Amy Campbell brings together classical training and folk sensibilities to create music that reaches into human experience and comes back with stories written from the soul. Devoted equally to lyrical craft, innovative musicianship, and engaging performances, Amy’s dozen years of writing, composing, and touring have cemented her position in hearts and playlists across the world.
Her songs are at once infinitely personal and instantly relatable, painting moody emotional landscapes over spare open tunings. Releasing two live albums in the last five years, Amy’s career has steadily built momentum through commitment on a few fronts: her own, to professionalism and publicity; other artists who are eager perform with her; and her listeners who want to share her music with as many people as they can.
After a decade of these promotion streams building momentum, Amy is riding this trajectory to the release of her solo studio debut with release parties in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and at the Halifax Pop Explosion.
Oh Heart, Oh Highway is a double album with accompanying book of illustration and prose that will take listeners on a multidimensional, fragmented, and ultimately meaningful journey. Playing nearly every instrument herself, Amy has created a challenging first-person travelogue of reaching out and letting go, with rhythms that evoke the trees zooming by a car window on long highway drives. The songs are mourning serenades of to lost loves and family members.
Existing fans will relish an opportunity to hear layers of violin, upright bass, and organs behind Amy’s trademark intricate guitar work and warm vocals. New fans will be drawn in by the album’s cinematic narratives, and ambitious artistic vision; as evidenced in March 2009, when Oh Heart, Oh Highway reached 1 on CBC’s coveted and influential Galaxie Folk/Roots chart.
Equally at home at a low-fi Ladyfest gig, an upscale songwriter’s circle, or a sunny festival stage, Amy’s live show is disarming and engaging. She wins over the audience with her dry wit, and then lets them in on every thought her heart has ever had. This approach has charmed crowds big and small across North America. A typical Amy Campbell performance is followed by several grateful fans shyly approaching her to share stories from their own lives, confessing that her music has helped them crystallize and articulate their own experiences.
A regular at Club Passim [Boston], Rasputin’s [Ottawa], the Yellow Door [Montreal] and the Blacksheep Inn [Wakefield, QC], touring highlights for Amy include appearing as opening act for:
* Penny Lang
* Richard Buckner
* Emm Gryner
* Old Man Luedecke
* Veda Hille
* Mary Lou Lord
* The Scrappy Bitch Tour
Exalted by one reviewer as “well poised to one day inherit Joni Mitchell’s place as Canada’s quintessential female singer/songwriter”, Amy’s catalogue is available through iTunes, and online or via mail-order at www.amycampbell.ca.