Sid Selvidge & Amy Speace
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Sid Selvidge has had a musical career as expansive as the Mississippi Delta — and as true to his roots as the bluesmen of yesteryear. Leaving his home in Greenville, Mississippi, Sid moved to Memphis at an early age, studying and performing with legendary bluesmen like Furry Lewis and Mississippi Fred McDowell at the famous Bitter Lemon Club. With a knack for the southern tradition of storytelling, Selvidge swiftly adapted their picking styles and incorporated them into his distinctive fusion of country, blues, folk, and rock.
Soon his music began to catch the attention of those outside the Bluff City, who took notice of his ability to integrate classic methods into unique singing and playing approaches. “Sid Selvidge, who comes from Mississippi by way of Memphis, is neither country nor rock,” said John Rockwell of the New York Times. “He’s pretty much everything musically in the whole Southeast.” While still in school at Washington University, Sid recorded his debut LP, Portrait, which was released by Enterprise Records, a subsidiary of Stax. Thereafter, he traveled to New York and captivated audiences from Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center, garnering rave reviews. “His voice is an astonishing instrument,” raved New York Times writer Robert Palmer. “Cool and liquid with a range of several octaves.”
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By this time, major labels were making offers, resulting in a deal whereby Elektra released his Twice Told Tales as a part of the Nonesuch Records “American Explorer Series.” When not working on solo records, Selvidge was a member of Mudboy and the Neutrons with cofounder and close friends Jim Dickinson, Lee Baker, and Jimmy Crosthwait. Selvidge and Dickinson would collaborate on numerous projects throughout their enduring friendship, but the 3 Mudboy albums were among the most original of that partnership. Bob Dylan even referred to them as “the great band that nobody can find.”
While living in Memphis during this time, Selvidge also taught anthropology at Rhodes College and helped found Beale Street Caravan, an internationally syndicated blues radio program heard on over 500 stations around the world. Even with his performance and recording career, Selvidge still remains heavily involved at BSC, serving as executive producer since its founding. In 2002 Selvidge signed to Memphis label Archer Records, which released A Little Bit of Rain the following year. Recording was a family affair, with Selvidge’s son, Steve (The Hold Steady) joining on guitar, along with Jim Dickinson on keys and his son, Luther (North Mississippi Allstars, Black Crowes) on slide guitar, and old pal Jimmy Crosthwait on washboard. Upon hearing the record, David Fricke of Rolling Stone couldn’t hold back his praise, declaring emphatically “Sid Selvidge is a precious treasure.”
“I kind of spilled blood all over this project,” Amy Speace says of her new album The Killer In Me, which marks a quantum creative leap from the artist’s 2006 breakthrough effort Songs For Bright Street. While that release won her widespread critical acclaim and a loyal international fan base, The Killer In Me finds the New York‐based singer/songwriter forging into deeper, darker lyrical and musical terrain, borne largely out of the dissolution of her 10‐ year marriage. “This is the record that I needed to make,” Speace states. “In many ways, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And in some ways, it was the easiest. Writing the songs was emotionally difficult, deep and intense‐‐it was kind of an exorcism. But in the end, the songs flowed pretty quickly. You write the things that you’re afraid to say out loud.”
The Killer In Me’s 12 soul‐baring new songs maintain the effortless melodic appeal of her prior work, while delivering complex emotional insights that give the album startling intimacy and resonance. “The Killer In Me” chronicles a strangled co‐dependent relationship, while “Haven’t Learned A Thing” offers absolution for the continuing struggle in the attempt to connect with another and never getting it completely right. “This Love” speaks to the hope and uncertainty that comes with the onset of a new relationship. The album covers more terrain than romantic relationships, closing with “Piece By Piece,” written as a prayer to her father, wishing him peace and love after the death of his brother.
Most of the album was written in the rural isolation of a rented cabin in the Catskills after her final separation from her husband. “It was just me, some books, my journals, my guitar and the songs, with no phone and no TV,” she explains. “I spent a lot of time reading and hiking and chopping wood for the stove, and wrote the songs that form the emotional center of this album.” “The situation,” she continues, “forced me to sit with a lot of silence, fear and confusion and make a kind of peace with them by writing songs to keep from going crazy. That’s when the album started making sense to me and became a whole different thing. Something shifted when I realized what was going on in the world outside mirrored what was going on inside of me, and I wanted to write songs that bridged that divide.”
