A few years ago, Amy Speace appeared in the upcoming listings for the Kitchen Garden, but circumstances curtailed the tour and this date floated into the ether. The wrong of then has now been suitably corrected as, at last, the Kitchen Garden has hosted an Amy Speace show. Not only any old show, but one where the intuition of audience, venue and performer were perfectly aligned leading to the unravelling of a highly successful evening, to the extent where promises of an instant return should be held to account.My awareness of Amy Speace traces back to her 2013 album release How to Sleep in a Stormy Boat. Around the same time she appeared on the bill of the Maverick Festival. In the subsequent period her name has cropped up on numerous occasions without the intensity of association that really came to the fore last year. It's probably harsh to say 2019 was a breakthrough year for somebody with the artistic experience of Amy Speace, whether in her theatrical life in New York City or the songwriting calling that took her south way past her Baltimore home to the music Mecca of Nashville Tennessee. However, the release of the excellent album Me and the Ghost of Charlemagne and a re-commitment to tour the UK as a solo artist has projected her into new territories as far as the UK is concerned. It helped that the album got a release on Proper Records thus widening availability and coverage. The touring has also leapt forward to 2020 with the promise of two further trips to this country before the year is out. To crown this purple patch, the title track of the new album has just been successful in the International Song category at the recent AMA UK awards ceremony.
Anyway enough of the background, and a return to the long awaited Birmingham debut. First and foremost, we got incredible value of money at this gig with Amy playing for two and a quarter hours, all for the princely sum of a tenner. In another boost, the amiable guys at the Kitchen shifted the often dormant piano from one corner of the venue to centre stage with Amy grasping the opportunity to share her award winning song on its main choice of musical accompaniment.
In some ways time ran away with itself during the gig with Amy enthusiastically sharing a barrage of stories, anecdotes and tales, often very personal with an expression of candidness. These interludes far from overshadowed the song content as she delivered a hearty slice of her material including a liberal sprinkling of tracks from the new album, thus putting an informative spin on listening to it solely in its recorded content.
To say we got to know about Amy Speace is an understatement. Whether name checking an incredible plethora of talented compatriots, many of whom are her neighbours in East Nashville, or delving into her own fascinating background, we were furnished with an entertaining scope to what forms Amy Speace - the songwriter, the artist, the person. It added to a very comprehensive evening of song and chat of the highest quality, all delivered by a person born to be an entertainer.
The Kitchen Garden is built for evenings like this and the wait for Amy Speace to sat-nav her way through the backstreets of Kings Heath was rewarded with a show stamped with the hallmark of what makes the venue tick. Another Nashville artist won over by the 'Bluebird of the Midlands'.
