Amy Speace to Launch 'THE CARDINALS: SONGS, STORIES & POETRY' Tour
Speace's debut poetry collection THE CARDINALS will be published by Red Hen Press, with single 'Days of Letting Go' also due.
Singer/songwriter and poet Amy Speace is set to release her debut poetry collection THE CARDINALS on September 1 through Red Hen Press, alongside a companion single titled 'Days of Letting Go' due September 4, with a supporting tour, THE CARDINALS: SONGS, STORIES AND POETRY, to begin August 27 in Columbus, Ohio and run into 2027. The collection draws on themes of marriage, divorce, motherhood, and loss framed through imagery from the natural world, while the single originated from a persona poem Speace wrote during her MFA studies in Louisville, Kentucky and was later recorded at Skinny Elephant Studio in East Nashville, produced by Neilson Hubbard.
Photo Credit: Neilson Hubbard
THE CARDINALS is a lyrical investigation of marriage, divorce, mothering, and mysticism told through poems that read like intimate conversations but evoke the complexities of love and loss through the natural world. Speace tackles the internal language of coming together and splitting apart, evoking rivers and birds, the South and the North, weather and racism and family history and it all comes together like birdsong.
The single 'Days of Letting Go' was inspired by a poem titled 'Bluegrass Highway' written as part of her MFA thesis. 'I went to graduate school in Louisville, Kentucky and somewhere on 65 North there was a large black billboard with white writing that said, 'Opium Kills. Jesus Saves.' I was working on a series of 'persona poems' - poems where the narrator isn't me, is a character, a specific voice – and I imagined it as a male narrator driving back home after the funeral of his father's death. Of course, my own father had died in late 2019 and that was also a subject I was writing about in my work at the time. I wrote the poem with the repeating refrain - clearly in song form – but wanted to keep it a poem, until one of my mentors asked me why it wasn't a song. I sang the whole thing to my friend Vance Gilbert and he said, 'you know what would be cool? If you spoke the verse lyrics.' And I told him it was originally a poem and he laughed.'
'Days of Letting Go' was recorded at Skinny Elephant Studio in East Nashville, TN and produced by Neilson Hubbard with Amy (vox), Doug Lancio (guitars), Lex Price (bass), Neilson Hubbard (drums) and Danny Mitchell (keys).
'Amy Speace is an accomplished singer-songwriter, so she knows how to tell a story, how to make the listener care, and how to create something beautiful and meaningful that will live inside a person for years to come. She's done that with The Cardinals, a collection of poems that grapples with memory, motherhood, place, family, and loss—in other words, the business of being human. Her voice is one I'm grateful to have in the world.' — Maggie Smith, author of Goldenrod
ABOUT AMY SPEACE
THE CARDINALS is Amy Speace's debut collection. She is an award-winning Americana folk singer and songwriter discovered by Judy Collins. Her songs have been recorded by Ms. Collins and many others and she has won International Song of the Year from the Americana Music Association (UK). Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Working Mother, and Salon.com. She received her MFA from Spalding University and teaches English at Cumberland University. She resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with her son, Huckleberry, and her dog, Dusty Springfield.
'The Cardinals: Songs, Stories & Poetry' Tour
AUG 27 / COLUMBUS, OH @ Natalie's Grandview
AUG 28 / CINCINNATI, OH @ The Loon Wine Bar
AUG 31 / LEXINGTON, KY @ Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour
SEPT 2 / NASHVILLE, TN @ Parnassus Books
SEPT 3 / KNOXVILLE, TN @ Open Chord Music
SEPT 10 / OKLAHOMA CITY, OK @ The Blue Door
SEPT 11 / BARTLESVILLE, OK @ Grey Dog Listening Room
SEPT 12 / HUTCHINSON, KS @ Tall Jann's Concerts
SEPT 23 / NEW YORK, NY @ City Winery
SEPT 24 / HOBOKEN, NJ @ Little City Books
SEPT 25 / BEACON, NY @ The Town Crier
SEPT 26 / SHIRLEY, MA @ Bull Run Restaurant
OCT 10 / SANTA MONICA, CA @ McCabe's Guitar Shop
OCT 24 / EASTON, MD @ Stoltz Listening Room
OCT 25 / BETHLEHEM, PA @ Godfrey Daniels
OCT 29 / NASHVILLE, TN @ East Nashville Beer Works
NOV 4 / CHICAGO, IL @ Uncommon Ground
NOV 5 / FORT ATKINSON, WI @ Cafe Carpe
NOV 6 / WAYZATA, MN @ Blue Water Theatre Company
NOV 7 / DULUTH, MN @ Wussow's Concert Cafe
NOV 18 / WINSTON-SALEM, NC @ Running with Headphones
NOV 19 / DURHAM, NC @ Seance Listening Room
NOV 20 / HONEA PATH, SC @ Fiddle & Bow Music Hall
NOV 21 / ATLANTA, GA @ Red Boots Roots Music Concerts
NOV 22 / ASHEVILLE, NC @ House Concert
DEC 3 / SEATTLE, WA @ Third Place Books Ravenna
Tour information is available at https://www.amyspeace.com/tour.
Speace, an Americana folk artist who was discovered by Judy Collins, has had her songs recorded by Collins and other artists. Tour dates and additional information are available through her official website.
Photo Credit: Neilson Hubbard
