anvils,” is produced by legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson. To top it off, to supplement her music career she has worked as a tour guide at Sun Records for the past three years.
“People in Memphis really see through the BS,” says LaVere. “There’s a high profile of ability and artistry. It’s a lot different than Nashville, where there’s more demand to pull off something that will sell.”
Singer Amy LaVere couldn’t be much more of a part of Memphis. She plays an upright bass and can play some topflight rockabilly. She played the part of rockabilly great Wanda Jackson in “Walk the Line” and has a supporting role in “Black Snake Moan,” the most recent film by Memphis director Craig Brewer, and her new album, “Anchors & Anvils,” is produced by legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson. To top it off, to supplement her music career she has worked as a tour guide at Sun Records for the past three years.
“People in Memphis really see through the BS,” says LaVere. “There’s a high profile of ability and artistry. It’s a lot different than Nashville, where there’s more demand to pull off something that will sell.”
Born in Shreveport, La., LaVere grew up in the Texas/Louisiana border town of Bethany and in Detroit, where her father got a job as an ironworker.
LaVere says she got her love of music from both parents, who were amateur musicians. Her father was a drummer, and her mother played guitar and piano.
“I wanted to be my mom,” says LaVere.
LaVere began writing songs in her early teens, spurred on by the music of some great songwriters.
“I loved Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell, Michelle Shocked and Willie Nelson,” says LaVere.
She formed what she calls an “alternative angst band” in high school, but when LaVere moved to Nashville at 21, she got reacquainted with her country roots.
“That’s when I discovered upright bass, and that, for me, was really the ultimate instrument,” says LaVere.
She had been sharing a house with several other musicians. At the time, she was just playing a few simple chords on guitar. There were two upright basses sitting around the house, and LaVere began plucking on one. The other musicians insisted she keep at it.
That also led to LaVere’s love of rockabilly, which often features an upright bass in a rock ‘n’ roll setting.
While in Nashville, LaVere became musically and romantically involved with musician Gabe Kudela. The two married, formed the act the Dave and Amy Show and moved to Memphis eight years ago.
While the act became a favorite at local clubs, the partnership and the marriage both fell apart a few years later.
LaVere recorded her first solo album, “This World Is Not My Home,” in 2005, with her drummer, Paul Taylor, producing.
She says her choice of musical instrument is sometimes a liability for first impressions. A woman playing an upright bass is seen as a novelty in some areas of the country. However, LaVere says that Nashville actually has a few female stand-up bass players, and it’s not so rare in towns with thriving acoustic music scenes.
“I do understand that it can have a shtick overtone to it,” says LaVere. “I intentionally didn’t want the artwork on the (new) album cover to have a bass on it.”
She says that recording her new disc was a joy. Although she knew Dickinson, he was surprising as a producer.
“I felt like I would have the songs and Jim would put it together for me, which wasn’t the case,” says LaVene. “He challenged me. He was totally encouraging. I’d look at him and say, ‘Can we do this?’ And he’d say, ‘Of course we can.’ “
LaVere says her roles in movies haven’t drawn people to her music.
“I don’t imagine you’d see me in ‘Black Snake Moan’ and go buy my record,” she says.
Still, although she is focused primarily on music, LaVere does want to keep the possibility open for more acting roles.
“It probably wouldn’t be fair if I got more movie work, because I haven’t spent my life pursuing acting. But I’d at least like to throw my name into the hat.”
Short Cuts
from STUDIO CITY SUN/SHERMAN OAKS SUN: May 18, 2007
by Bill Bentley
Time for a left-field surprise. Amy LaVere’s second album is as unexpected an achievement as anything this year. She travels the rootsy side of the road, but never lets that hem her in. Instead, she uses the simplicity of her aura and takes into a third dimension, one where her voice and words and music combine for a shining ride.
Amy LaVere, Anchors & Anvils
(Archer)
Time for a left-field surprise. Amy LaVere’s second album is as unexpected an achievement as anything this year. She travels the rootsy side of the road, but never lets that hem her in. Instead, she uses the simplicity of her aura and takes into a third dimension, one where her voice and words and music combine for a shining ride. Not only that, but producer Jim Dickinson, who has worked with everyone from Ry Cooder, Big Star, the Replacements, Toots Hibbert and Texas Tornados, has outdone even himself, utilizing LaVere’s unique presence and framing it with exquisite and always exciting sonic settings. There is true beauty written all over Anchors & Anvils, something to float away on when the world tries to keep you earthbound, and ensuring everyone who listens a summer full of wonder.
Amy LaVere
from Nashville City Paper: May 17, 2007
by Ron Wynn
Bassist/vocalist Amy LaVere’s musical interests stretch from ‘20s hot jazz to western swing, honky-tonk, the blues and soul, plus torch songs and pop ballads.
While her first release featured the expert production assistance of the legendary Jim Dickinson and served to introduce both her enticing vocals and emphatic bass playing, it didn’t present her complete artistic range.
But LaVere’s new release Anchors & Anvils (Archer) does showcase the complete repertoire, including a superb cover of a little known (except to soul collectors) Carla Thomas tune “That Beat (Keeps Disturbing My Sleep)” redone in vivid gypsy style, another excellent treatment of a Dylan tune “I’ll Remember You,” and “Tennessee Valentine,” a composition co-written by the late dulcimer virtuoso David Schnaufer that emphasizes her country touches.
“I wanted to present a bigger picture of my music this time around,” LaVere said. “The goal was to make sure that all these different styles resulted in a cohesive project, rather than just going all over the place.”
LaVere will perform songs from Anchors & Anvils Friday at the Basement (9 p.m., 1604 8th Ave S., 254-8006), heading a band that’s being expanded to a quintet for the occasion with the addition of pedal steel player Eric Lewis. He’s joining violinist Bob Firgu, drummer Paul Taylor and guitarist Mark Miller.
While she continually gets raves for her singing and playing, LaVere’s also gotten plenty of attention for acting in the past couple of years. Her most recent appearance came in Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan, and she also had a cameo in Walk The Line portraying rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson.
But she’s now also devoting more time and attention to songwriting, though she only includes three originals on the latest CD, saying she’s more concerned with the overall quality of the material than in simply highlighting her own works.
“I have a lot of respect for people who can do all the songs on their projects and make them stand out. My style tends to be so uncensored and I’m a harsh critic of my own work, so it’s hard for me sometimes to feel that my songs are as good as those of some other people whose music I enjoy so much.”
CD Review: “Anchors & Anvils” by Amy LaVere
from STAMFORD ADVOCATE: May 17, 2007
by Ray Hogan
There’s a lot of space between Lucinda Williams and Norah Jones, but it’s that middle ground between earthy and dreamy that Memphis, Tenn., singer-bassist LaVere inhabits so well. “Anchors & Anvils” is her second disc and like her debut is filled with top-flight talent, including guitarist Jimbo Mathus, drummer Paul Taylor and keyboardist Jim Dickinson, who has produced both her discs. Her home and supporting cast suggest alt-country, but LaVere creates pure pop, splitting the difference between down-home earthiness and the nebulous, which her breathy voice is a natural fit for both.
Having appeared in both of Craig Brewer’s Memphis films (she’s called the city home since 1999) and portrayed Wanda Jackson in “Walk the Line,” the time for her breakthrough seems right. She’s got an uncontested winner in the love letter “Tennessee Valentine,” which appearing as the second track quickly establishes the disc as above average. The midtempos suit her well; drummer Taylor’s “Pointless Drinking” (with a surprising neutral point of view) is further proof. She penned “Killing Him” and the song might prompt comparisons to Jones were the subject not about a murderous romance.
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“Anchors & Anvils” jumps styles as the disc progresses. “People Get Mad” is light funk and “Overcome” has an overt country influence. While they may not work as immediately as the opening quartet of tunes (a tango translation of an obscure Carla Thomas song rounds them out), LaVere’s musical willingness ultimately proves an asset. Plus, she hangs nicely with Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You” as the disc closer. It would be our loss if her popularity were contained to Memphis.
LaVere Brings Bass and Band to Oxford
from NEMS Daily Journal: May 17, 2007
by SHEENA BARNETT
OXFORD - You may not have heard Amy LaVere’s music, but there’s a chance you’ve seen her face.
LaVere, a Memphis singer and upright bass player, has dipped into acting. She had a cameo as Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line,” and she was Jesse in Craig Brewer’s “Black Snake Moan.”
If you haven’t seen her there, maybe you’ve seen her at her day job - she’s a part-time tour guide at Memphis’ legendary Sun Studio.
LaVere just released her second album, so that may shake things up.
“I’ve kind of split my time (performing) and working at Sun Studio,” LaVere said. “I’m only into making my second record, so I hope that changes a little bit and I get to get out of town - which I’m about to do.”
Records and roads
LaVere’s current tour is actually her first one.
“I’ve gone out a week here and there, but I’ve never been in a van for seven weeks with three boys,” she said.
LaVere is going on the road with Paul Taylor, who produced her first record; Bob Furgo, who has played gypsy violin with the likes of Dolly Parton and Leonard Cohen; and Mark Miller, a member of BR5-49.
Taylor and Furgo also performed with LaVere on her new record, “Anchors and Anvils,” which was produced by Yalobushwacker and legendary producer Jim Dickinson.
LaVere tried to capture her high-energy live shows on her second album, she said.
“I’m far more diverse live than the first CD would have you believe,” she said.
LaVere’s first album, “The World is Not My Home,” was critically acclaimed, which scared away any worries about a sophomore slump.
“I think it gave me more confidence. It’s like, I’ve already gotten the accolades, now I’ll make what I want,’” she said. “I don’t have to prove myself necessarily - I feel like I already did.”
Though music is her passion, she said movie-making was a fun experience.
“The environment of a movie set, it’s so high energy. It feels like disaster after disaster is taking place. I think I would’ve made a great nurse because there’s something about that environment I find very calming and very interesting,” LaVere said.
Her heart now lies with her new record, but “if I saw another good role, I sure as hell wouldn’t turn it down.”
Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 5/17/2007 6:00:00 AM, section E , page 3
‘Anchors and Anvils’ promises to be rootsy-sounding affair
from The Daily News, Knoxville: May 17, 2007
by Steve Wildsmith
To say that guys attracted to the lovely singer-songwriter Amy LaVere undress her with their eyes wouldn’t be such a stretch.
After all, if they’ve seen the Christina Ricci/Samuel L. Jackson thriller “Black Snake Moan,” they’ve already seen LaVere in her underwear.
To say that guys attracted to the lovely singer-songwriter Amy LaVere undress her with their eyes wouldn’t be such a stretch.
After all, if they’ve seen the Christina Ricci/Samuel L. Jackson thriller “Black Snake Moan,” they’ve already seen LaVere in her underwear.
It’s the second big-screen role for the Memphis resident in the past couple of years (the first was a few brief seconds of screen time as rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash bio-pic “Walk the Line”), and despite her natural talent and affinity for music, it most likely won’t be her last.
“Now that I’ve had a taste of it, I would love to pursue it,” LaVere told The Daily Times this week. “Music has always been my focus, and it’s what I really want to do; acting is something I would really have loved to have done when I was younger, kind of like how every girl wants to be a ballerina. I just really lucked into it, and I believe I have a natural ability at it.
“I think about how hard I’ve worked to get where I am musically, and I think about how hard actors and actresses work, and then I think that I don’t really deserve the opportunity. And at this point, I have a lot of responsibilities to my record label and my music, so acting would be second to that. But after I support this new record touring, I’m probably going to knock on an agent’s door to get my name in the hat for other movies.”
The new album to which LaVere refers is “Anchors and Anvils,” released this week on Archer Records. It’s a sultry, jazzy, rootsy sounding affair that’s not dissimilar to the music made by Blount County’s own RobinElla. From the opening track — the bittersweet murder ballad “Killing Him” — through the languid waltz of “Tennessee Valentine” to the salsa inflections of “That Beat” through the funky vibe of “People Get Mad,” LaVere is all over the map stylistically. It’s a mish-mash of genres and influences, but her angelic voice pulls it altogether like the plotline from a David Mamet film at movie’s end.
“I’ve always been all across the board stylistically as far as what I write,” she said. “I’m not only just centering myself, but I have to hone it into some sort of scene to make the record cohesive.”
Produced by the legendary Memphis studio wizard Jim Dickinson, “Anchors and Anvils” is the culmination of two years and hundreds of gigs’ worth of hard work. Born in a small Texas/Louisiana border town, she was nurtured musically but uprooted frequently — her family moved 13 times by her freshman year of high school, eventually settling in Detroit, where she fronted a punk band while still in her teens.
In the early 1990s, she gravitated to Nashville’s Lower Broadway, playing upright bass as half of the roots duo The Gabe and Amy Show. By 1999, she had moved to Memphis, enjoying the freedom and artistically collaborative spirit of that city. She eventually released her debut album, “The World Is Not My Home,” in 2005, earning her rave reviews from the national press.
In the interim, she supported herself with steady gigs around Memphis, the Southeast and at a surprising number of private parties.
“I was tiring of that to some degree, because that’s not necessarily a very attentive audience, but it is an incredible place to rehearse,” she said. “You can grab their attention when you want to and not when you don’t want to. They’re not going to scrutinize or pay attention if you miss a note or the arrangements fall apart.
“As far as how the music grew from the first record to this record, it was nothing more than life experiences. Everything was completely organic, and I just wanted to show a little something different. The first record was all about me, but this one is just about a fraction of me. I don’t censor myself in the creative process, but where I center myself is in what I allow to be released or heard.
“I know a good song when I hear it, and I don’t always write a good song,” she added. “For example, I only allowed three of my originals on this new record, but lucky for me, I’m sitting on a bank of really great songwriters in Memphis.”
She’s also partnered up with other artists in that city. Craig Brewer, the director of “Black Snake Moan,” is a personal friend, and when she heard about the part available to her, LaVere jumped at the chance to act again.
“With the music, I set the rules; I’m the boss there,” she said. “With the acting, you’re exposing yourself in a different way. It’s really raw and not necessarily on your terms, but on the terms of your character. ‘Black Snake Moan’ was very different for me in that the character was trashy, and it was really challenging.
“It was really challenging to ask, ‘Can I do it? Can I really be in my underwear on the big screen?’ And I got a glimpse of what that’s really like for the actors who go there with it. I just really wanted to be a part of it and do the best that I could, but it was a hard three months.”
Amy LaVere
“Anchors & Anvils”
from Minneapolis City Paper/Nashville Scene: May 16, 2007
by Ed Hurt
In an earlier era, Amy LaVere might have fronted a big band, becoming as celebrated as, say, Lee Wiley, or any number of other vocal stylists who had ears for jazz, but performed pop. On her latest, Anchors & Anvils, the Memphis singer gathers up the odd corners of funk and country with the help of a band that includes multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor, whose Open Closed displays a sharp ear for the deep conventions of Anglophile pop. The records make a nice argument for Memphis eccentricity, even when it doesn’t work.
LaVere’s debut, 2006’s This World Is Not My Home, had its moments. Produced by Taylor, the record was a spooky take on alt-country, and the playing by Taylor, guitarist Jason Freeman, and pianist Jim Dickinson was terse and atmospheric. Anchors replaces Taylor with Dickinson, whose production honors the loose and accidental and enlivens a classic busted-relationship record.
LaVere sings in a retiring purr that conceals lyrics of positively Victorian slyness. In “Cupid’s Arrow,” she sings, “I found a bow and a little arrow/ In a store/That was full of nothing/I was there for/I bought it for a song/I had saved up in a pocket.” Splitting the difference between confessional and evasive, it’s a strange, woebegone record.
Amy LaVere
from Amazon: May 14, 2007
by Don McLeese
Amazon.com
It’s probably unfair to compare every young, sweet-voiced, genre-bending chanteuse with Norah Jones. Though Amy LaVere similarly sounds jazzy and torchy with touches of country and soul, what distinguishes her are the Memphis grooves of producer Jim Dickinson and the edgier sensibility she brings to material such as “Killing Him,” “Pointless Drinking,” and “People Get Mad.” A stand-up acoustic bassist and sometime actress (Black Snake Moan, Walk the Line), LaVere brings a seductive lilt to “Tennessee Valentine” and “Cupid’s Arrow,” with the funky propulsion of Carla Thomas’s “That Beat” and the relentless throb of “Washing Machine” showing that she can be earthy as well as dreamy. An open-hearted rendition of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You” closes this solid sophomore effort.—Don McLeese
Amy LaVere: Country with a Cathartic Twang
from NPR World Cafe: May 14, 2007
by David Dye
Amy LaVere has taken many roads on her journey to stardom: She’s not only a singer, songwriter and bassist, but she’s also acted — most notably in Walk the Line, in which she plays rockabilly pioneer Wanda Jackson. Born in the Deep South and raised in Detroit, LaVere now lives in Memphis, a town that matches her musical persona: a blend of classic country, jazz and gypsy blues.
LaVere’s 2006 debut, This World Is Not My Home, showcases her cathartic twang while drawing from influences as varied as Billie Holliday, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Dolly Parton. Her new Anchors & Anvils, recorded with legendary producer Jim Dickinson, expands on the sounds and themes of its predecessor, while continuing to demonstrate her talent for luminous, accessible songcraft.
A Second Album from Amy
from The Commercial Appeal: May 11, 2007
by Bob Mehr
From the start, there was never any doubt what Amy LaVere would do.
“I knew I was going to be a musician, it was all I really thought about,” says LaVere.
“As a kid, my family lived in a trailer in the woods of Louisiana—the kind of place where there’d be deer gutted on my swing set,” she says. “My parents would be sitting outside, drinking beer with their friends and my mom would break out the guitar and everyone would listen to her play. I saw what she did to people when she sang. And I wanted to do that, too.”
The 32-year-old LaVere has been playing music and fronting bands for the better part of two decades. But in a way, the upcoming release of her second solo record Anchors & Anvils (Archer Records)—which she’ll celebrate with an early show at Midtown’s Hi-Tone on Tuesday—marks the real start to her career. “With this album, I feel like my music has really grown and I’ve grown,” says LaVere, “and I’m ready to put it out there.”
The second of two daughters, LaVere was born Amy Fant—her stage name was taken in honor of her grandmother—in Shreveport, and raised in the Louisiana/Texas border town of Bethany. Her mother, a classically trained pianist who played country guitar and wrote songs, met her father, a drummer and music major, in college.
LaVere’s father eventually became a roving iron worker for General Motors, and the family moved a dozen times during her childhood years. The soundtrack to LaVere’s youth was a mix of her father’s outlaw country heroes—Willie Nelson, in particular—and her mother’s favored female singer-songwriters, including Dolly Parton and Joni Mitchell.
Eventually settling in Detroit, her parents split up when she was 13, and a year later LaVere formed the angsty alt-rock band Last Minute. The group put out a couple of lo-fi cassette recordings and played the Motor City circuit for years. At 22, LaVere left the band and the Midwest, settling briefly in Los Angeles, and then heading back to Louisiana. Bored and searching for more, she made her way to Nashville, where she got a job working as a receptionist for country star Travis Tritt’s management company.
Finding her way in Music City’s Lower Broad scene, she began taking guitar lessons from Gabe Kudela, a member of psychobilly groups the Legendary Shack Shakers and the Connoisseur Rats. The two fell in love, decided to form a band, then eloped three weeks later.
Playing as roots duo The Gabe & Amy show, they made their way to Memphis in 1999. They became staples in the local music scene, playing a popular weekly residency at Murphy’s. They also recorded a pair of albums—one at Phillips Recording Service and one at Easley-McCain—neither of which was ever released.
“One of the reasons I fell in love with Gabe is because he was the artist I could never be. He was so pure, really idealistic—almost to a fault,” says LaVere. “He had a lot of rules about things and the recordings were never up to par for him.”
Soon, LaVere was itching to make a solo record, and the frustration began to build. “It was one of those things where I was sitting on some songs. But with Gabe, it was always, ‘Next year we’ll do your record.’”
“Also, Gabe wanted the band to be bigger, to add horns and organs. So, musically and artistically we started to go in different directions. And then everything just exploded.”
The couple’s divorce heralded the start of LaVere’s solo career. She soon hooked up professionally and personally with talented multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor. With Taylor producing, she recorded her 2005 debut, This World Is Not My Home.
The album was a charming if somewhat tentative first step for LaVere. “Paul really took over the last record,” she says. “He went beyond being a producer, and for the best. I was sort of flailing in the studio. I know how to perform live, whereas with recording, I’m still totally a baby, I’m a toddler.”
For a followup, LaVere decided to enlist Jim Dickinson, a mentor and a close friend of Taylor’s, to produce. “I’ve always been a fan of Jim’s and wanted to work with him,” says LaVere. “Plus, Jim is like family to Paul—he grew up with the Dickinson boys—so that eased the transition.”
Recorded over the course of 20 days at Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch Studios in Mississippi with Taylor and guitarist Jason Freeman as the core band, the new album is highlighted by three LaVere originals: the jazz-flecked murder ballad “Killing Him,” the country waltz “Overcome” and the loping love song “Cupid’s Arrow.”
In addition to LaVere’s tunes, there’s a pair of songs by Taylor, a couple more by former Alluring Strange and Chislers member Kristi Witt and one by recently deceased Nashville dulcimer king David Schnaufer. Whether essaying her own material or that of others, LaVere coos and warbles her way through a perfectly rendered set of narratives. Closely miked and intimately captured, the many nuances of her voice—which is child-like and weathered all at once—come across powerfully here.
Elsewhere, LaVere offers up a cover of Bob Dylan’s overlooked Empire Burlesque nugget, “I’ll Remember You.” Originally recorded and then discarded from the sessions for LaVere’s debut, she revisited the track with better results this time. “It’s just one of my favorite songs,” says LaVere. “I thought it really needed to have its day, have some light shined on it.”
The album’s other cover, a version of Carla Thomas’ “That Beat,” has been a staple of LaVere’s live set for years. She wasn’t planning on recording it until a chance meeting with fiddler, sometime Memphian and Leonard Cohen sideman Bob Furgo. “I met Bob and invited him to sit in with me one night,” says LaVere. “And he played gypsy violin on ‘That Beat,’ just spontaneously live, and it sent me over the edge. When I heard it I knew I wanted a version of that.”
In addition to Furgo, the album boasts the work of several guests, including fiddler and mandolinist Tommy “T-Bone” Burroughs and wildman guitarist Jimbo Mathus. “Jim Dickinson said about Burroughs, when he plays there’s a tear in every note. And with Jimbo, I think that there’s a beer in every note,” says LaVere, laughing. “There’s something that he does that’s woozy and drunk in such an endearing way. It just falls where it’s supposed to.”
But the album’s secret weapon may be the steel guitar playing of Chris Scruggs. The grandson of bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs, LaVere met Scruggs last year at the Americana Music Conference in Nashville, and then caught him playing steel during a set with Big Sandy at Automatic Slim’s. “And I’ve never seen a steel guitar player play the way he does,” says LaVere. “I immediately thought I’ve got to get this guy to play on my record.”
Rounding up the elements is Dickinson, who works his usual magic, indulging LaVere’s whims in the studio and giving her both the space and confidence to make an album that far outstrips its predecessor.
“Working with Jim, the experience was incredibly freeing. I had a lot more of a hand in what was going on, and felt supported to have my creative input heard,” says LaVere. “I would say, ‘Can we do that weird thing again?’ And anything I would bring up Jim would say, ‘Let’s try it!’ He never squashed me or gave me a reason why it wouldn’t work. And that really helped. I can’t wait to make the third record because I’ve learned so much from doing this one.”
In the midst of her musical pursuits, LaVere has also carved out a small sideline as an actress. She had a bit part—most of which ended on the cutting room floor—as rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic “I Walk The Line,” and a meatier role as Christina Ricci’s party pal in Craig Brewer’s “Black Snake Moan.”
LaVere says she hopes to continue her career in front of the camera. “I’m focused on my music right now, but I sure as hell wouldn’t turn down a good role,” she says. “At the end of the summer I might knock on some agents’ doors and see if I couldn’t get some help heading in that direction. Because it’s something I really enjoy doing. The buzz of a movie set, the whole environment and the pressure of it, I just love it.”
For now, however, she’ll begin an intense period supporting Anchors & Anvils. After the Hi-Tone show, LaVere sets out for her first serious tour, a seven-week cross-country jaunt.
“I’m excited. I’d actually like to be touring a lot,” says LaVere. “I kind of daydream about having Willie Nelson’s lifestyle. To be able to tour constantly and be out there with my family—that just sounds like the most amazing thing to me.”
Until she can do that, LaVere will continue juggling her solo career, playing corporate gigs and working her day job guiding tours at Sun studios. “I’m gonna have to be creative because I’m not getting any younger and not getting any richer,” says LaVere, with a laugh. “But I have high hopes.”
Amy LaVere wants to be your Tennessee Valentine
from The Memphis Flyer: May 10, 2007
by Chris Davis
At first listen, Anchors & Anvils, Amy LaVere’s second release for Memphis’ Archer Records, doesn’t sound like a radical departure from This World Is Not My Home, a strong solo debut that was never quite as interesting as it could have been. But it’s a big step up for the throaty-voiced singer and bassist. Backed by a dream team of A-list musicians such as Bob Furgo (Leonard Cohen’s violin player), Chris Scruggs (BR5-49), Jimbo Mathus, Jason Freeman, Paul Taylor, and Eric Lewis, LaVere has never sounded better.
“I’d like to say there’s been a lot of growth since I recorded the last CD,” says LaVere, who appeared as Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and as Christina Ricci’s hard-partying friend in Craig Brewer’s controversial Black Snake Moan. Perched atop a barstool at coffee-shop Quetzal, down the street from Sun Studio, where LaVere works as a tour guide, the tiny country chanteuse known for slapping the hell out of an upright bass that appears to be twice her size looks right at home. From that vantage she discusses her recent life, the joys of working with producer Jim Dickinson, and the true love she’s found in the deep grooves of classic soul music.
“A lot has happened,” she says. “I moved. I went through another long-term relationship, and I lost it. And regained it again. I’ve played a ton of shows since the last record, and my material’s gone in a completely different direction.”
“Killing Him,” an original murder ballad about love gone wrong, opens Anchors & Anvils, establishing the record’s sweet but undeniably spooky tone. It plays out like the long-awaited female answer to classic songs about obsessive love like the brutal standard “The Knoxville Girl” or the eerie Stanley Brothers cut “Little Glass of Wine.” “Killing Him” marries these ancient themes of murder in the mountains with a steady soul groove and the detached, almost jazzy vocals of “Coyote”-era Joni Mitchell.
“I got the idea for ‘Killing Him’ from Misty White,” LaVere says, tipping her hat to the drummer for the local all-girl band the Zippin Pippins. “She called me one morning to tell me about something she’d seen on the news. There was this woman who had killed her husband, and when somebody asked her how she felt about everything, she said, ‘Killing him didn’t make the love go away.’ She thought it would be a great line for a song. And so did I.
“Jim [Dickinson] told me that my themes and my style on this one are very Victorian,” LaVere says. “He said that I was really showing my dark side.”
If Anchors & Anvils is a step up for LaVere, it’s also a classic example of Dickinson doing what he does best. Anchors & Anvils marries the smooth Nashville pop of Patsy Cline with the hip-shaking funk of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, circa 1971 in the same way Dickinson’s 2006 solo release, Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger, found the happy place where the honky-tonk sounds of Bakersfield, California, get down and dirty with Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives.
“Jim gave me a great quote for my CD,” LaVere says. “You take the artist to the edge of the cliff, push them off, and hope they have the wings to fly.” She says he gave her free rein to experiment and the confidence to make bold choices.
LaVere grew up in a tiny town outside of Detroit that was, as she describes it, all about “Metallica and monster trucks.” Her mother played guitar, her dad was a drummer, and LaVere started playing in Motor City rock bands at about the time most kids are learning to add fractions. In Memphis, she made her reputation as a rockabilly sweetheart playing alongside her ex-husband Gabe Kudela in the Gabe & Amy Show.
But before moving to the Bluff City LaVere spent some time in Nashville. That’s where she married Kudela, in a chapel at the corner of Chet Atkins Place and Music Row. No matter how hard she may try to expand her sound or reconnect with her inner rocker, the country ache is always present. It is especially present in songs such as “Time Is a Train,” “Pointless Drinking,” and the sweet slow dance of “Tennessee Valentine.”
“There was nothing intentional about getting rid of the rockabilly,” LaVere says of her current sound, all the while expressing some worry that people see a small woman beating a big bass and think it’s nothing more than a sight gag. Besides, she never gave up rockabilly. She just changed things around a little.
LaVere says she’s too busy preparing for her seven-week tour in support of Anchors & Anvils to think about making any more movies, though that is something she intends to pursue.
“I have delusions of grandeur,” she says.
A rootsier, more dangerous Norah Jones
from DesMoinesRegister.com: May 3, 2007
by Kyle Munson
Check her out. Deserves some of Amy Winehouse’s hype. A rootsier, more dangerous Norah Jones.
On her sophmore release, singer/bassist Amy LaVere doesn’t mess around
from Charleston Daily Mail : April 26, 2007
by Michael Lipton
On her sophomore release, singer/bassist Amy LaVere doesn’t mess around. Beginning with producer Jim Dickinson (Dylan, Big Star, Stones), she’s assembled a top-notch cast that includes guitarist Jimbo Mathus, steel guitarist Chris Scruggs and violinist/mandolinist Tommy Burroughs. LaVere—who made her acting debut portraying Wanda Jackson in the 2005 Johnny Cash bio “Walk the Line”—has a bag that ranges from the haunting opener, “Killing Him,” and the gypsy-styled “That Beat” to the slow and brassy country-tinged confessional “Pointless Drinking,” the Tex-Mex “Overcome” and the Dan Hicks-sounding “Time is a Train.” While the songs are interesting, they mainly serve as vehicles for LaVere. With a childish wisp, she’s, by turns, coy, playful and sexy—sometimes, as on “Washing Machine,” all at once. http://www.archer-records.com.
Amy LaVere Releases New Album
from The Memphis Flyer: March 14, 2007
Fresh from her acting stint in Black Snake Moan, Memphis’ own Amy LaVere is still thumping away at the stand-up bass and cranking out new albums.
Fresh from her acting stint in Black Snake Moan, Memphis’ own Amy LaVere is still thumping away at the stand-up bass and cranking out new albums.
Her newest CD, Anchors and Anvils, will be released May 15. The follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut release, This World Is Not My Home, the album was produced by Jim Dickinson (Big Star, The Replacements, North Mississippi Allstars) and recorded at his studio, The Zebra Ranch in Coldwater, Mississippi.
“Amy LaVere is the most promising emerging artist I’ve seen in years,” says Dickinson. “She has the whole package — the songs, the voice, the looks. … You run across artists all the time who have part of it, but Amy has it all. And it just keeps growing.”
Anchors and Anvils features LaVere on vocals/stand-up bass, Jimbo Mathus (electric guitar), Jim Dickinson (Wurlitzer/piano), Bob Furgo (‘gypsy’ violin), Chris Scruggs (steel guitar), Tommy Burrows (mandolin/fiddle), Jason Freeman (acoustic/electric guitar), Eric Lewis (steel guitar/acoustic guitar), and Paul Taylor (drums).
The 10 tracks, including three penned by LaVere, showcase her sensual and haunting distillation of classic country/gypsy/cool jazz/pop. Anchors And Anvils delivers 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.
LaVere was born in a small Texas/Louisiana border town, nurtured by musical parents with a passion for traditional country. Her family moved 13 times by the time she entered high school, ultimately landing in Detroit where she fronted the punk band Last Minute while still in her teens. The early ‘90s found her in Nashville as part of the burgeoning Lower Broadway scene, where she began to play upright bass as half of the popular roots duo The Gabe & Amy Show. By 1999, she’d moved to Memphis where the city’s diverse music community suited her unique style.
“Memphis doesn’t allow you to be trite,” she says. “It not only forces you to be original, it’s an accepting and supportive place for that which may seem unusual any place else. There’s very little music ‘industry’ here, but plenty of musical freedom.”
Check out producer Jim Dickinson’s video interview with LaVere.
Smoky, Sultry, Swingy and Sweet
from Houston Chronicle: December 23, 2005
by ANDREW DANSBY
Smoky, sultry, swingy and sweet, Amy LaVere’s debut album is an acoustic gem that prances about in a weird netherworld, somewhere between torch, country, vintage folk and other earthy stuff.
Opener Day Like Any has a nice woodsy jazz vibe, punctuated by LaVere’s chirpy warble and strong backing by Squirrel Nut Zipper Jimbo Mathus on guitar and Memphis legend Jim Dickinson on piano. Leaving shuffles along with honky-tonk spunk.
Smoky, sultry, swingy and sweet, Amy LaVere’s debut album is an acoustic gem that prances about in a weird netherworld, somewhere between torch, country, vintage folk and other earthy stuff.
Opener Day Like Any has a nice woodsy jazz vibe, punctuated by LaVere’s chirpy warble and strong backing by Squirrel Nut Zipper Jimbo Mathus on guitar and Memphis legend Jim Dickinson on piano. Leaving shuffles along with honky-tonk spunk.
Often carrying seven or eight instrumentalists (including herself on doghouse bass) on this album, LeVere strips down to a trio on the album’s best cut, Never Been Sadder, with its persistent beat by Paul Taylor; and on the ballad Innocent Girl, a tune that plays to her quivering vocals masterfully.
The poppiest cut, Last Night, doesn’t quite jive with the rest of the album, but a coy, confident vocal puts it over.
Tastefully picked and expressively sung, This World Is Not My Home isn’t going to shake you into believerdom, but it’s still one of those pleasant, genreless records that sounds like it was recorded in a dusty room with old-fashioned microphones. It’s decidedly Southern music that enchantingly celebrates disparate sounds and styles.
Amy LaVere
“LaVere’s musical flame just starting to burn”
from Herald-Journal: November 30, 2006
by Dan Armontaitis
As a teenager, Amy LaVere hadn’t yet developed a passion for the musical influences that play such a vital role on her solo debut album—“This World Is Not My Home”—released earlier this year.
LaVere’s musical flame just starting to burn
DAN ARMONAITIS, For the Herald-Journal
Published November 30, 2006
As a teenager, Amy LaVere hadn’t yet developed a passion for the musical influences that play such a vital role on her solo debut album—“This World Is Not My Home”—released earlier this year.
“I was in a punk band when I was a teenager,” LaVere said. “At 14, I was in my first band and I thought I wanted to be Kate Bush wrapped up in the Pixies with some Rage Against the Machine thrown on top or something. I didn’t know what was going on. But I always loved music.”
Now at age 31, LaVere has blossomed into one of the freshest-sounding artists on the Americana scene. Her music draws from a wide assortment of vintage rock ‘n’ roll, country, R&B and jazz influences, but it comes out sounding contemporary and completely her own.
“This World Is Not My Home” reflects everyone from Ray Charles and Willie Dixon to Loretta Lynn and Doug Sahm, and the album’s unique sound is perfectly complemented by LaVere’s vocal style, which falls somewhere between Grammy-winning Texan Norah Jones, acclaimed Australian Kasey Chambers and seminal New York singer-songwriter Amy Allison.
Music “lights my fire, there’s no doubt about it,” said LaVere, who lives in Memphis, Tenn. “And I think a lot of it comes from the fact that both my parents were musicians.
“It was just something that interested me early on, much more than my dad’s squirrel hunting or my mother’s Tupperware parties.”
LaVere—who played the role of Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash film biopic “Walk the Line” and is a part-time tour guide at the legendary Sun Studio—said her appetite for roots music was whetted during the years she spent in Nashville, Tenn., before moving to Memphis.
“I started hearing all these familiar tunes that I grew up with, and they felt hip again,” LaVere said.
Nashville was also where LaVere began playing slap-style upright bass, a particularly large instrument that dwarfs the tiny singer-songwriter.
“I moved into a house with a bunch of musicians, and two guys who lived there both played upright bass,” LaVere said. “So I picked one up one day, and I really just took to it right away ... It was like having somebody to dance with while you’re up there (on stage).”
Wanda Jackson & Amy LaVere
from The Nashville Scene: Agust 9, 2006
by EDD HURT
At nearly 70, Wanda Jackson remains one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most distinctive singers. Best known for late-‘50s recordings like the explosive “Fujiyama Mama,” the Oklahoma-born Jackson was one of the era’s sexiest, funniest performers. Amy LaVere makes her home in Memphis and is a few decades younger, but she’s another genre-spanning artist whose music and persona suggest new possibilities for female rockers. (The Louisiana-born LaVere appears as Jackson in the 2005 biopic Walk the Line.) LaVere is equally at home singing her own material or triple-slapping upright bass with Bluff City singer Jim Dickinson. LaVere and company will play an opening set, and then it’s on to a collaboration that most likely won’t be your father’s notion of rock ‘n’ roll. ( wandajackson.com ); ( archer-records.com/artists/amy_lavere ) Mercy Lounge
Artist Spotlight: More Than What You Hear
from R & R American Update: July 31, 2006
by Jeff Green
One of the important new talents in Americana is the petite and very
soulful string bassist Amy LaVere, who has made a introspective,
intriguing debut album called The World Is Not My Home, recorded in
her hometown of Memphis with a strong cast of musicians, including Jim
Dickinson on keyboards. LaVere, who, as an actress, who portrayed
Wanda Jackson in Walk the Line and who satisfies her love of music
history by working parttime as a tour guide at Sun Studios, was
noticed by respected Memphis musician, ad-agency owner and label head Ward Archer. “He saw me perform around the area,” she says, “and offered me a deal. We’ve developed a really great working
relationship.” Asked for her favorite track on the album, LaVere
doesn’t hesitate: “‘Nightingale.’ It was [producer] Paul Taylor who thought of the idea of bringing the Mellotron to that song — it’s just too cool. Paul is a consummate musician, and I really trust him. He brought
great ideas to the table.” The World… was made shortly after LaVere
closed the books on a six-year personal relationship, and dealing
honestly with those emotions resulted in an album that LaVere feels
doesn’t fully reflect who she is as a performer. “The overriding theme was to encompass everything that I do, but a lot of stuff got kicked off the record just because it took on this moody, sweet vibe of its own, and the rockers just weren’t fitting in,” she says. “It’s kind of disappointing because I don’t really think it’s representative of my live show, and I’ve had a little trouble getting clubs to understand that what I do is not limited to this album. This record is just a glimpse of a small part of me.”
— By Jeff Green
Amy LaVere
This World Is Not My Home
from Radio ioCountry: June 26, 2006
by Rob Bleetstein
there’s nothing like getting a cd of an artist you’ve never heard of and just falling immediately in love with it. that’s what’s going on with this new disc from amy lavere, which you’ll be hearing plenty of on ioCOUNTRY. here’s the deal on amy.
there’s nothing like getting a cd of an artist you’ve never heard of and just falling immediately in love with it. that’s what’s going on with this new disc from amy lavere, which you’ll be hearing plenty of on ioCOUNTRY. here’s the deal on amy.
amy lavere’s musical journey began in a small texas/louisiana border town. nurtured on her parents’ passion for the traditional and country music of johnny cash, hank williams, dolly parton & willie nelson (her mother played guitar, her dad played drums), a favorite family pastime while she was growing up was traveling to bluegrass festivals. amy’s family moved 13 times before she finished high school (wherever her father’s gm job took them), eventually landing in detroit.
during her detroit teenage years, amy fronted a punk rock band called last minute. for a bunch of teenagers, the group achieved much critical success. knowing, however, that there was moreto her musical journey, amy eventually moved on. after a few attempts of relocating in various cities, the then-in-her-early-twenties amy settled in nashville with a day job as a secretary/assistant on music row.
it was during this time that things really began to gel musically for amy. falling into the then bourgeoning honky-tonk night life scene on nashville’s lower broad, amy shared a house with some members of th’ legendary shack shakers and hank iii upright bassist jason brown who taught amy how to play slap-style rockabilly bass. she was a natural on the instrument. hooking up with another roots music devotee, gabe kudela, they formed the gabe & amy show. it was this duo’s quest for the true roots of american music that brought them to memphis. as the gabe and amy show ran its course, amy started writing more of her own songs and seriously pursuing her solo career.
word quickly spread around the memphis-area about “this pretty little gal with the big voice playin’ a bass that’s bigger than she is” and in january 2005, amy signed with memphis independent label archer records.
recorded in her adopted hometown of memphis, tn and produced by paul taylor, “this world is not my home” features amy on vocals/stand-up bass, jimbo mathus (acoustic & electric guitar), jim dickinson (piano), tommy “t-bone” burroughs (fiddle/mandolin), paul buchignani (drums), forrest parker (pedal steel), tony thomas (accordion), jason freeman (acoustic/electric guitar), paul taylor (percussion/ukulele/acoustic & electric guitar/mellotron/washtub bass). the 10 original tracks on the album, 5 written by amy, showcase her moody distillation of traditional country, artful rock and cool jazz that shatters the expectations of the genres.
in addition to releasing her first solo recording, amy lavere has embarked on an acting career. she appears as wanda jackson in the johnny cash biopic “walk the line” (november 2005) and is cast in the supporting role of jesse in award-winning “hustle & flow” director craig brewer’s forthcoming paramount pictures production “black snake moan” featuring samuel l.jackson, christina ricci and justin timberlake.
Amy LaVere
On Sticking With It
from Bass Player Magazine: June 20, 2006
by SHELTON CLARK
Amy LaVere discovered her muse in the upright bass in Nashville before moving to Memphis and immersing herself in that city’s rich musical scene. When her duo the Gabe & Amy Show fell apart, LaVere struck out on her own. Regular local gigs and recording sessions led to her signing with Memphis indie label Archer Records. Her solo debut, This World Is Not My Home, showcases her reedy, torch-song -ready vocals with a rootsy rhythm section and great appearances from former Squirrel Nit Zippers guitarist Jimbo Mathus and legendary pianist/producer Jim Dickinson. She also landed a bit part playing rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and in Hustle and Flow director Craig Brewer’s upcoming Black Snake Moan with Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson.
What brought you to the upright bass?
Amy LaVere discovered her muse in the upright bass in Nashville before moving to Memphis and immersing herself in that city’s rich musical scene. When her duo the Gabe & Amy Show fell apart, LaVere struck out on her own. Regular local gigs and recording sessions led to her signing with Memphis indie label Archer Records. Her solo debut, This World Is Not My Home, showcases her reedy, torch-song -ready vocals with a rootsy rhythm section and great appearances from former Squirrel Nit Zippers guitarist Jimbo Mathus and legendary pianist/producer Jim Dickinson. She also landed a bit part playing rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and in Hustle and Flow director Craig Brewer’s upcoming Black Snake Moan with Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson.
What brought you to the upright bass?
I stumbled on it. I had moved into a house in Nashville that had two upright bass players. I had played drums in a band one time, and I know some chords on a guitar, but the upright bass was just like my dream instrument. It was percussive, it was one note at a time, and I could slap the first time I ever picked it up-which wowed the boys. It more or less found me.
It took a long time to get my endurances up to where I could do more than two songs in a row. As a little girl, I had to overcome the fact that I’d just need some strong arms playing the upright. When I first started playing, I’d sit in on (Nashville’s) Lower Broadway. To make it through a song, at first it was just too much. But I had to get over it. I learned that I wasn’t going to be able to tape my fingers like a lot of upright players. The tape sticks to the strings and adds extra pull. The joints of my fingers would get sore, so I found that I have to get through the blister phase until I got my calluses.
Do you also play electric?
I tried to play the electric. I was playing a regular gig on upright here in Memphis and (late Who bassist) John Entwistle was there. He came up and told me that my slap technique was brilliant, but that I was wasting all my energy on “the giant piece of shit.” He said I needed to get my self a Fender Precision and then I’d have something. Three or four days later I borrowed a P-Bass. I practiced the hell out of the P-Bass, and then I started playing shows with it. Nobody was thrilled to see me play the electric, though, and really, it wasn’t half as fun as dancing with an upright. So I decided I was just going to keep the part where Entwhistle said my slap technique was brilliant, and maybe just forget the rest.
Amy advice for aspiring upright players?
Play through the pain.
—SHELTON CLARK
Amy LaVere is the musical equivalent of Lay’s Potato Chips
from WIVK/Americana Highway: June 19, 2006
by Eric Bohlen
Amy LaVere is the musical equivalent of Lay’s Potato Chips. The old t.v. commercial said you can’t eat just one chip. Well after listening to Amy’s new cd “This World Is Not My Home”...you’ll find that you can’t listen just one time through. Whether it’s the spunky rockabilly of “Never Been Sadder” (which really is a sad song in spite of it’s thumpin’, up-tempo bass line)...the sweet, dreamy journey of “Nightingale”...or “Leaving” which easily could be playing on an Oklahoma honky tonk’s jukebox in the late 1950’s smack dab between Hank Williams and Patsy Cline without missing a beat….you’ll find yourself playing the songs again and again and again. Thank goodness for my cd player’s “repeat” function. The only potential problem: can you physically wear out a cd by playing it too much?”—
Amy LaVere
THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME
from Maverick Magazine: June 1, 2006
Amy LaVere is one of the best-looking bass players you’re ever likely to come across. She is also a talented singer-songwriter. This is very apparent when listening to her debut album THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME. (Archer Records ARR-.131924)**** Recorded in her adopted hometown of Memphis, Tennessee and produced by Paul Taylor, it is a moody mix of traditional country, artful soul, rock and jazz.
“Last Night” presents a wife confronting a cheating husband with a chilling combination of strength and vulnerability. “We Went Sailing” is an instantly infectious number that cruises on the fuel of her clever and intelligent lyrics and the taut instrumental arrangement. Throughout the mellow production draws upon arrangements using accordion, fiddle, mandolin, pedal steel, pianos guitars and ukulele on tunes that range from waltz type numbers to silky ballads to more rhythmic selections. As well as her blossoming music career, you might also have seen Amy in the Johnny cash bio-pic “I Walk The Line”, in which she portrays rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson. She also appears in Hustle & Flow and the upcoming “Black Snake Moan”.
Amy LaVere’s Popularity as a Session Bassist on the Rise
May 1, 2006
by Cacky Minden
Since completing her solo album, “This World Is Not My Home,”
Amy LaVere has been in demand as a session bassist on two
upcoming releases. First, Jim Dickinson’s new CD, “Jungle Jim & The
Voodoo tiger” (Memphis International) to be released May 30th
Click Here To Listen
Amy is also plucking her bass on William Lee Ellis’s new album “God’s Tattoos” (Yellow Dog Records). The album, recorded and produced by Jim Dickinson at his Zebra Ranch, is an eclectic mix of blues, Americana, gospel, world music, and rock.
Amy LaVere
This World Is Not My Home
from Paste Magazine: April 2, 2006
by Andy Whitman
Amy LaVere’s marketing schtick-a tiny woman playing a big upright bass-certainly grabs your attention. But she holds it throughout most of this strong debut by delivering smart, well-written songs that impressively blur genre boundaries. LaVere’s voice is something of an acquired taste; she has the little-girl coyness of a Julie Miller or Kasey Chambers, only without the sass. But her band-led by legendary Southern blues stalwarts Jim Dickinson and Jimbo Mathus-kicks up a righteous, rootsy fuss, and the songs span traditional American music, from the country-noir/samba opener “Day Like Any” to the zydeco shuffle of “Take ‘Em or Leave ‘Em,” and the more traditional truckstop-jukebox anthem “Leaving.”
Amy LaVere
This World Is Not My Home
from No Depression: April 2, 2006
by Michael Berick
Amy LaVere portrayed Wanda Jackson in the film “Walk The Line”, but on her alluring debut disc, she comes across more like a demure roots chanteuse than a rockabilly wildcat. The Memphis-based performer establishes her album’s blue mood immediately on the opening “Day Like Any”. Supported by Jimbo Mathus’sinewy guitar work, this torchy tune examines a relationship gone wrong, a topic she revisits throughout this ten-song outing. While the lyrics concentrate on romantic woes, the music holds an endearing retro Americana quality as LaVere gracefully mixes the sounds of the backwoods (the mountain-bluesy “Nightingale”) with smoky juke joints (the accordion-paced “Take ‘Em Or Leave ‘Em”). Although LaVere’s whispery vocals occasionally grow a little wispy, tunes such as “Never Been Sadder” (which also spotlights her nimble standup bass prowess) and the country waltz title track showcase her sweetly vulnerable voice to greater effect.
Amy LaVere
This World Is Not My Home
from All Music Guide Billboard.com: March 27, 2006
by Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.
This World Is Not My Home gets a lazy, relaxed start with “Day Like Any,” a rhythmically compelling song highlighted by Jimbo Mathus’ guitar work and Amy LaVere’s country-flavored girlish vocals. “Nightingale” veers much closer to folk, while “Leaving” is straight old-school country. Perhaps the element that stands out most and ties these various styles together under some kind of alternative country banner is LaVere’s light, slightly breathy vocal tone. She coos and croons, stretching syllables and adding emotional flourishes, and shows herself to be quite comfortable with the material at hand. And LaVere has surrounded herself with a crack band that includes Mathus, pianist Jim Dickinson, drummer Paul Buchignani, and several other fine players. The songs, mostly written by LaVere and Mathus, are also solid, though the best stuff is on the first half of the album. While This World Is Not My Home will probably be filed under alternative country, the album never sounds like anything that might typically be given that label (she’s a female, first of all, and doesn’t mumble her lyrics against a clash of twangy guitars). Instead, LaVere’s style seems closer in spirit to the simpler values of older country and folk. As an added bonus, the CD design, featuring several black-and-white photographs by Monty Johnson, is absolutely lovely. This World Is Not My Home will serve as a fine introduction to a distinctive singer. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., All Music Guide
Amy LaVere
This World Is Not My Home
from CITY NEWSPAPER, Rochester, NY: February 1, 2006
by Saby Reyes-Kulkarni
Legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson, who lends his piano talents to
much of this album, says that singer-bassist Amy LaVere “can triple-slap an
upright bass like Willie Dixon on steroids.” That’s a hell of an
endorsement, and it may be true (LaVere played in a punk band as a teenager in Detroit), but here LaVere prefers a picking approach that’s as supple asthe arrangements built around her singing.
Backed by an extraordinary cast that also includes guitarist JimboMathus,
mandolinist Tommy “T-Bone” Burroughs, and producer Paul Taylor, LaVere
haunts this finely crafted roots music like some modern spirit traveling
backwards in time. She strikes a fine balance between eerie, awkward, and
lovely with her voice, sounding neither from our world nor from the bygone
world she re-creates in song.
Free of the over-calculation and repressive purism that bogs down too much
“old-time” music though, LaVere lifts traditional sounds to glorious places
they seem never to have been.
Amy LaVere: “This World is not My Home”
from FORT WORTH WEEKLY : January 25, 2006
by Tom Geddie
With her almost ethereal, little-girl-lost voice and first-class musical
accompaniment, Amy LaVere wanders through a melancholy world that¹s
seemingly without love. On the title track of her debut c.d., This World is
Not My Home, she claims she¹s not from here but seems to know the emotional terrain pretty well: Most of the 10 songs deal with the aftermaths of failed relationships.
After a stint in Nashville, LaVere, who once fronted a punk rock band as a
teen-ager in Detroit, seems to have found her artistic home in Memphis. Lacy and lovely in the black-and-white photos in the album sleeve, LaVere played Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, and she also has a role in the upcoming Black Snake Moan featuring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, and Justin Timberlake. As long as LaVere stays within her limited vocal range, she sounds good, and her brand of country-pop is distinctive. It circumnavigates the typically
rote method by which Nashville tries -and usually fails - to blend those
two styles.
LaVere, who plays an upright bass almost as big as she is, and
producer Paul Taylor get excellent support from guitarist Jimbo Mathus, who regularly tours with Buddy Guy, and piano-man Jim Dickinson, who’s worked with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. LaVere wrote five of the 10 songs, including the first track, “Day Like Any,” in which she claims she doesn¹t really miss her lover because she still has the moon. “Nightingale” and the title song, both written by Mathus, are also highlights.
This collection of love-lost songs makes the listener wonder why LaVere has trouble holding onto men ‹ or if she¹s just really good at role-playing.
Amy LaVere and her bass travel the road to stardom
from The Tennessean: January 24, 2006
by PETER COOPER, STAFF WRITER
Tonight’s edition of Billy Block’s Western Beat show at Exit/In (2208 Elliston Place, 321-3340) features Amy LeVere, an ex-Nashvillian and current Memphian whose This World Is Not My Home album marks her as an emerging star in the alt-country and Americana worlds.
When LaVere lived in Nashville, she spent days working on Music Row (as a secretary and assistant) and nights making music that was quite removed from Nashville’s contemporary country. LaVere hung out with Lower Broadway musicians and learned to play upright bass. Well, she more than learned to play it. She learned to flat out wallop the thing.
Since then, she’s moved to Memphis and made inroads in music and in film. She plays the part of rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, and she’s set to appear in a forthcoming film called Black Snake Moan, which features Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake. (Always fun to mention Justin in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, no?)
On music stages, she stands with that big bass and sings songs from This World Is Not My Home, an album that features lounge-y twang, jazzy country and other such fine things.
Others on Mr. Block’s multi-artist show tonight include Jubal Lee Young, Jesse & Noah Bellamy, Karen Keeley, Josh Byrd and Delta Southern. Show starts at 7 p.m., and the cover charge is $5.
Amy LaVere This World is not My home - Three 1/2 Stars
from PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: January 22, 2006
by Nick Cristiano
“I’m not the girl I once was, I’ve learned from heartaches,” Amy LaVere
confides on “Innocent Girl,” one of the 10 cuts on her solo debut. She goes
on, however, to warn: “My heart’s not quite dead.”
That wounded but resilient spirit suffuses This World Is Not My Home and
LaVere’s breathy, deceptively delicate vocals, which are as beguiling as the
music’s evocative blend of country and pop. The singer and bass player, who
portrays Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, recorded the album in her current hometown of Memphis; that’s where she got the imprimatur of local music legend Jim Dickinson, who plays piano on four
tracks. From start to finish, it’s easy to share his enthusiasm.
“...full of heartbreak and disappointment, yet casts an intoxicating spell”
This World Is Not My Home (Archer)
from Chicago Tribune: Janurary 20, 2006
by Daniel Durchholz
On the silver screen, Amy LaVere portrays rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line” and appears in Craig Brewer’s forthcoming “Black Snake Moan.” But LaVere’s greatest role is as herself, a Southern girl thumping a doghouse bass bigger than she is and singing in a woozy, whispery voice that confesses, “I’m no longer an innocent girl/ I’ve had my taste of this tasteless world.” LaVere’s rootsy debut is full of heartbreak and disappointment, yet casts an intoxicating spell.
Amy LaVere: This World is not My Home
from LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS : January 20, 2006
by Bob Strauss, Staff Writer
Something like this doesn’t come along every day. LaVere has an achy,
little-girl voice that’s a nice fit with the just-this-side-of-naive
heartbreak songs she writes. But she also plays a big, stand-up slap bass,
which lends a tough, rockabilly punch to arrangements whose eclectic
influences include honky tonk, lounge and even a little mystic Celtic.
LaVere, by the way, has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the Johnny
Cash biopic “Walk the Line” as early rock queen bee Wanda Jackson. Good
casting.
Talking Bluff City
Singer-songwriter finds her groove after moving to Memphis
from Nashville Scene: January 19, 2006
by Edd Hurt
Alt-country often cultivates an unworldliness that does an injustice to the complexity of the music’s roots. While it’s true that country, blues and bluegrass have their spiritual side, alt-country can trade lyrical and musical specificity for vague representations of a world that never existed, except on old records.
Amy LaVere’s debut, This World Is Not My Home, avoids this vagueness in ways that suggest we’re living in the post-alt era. Recorded in Memphis with a cast of supporting players that includes former Squirrel Nut Zippers guitarist Jimbo Mathus and pianist Jim Dickinson, it’s not a total success. But at its best, This World operates in a time-honored Memphis tradition, confounding categories and working readymade forms for all they’re worth.
Born in Shreveport and raised in locales ranging from northwestern Louisiana to Detroit, LaVere grew up listening to Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. In Detroit, she began singing in punk bands, and in 1996 relocated to Nashville, where she learned to play upright bass from Jason Brown, the bassist in Hank Williams III’s band.
Performing with guitarist Gabe Kudela as The Gabe & Amy Show, LaVere began playing slap-style bass in earnest. In the late ‘90s, the duo moved to Memphis, where LaVere honed her songwriting and developed a live show that incorporated both her own material and songs by Koko Taylor and Carla Thomas. Always as interested in blues, soul and rockabilly as in country, she found the edgy Memphis scene congenial.
This World Is Not My Home reflects LaVere’s evolution. Produced by Paul Taylor, a superb multi-instrumentalist who played bass with Cody and Luther Dickinson in DDT, their pre-North Mississippi All Stars group, the record combines honky blues, 1950s-style country music, Southern-Gothic folk-rock and flashes of down-home wit.
LaVere’s soul-inflected voice is naive and worldly, with an attractive grain. Her bass playing, while not virtuosic, solidly grounds the music and provides a warmth that is complemented by Taylor’s understated production, which employs a limited palette (guitars and pedal steel) enlivened by touches of accordion, piano, mandolin and Mellotron.
This approach is most effective on Jimbo Mathus’ “Nightingale,” where Forrest Parker’s pedal steel and Taylor’s guitars create a pillowy cloud of implied harmonics over a bed of minimal percussion. It’s a gorgeous bit of production whose musicality complements a beautifully simple piece of songwriting.
LaVere’s “Day Like Any” uses Mathus’ scaly Marc Ribot-like guitar lines in a snaky, sexy performance that recalls Tom Waits’ occluded soundscapes. It’s perhaps a better recording than a piece of songwriting, although LaVere’s lyrics show savvy: “It was a day like any day / The sun came on, but didn’t stay.”
Where LaVere really hits her stride as a songwriter is on “Never Been Sadder.” Set to a cantering shuffle, lyrics like, “But the soap I tried to make / It wouldn’t wash away / This dirty feeling like I made a big mistake,” are canny and droll. Similarly, Taylor’s “Innocent Girl” fleshes out LaVere’s persona: “I’m no longer an innocent girl / I’ve had my taste of this tasteless world.”
Elsewhere, Tommy Hull’s “Take ‘Em or Leave ‘Em” bears comparison to something off the Sir Douglas Quintet’s Together After Five. “We Went Sailing” suggests that LaVere has a talent for combining the commonplaces of country music with a feel for the mythic when she sings, “I slipped into the water / And floated down to the bottom.”
So, while This World doesn’t contain quite enough first-rate songwriting, and its country pastiches come across as a bit complacent, it demonstrates that post-alt-country can be both barbed and romantic. Its placid surface conceals considerable complexity, and who could ask much more of the world than that?
“Good Stuff”
from Performing Songwriter Magazine: January/February 2006
by Abby White
Singer/actress Amy LaVere’s solo debut, This World Is Not My Home, is a unique blend of jazz and traditional cocuntry that manages to sound both innovative and timeless. Good stuff.
Newcomer comes out swinging with jazzy country sound
from Columbus Dispatch: January 19, 2006
by Margaret Quamme
On her first album, LaVere plays stand-up slap bass while singing in a
relaxed, girlish voice. Not a usual combination, but the deep, percussive
bass provides a fine foundation for a comfortable and unassuming set of
songs.
The album blends tunes penned by LaVere with those written by others.
Traditional country receives its due in the heartfelt Leaving, while the
tantalizing Take ‘em or Leave ‘em heads toward bayou rhythms.
Her compositions lead toward the jazzy end of country. Some take on baroque lyrics and convoluted narratives: The ukulele-spiced We Went Sailing turns the story of a relationship into a bizarre fishing trip, on which the singer ends up deep under the sea, looking up to see her ex “swimming by with the other sharks / stirring up the sand, making my world dark.” But even at their strangest, LaVere’s songs have a comfortably unpretentious swing.
Amy LaVere At Home in Many Musical Styles
from The Hartford Courant Hartford, CT: January 19, 2006
by ERIC R. DANTON
Her upright bass is taller than she is, but Amy LaVere on her solo debut makes up in musical ability what she lacks in physical stature.
LaVere’s was an itinerant upbringing - her family moved 13 times before settling in Detroit, where she fronted a punk band as a teenager. Later she moved to Memphis, and calling her album “This World Is Not My Home” seems to reflect the sentiments of someone who never stayed in any one place long enough to feel at home. In a more literal sense, the record also reflects the different styles LaVere soaked up during her childhood wanderings.
It’s a rootsy affair, delving into vintage-style hillbilly gospel on the title track and a sort of Vaudevillian cabaret sound on “Never Been Sadder.” Despite the moody themes, “This World Is Not My Home” is a good-natured record. The music is lively, even on the somber tracks, and LaVere benefits from ace collaborators Jim Dickinson on piano and Jimbo Mathus on guitar.
Her voice is warm and tousled, almost playful at times, and she conveys a subtle sense of bemused optimism that lightens up her darkest sentiments. This world may not be LaVere’s home, but we’re lucky enough to have her visiting for a while.
Bass-Thumpin’ Memphis Mama
SOUTHERN CHANTEUSE AMY LAVERE RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM
from The Bulletin: January 17, 2006
by Mark Williams
If you’re looking for new music in the new year, then check out the new release by uniquely talented songstress Amy LaVere, “This World Is Not My Home,” due out on Tuesday, January 17 from Memphis-based label Archer Records. LaVere and her band, the Tramps, offer up a new take on acoustic Americana—an old-timey mix of pop and country, jazz and folk.
After a foray into punk rock and emo in her teen years, LaVere moved to Nashville and got an office job on Music Row—where she met rockabilly rebel Gabe Kudela, whom she wed after only three weeks; she learned how to slap a stand-up bass—her instrument of choice these days—and got back in touch with her deep south musical roots. Soon, the newlyweds moved to Memphis, rocking the blues on Beale Street.
Four years later, the couple split—leaving LaVere to find solace in classic country and to form a roadhouse band with former Todd Snider drummer Paul Buchignani and guitar man Jason Freeman, playing 150 shows in 2004. The band’s growing rep not only led LaVere to Archer Records but also back to Nashville, where she was cast as rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson in the recent Johnny Cash biopic “Walk The Line.” Adding to her acting resume, LaVere also has a role in the forthcoming “Black Snake Moan.” starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci and popster Justin Timberlake.
With help from southern heavyweights like Memphis piano man Jim Dickinson and former Squirrel Nut Zippers leader Jimbo Mathus (who contributes a good ol’ country blues number, “Nightingale,” to the proceedings), LaVere spent part of last year recording her debut album in Memphis—including tracks recorded at the famed Phillips Recording Service, home of the legendary Sun Records label, which introduced the world to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and late Texas rock & roll hipster Roy Orbison.
“This World Is Not My Home” benefits from that vibe, as Amy LaVere’s charmingly girlish voice serves her backwoods balladry, a celebration of the South and its diverse musical styles—with songs that mix it up: from dusty roadhouse honky-tonk to front porch jazz to countrified torch songs; and while LaVere and her two-man band benefit from the presence of players like Mathus and Dickinson, the trio seems at its best on tunes that showcase their own unique talents, as on “Never Been Sadder,” “Last Night” and the beautifully sparse “We Went Sailing.”
“This World Is Not My Home” is an uplifting charmer of an indie album—a captivatingly class act and could be a favorite of ‘06 for fans of good old-fashioned pickin’ and playin’ and decidedly lovely lyrics; it’ll also definitely be a keeper for fans of the “Sounds of Texas” concert series and listeners of KPFT. If you have no time to rummage through a music store in the coming weeks, check out http://www.archer-records.com for song samples and to order your autographed copy—you’ll be glad you did…