Singer-songwriter Amy Speace has released her debut poetry collection, “The Cardinals,” via Red Hen Press, alongside a new single, “Days of Letting Go,” with an accompanying music video. Both projects tie into her current tour, “The Cardinals: Songs, Stories & Poetry,” which runs into 2027 and mixes performances, readings and conversations at listening rooms, venues and bookstores, including a scheduled appearance at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on Oct. 17.
The poetry collection explores themes of marriage, divorce, motherhood and mysticism. The single “Days of Letting Go” grew out of a poem Speace wrote during her MFA thesis work, originally conceived as a persona piece with a male narrator; she said a mentor and a friend, musician Vance Gilbert, encouraged her to turn it into a song. The track was recorded at Skinny Elephant Studio in East Nashville, produced by Neilson Hubbard, and features Doug Lancio on guitars, Lex Price on bass, Hubbard on drums and Danny Mitchell on keys. The video was directed by Duende Visions Productions.
Speace, who was signed to Judy Collins’ label after being discovered by the folk icon, has had her songs recorded by artists including Red Molly and Christine Lavin. Her song “Me and the Ghost of Charlemagne” won International Song of the Year from the American Music Association (UK) in 2020, according to her bio.
Based on a press release provided to Music Industry Weekly by monica@thinkpress.net (thinkpress.net).