lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: from this room

2022-12-01: from amy ray - daemon records e-mail list

while you are waiting on your vinyl copy of "if it all goes south", i have some bonus tracks to send you, that will either inform or amuse you, but either way, hopefully bring you some joy at a time. when we all need it, which reminds me.....the main point of the song "from this room" is really to say - now you know you're not alone...here is a demo version of that song.

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2022-11-28: the beauty of promise: amy ray on 'if it all goes south' - the creek 100.9 fm

can you talk a bit about the song "from this room"? you've said that it's a song that ended up being for your daughter. she's eight, and you're fifty-eight, so there's the reality that you won't be around when she reaches those critical moments later in her life. i'm 44, and my daughter is almost 2, so i immediately identified with the sentiment and the reality.

yeah, it's a weird thing to think about. also, i keep a diary for my daughter. you should think about doing that. you know where the idea came from? the show sons of anarchy. you know how jax used to always sit on the roof and write letters to his kid in a little book because he was afraid that he would die right? and because he was going to. but i thought that's what inspired me to start keeping a diary for ozilline because she's going to be at an age where she's really figuring life out, and i won't be here anymore. so yeah, as i finished that song, that's definitely what i was thinking about.

the song contains the lines "anyone can sing this song / it's been written a million times." i suppose that's the reality of songwriting, poetry, and literature. at their core, the works are variations of the same universal stories. so why do we return to art over and over again? also, how do you keep your songs fresh and interesting?

well, i don't know if i keep it interesting to anybody else but me...

are there other artists you have in mind who make it new?

i don't know because i think we have our archetypal things as humans that we always return to. and i agree- i think it's because we're in this constant existential struggle with mortality and human relations and "what is love?" and "how do you love?" and "what is hate?" and "what does that mean?" we have these problems that are the essence of who we are, and they're always going to be here, and situational things are going to come up over and over again. but i think the way that you keep it relevant and fresh is that your images are detailed and unique and true to you, and you write about what you know, right? the greatest writers to me are the ones that tell a universal story, but in a really detailed, unique way that makes you interested in it. my favorite poet is frank stanford, and his images kill me. they cut to the bone, but he's writing about things that we all think about, but he's putting them in the lives of these people that are characters that are so rich in imagery and description that you can see yourself in them, or it's like you're watching a movie. it's like a carnival sometimes; his writing is unbelievable.

so i try to look at those great writers and think, "what are they doing?" because it's a universal message, but they have this detail that's catching you off guard, so you're paying attention to it and it's getting into your heart because the descriptions are so rich. flannery o'connor did the same thing, and so did william faulkner. i'm very into southern writers. i can't help it, but that's what i'm into. and also a lot of african american writers, tony capen barr and audre lorde, where there's so much description that you almost can't even follow it, and you have to go back over and over again and reread it. i love those writers.

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2022-12-01: amy ray of the indigo girls on her latest solo album - watermark

when you begin the recording process for an album, do you have a wish list of musical guests?

i usually have a wish list when i'm writing the song. alison brown, she's part of the band, so i always think about her banjo playing when i'm writing. she doesn't tour with us, but she's in the band. i started writing "from this room" a long time ago, and i started writing it as a duet. i didn't have anybody in mind at that point but i hadn't finished it yet. when i was finishing it for the record, i had just seen natalie hemby with the highwomen, and had also just met her, and emily writes with her sometimes. so, i knew her and i was thinking about her voice.

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2023-03-22: shine's catchup with amy ray: the south, her new album, and brandi carlile - louisville public media

the record was written mostly in 2019 and 2020, but there were songs, like "from this room" that i rediscovered and was inspired to finish. i was thinking a lot about the idea of wanting to reach out to people that felt isolated and say "you're not alone". we all need allies and there are times when we all need to have someone take up the plow and help us out. i was writing during the scary pandemic-a time we all shared, social justice turbulence, and the inspiration from both seeing and being in the marches going on in the summer of 2020. there was so much good work being done, in the midst of such a hard time. it really felt like the only option was to embrace life and jump in with full faith in the human spirit. but within this i had a lot of questions and things i was wrestling with, so i wrote from a place of curiosity and a true desire to find the joy and action within the sadness and apathy.