Singer-Songwriter Amy Lennard is currently touring the Southeast Midwest and East coast following the release of her newest album. The accomplished artist has worked and performed with many well know industry figures, and has left her footprint from New York to California. Be sure to read up on our full recap following her show at The Social(Orlando) September 28, 2010.

Navvi: Help us to familiarize our audience, bring everyone up to speed and tell me how would you describe your music for a new audience who may have never heard an Amy Lennard record?

Amy Lennard: It’s Folk-Rock. I would say Americana Folk-Rock. It’s acoustic & electric guitars, drums and bass with back harmonies. A bit of Lucinda Williams crossed with Sheryl Crow, with vocals a little like Stevie Nicks & Natalie Merchant.

Navvi: What sets your style apart from any other sound and how did you develop that quality? Where or who did you draw from?

Amy Lennard: My voice is unique. It doesn’t sound like other voices. My writing style creates the song, and the song around my lyrics and my voice, so it’s just authentic because of that. I would really say that it’s because my voice is authentic and the song is really focused on the vocalS. That sets me apart from everybody else, because I don’t sound like anybody else.

Navvi: You have a very relatable persona & music that shows through both your lyrics and your voice. It’s clearly a genuine one. How long have you been making music and how did you get started? Is it in your family?

Amy Lennard: No, I don’t have anyone in my family that’s musical so it’s kind of hard that way. I had this desire for guitar when I was 10 for some reason. Not like anyone I knew did that or anything. Then my mom got me a guitar and then I took lessons. I learned John Denver songs and Beatles songs and sang those, and then when I was like 20 I wrote a song for a friend who was getting married and that was the first song I ever wrote.

Navvi: You’ve been working hard on this latest album. What’s the title and what was the vision/direction for this album?

Amy Lennard: It’s called ‘Nothing Without You’ and I went on tour last year with this guy Andy Stack, who is my guitar player, and so we toured together. When we got back it just made sense that us two should go in together and make this record. So we went in the studio and made the record in about 5 days recording the songs we did on the road. It was the most effortless record that I’ve made, in that respect. It was just really natural. We envisioned it from that tour because the whole time on tour we talked about how I really needed my own record, so we just did it!

Navvi: You must be excited about this release after all the hard work in and out of the studio. Which songs do you feel will being most popular with the fans?

Amy Lennard: ‘Nothing Without You’-the title track, ‘I Wish It Were Mine’, and then I would say ‘The Sun Goes Down’ as the third one.

Navvi: What is your songwriting process? Are most of your songs life experiences and if not, what gives you your direction in writing?

Amy Lennard: Pretty much life experiences, definitely. That’s why I think it’s so genuine. It really is stuff that happened to me or true things, and then I’ll write a story around it. I’ll use my imagination but it’s coming from that core experience that happened to me, or that core feeling or emotion.

Navvi: When touring, you surely learn and build greater relationships with your fellow musicians and your fans. What’s the best part of being on tour? What do you enjoy most?

Amy Lennard: I love every bit of it! I love the drive, going from place to place, everyday is a new place. I love being on the road and driving to see new places and stopping in little spots. Just getting to know the country like that. And of course, I love playing and singing and doing all that, so I mean I love every bit of it! I really do. New York is great but I just love playing in a new place every night and connecting with the fans, meeting new people and making new fans. It’s great!

Navvi: Your melodic Folk-Rock Americana sound has taken you to where you are now. Are there any other genres or styles that you look to dip into?

Amy Lennard: It’s kind of Folk-Rock but there is kind of a Rock edge to it.

Navvi: You have accomplished quite a bit on your own, but who do you plan, or hope, to work with in the future?

Amy Lennard: I actually have worked with a lot of people up til’ now like Shawn Pelton, Peter Bliss, Jerry Marotta, & a lot of people in New York who are pretty well known, but I really see myself working with Andy Stack. I have really worked up to this point with a lot of people and I feel that I’ve found the right collaborator with Andy. That’s the plan right now because we’ve succeeded and we’ve made something really great!!

Navvi: What should the fans expect next?

Amy Lennard: I wanna have another EP in about 6 months and then tour. I can see touring a lot more and just continuing to record my songs and put out an EP like every six months. In this day and age, the way music is, I think that’s the best way to go as an independent artist. I mean, just keep doing it!

See the complete article.

Acoustic duet with Andy Stack opening for Sister Hazel, this Sunday September 11 in Ashville, North Carolina @ The Orange Peel in honor of all the lives lost on Sept 11 and dedicating to those who risk their lives everyday fighting for our freedoms. I will sing my heart out..

I am also opening for REO Speedwagon, on Sunday Sept 18, @ The Trib Media Amphitheater in Pittsburgh, Pa. I will be on stage 7-7:45.

Unplugged in the Park Facebook page.

I was a die hard dead head and followed them with dreadlocks, flowers in my hair, a prairie skirt and a dark red Volvo station wagon with dead stickers on the back of it. My boyfriend at the time and i shared many a concert so much so that when Jerry Garcia died so did our relationship. Or maybe that was a coincidence. We were so young, innocent and sweet with our tabs of dancing bears, patchouli, tie dyes and collection of bootleg tapes. I was pretty devout for a few years and then i remember my last concert at Oakland Coliseum. I had this ah ha moment where i thought to myself ‘I am dancing in a crowd of brainwashed zombies!’ Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I guess the dancing bears weren’t working that night. From there of course, as i do nothing half way, i had to take it all a step further. I wanted to live in an eco sustainable way. I wanted to walk the ‘hippie’ talk. So i found a remote sustainable commune in Northern California. How did i find it?  Anything you can imagine is possible folks. The commune is where the story for ‘I wish it were mine’ was conceived. It was about a neighbor of mine there. I had arrived alone and was coveting her boyfriend. By the time they broke up I was with someone, but after the in love hormones wore off we were not a great match and i was unhappy. So  now she was single and i was with this guy who was not really for me. I would look over at her and  see how totally self directed she was and independent and she had the most beautiful gardens and came and went as she pleased and that freedom was incredible appealing. I wished it was mine!!! Eventually i broke up with that guy and came back to NYC.  When i got back  i reflected on how i envied her and wrote this song. Five years and many recordings later the song is now on my upcoming Ep.

The tipi was beautiful, big enough for around 30 people to sit cross legged. King Fisher, a Native American elder was in the area so we all got together for a peyote meeting. I lived in a commune at the time in California. Although i did not know it then, i was very angry at the world. My brother, whom i was very close to, had been in a car accident and i did not have the right support system to deal with it.  I suppose i could have turned to drugs to deal with the pain but instead i decided to leave the world to go to a commune, nestled on a beautiful and pristine piece of land on the north fork of the Trinity River. The land was a two and a half hour drive on a winding road from town and then a few miles down a dirt road. If we wanted to go out in the winter we had to hike up the mountain to where we parked our cars so they didn’t get snowed in. We worked off the land, built our own cabins, chopped our wood, grew most of our own food and used solar power. I started writing songs there too.  I did not grow up in a musical family and did not even know i could write a song. And although i did ask my mother for guitar lessons when i was 10 years old, it was on the river that i discovered my talent, passion and tapped into a pool of creative energy i did not know existed.  Peyote ceremonies where not something we did often. It was an all night ceremony where we would drink the tea and pray and sing  peyote songs with a rattle and a water drum until first light.  We learned the songs before hand. Peyote is different from other drugs. It makes you see your stuff and not escape from it. Native Americans use these ceremonies as a sort of therapy or ‘AA’ to keep clean from alcohol addiction. I saw amazing things at those meetings. I saw relationships heal and become more loving or end if need be…whatever the truth was. One night after a meeting i had a vivid dream where King Fisher came to me and said ‘ You are on a path of rejection and you need to get off. ‘  That struck a deep chord in me.  I knew I could not run or hide anymore. A few months later I was on a plane back to New York. The song i wrote “Nothing Without You” is about this journey. About coming home.                                                                                                                                                          

First off ..i am a singer songwriter and will be blogging mostly about my songs..letting you into the story behind the story..With “Hold Me Tight” i wrote a song about a one night stand and the key was writing it so that it was without judgment and to show the depth and motivation behind  a seemingly shallow and superficial act. To begin with i think we have all felt empty at one time or another. I know i have.  It can happen when you lose someone close to you, you feel stuck in a stale relationship or when life starts to feel like you are running on a broken treadmill. Maybe you are disillusioned, disappointed or frustrated. You know you were not loved right by your mother or father.  But what do we do about it?  Do we reach for food? Sex? Drugs? Alcohol? A few years ago i took a trip to Merida, a small town south of Tulum in Mexico. I had recently broken up with someone i was living with for seven years. I went out to a salsa club one evening and a very tall, dark and handsome man approached me and asked me to dance. We did not speak very much due to the language barrier, but maybe that made the whole thing hotter. We danced and there was a lot of physical chemistry. After a couple of shots of tequila i ended up in the car with him driving me back to my hotel room. He was very sweet but i had the thought that this could potentially be a dangerous situation. I don’t know this person, and i am in a strange place a long way from home. Did that add to the tension? In some crazy way? Was i so empty i suspended reason? Fortunatly he stayed super sweet and we shared a lot of passion. To be honest it was fantastic. But I woke up the next morning feeling unfulfilled and ultimately i got on the plane and went home just the way i came..Alone. It was years later writing the song that i had the insight that although filling emptiness temporarily may feel good, like taking drugs, eating that box of donuts, hitting up Facebook again, or watching reality tv..in the long haul the deeper ‘fix’ is not going to come from something outside ourselves. We have to forgive and let go of all the ways we were or felt unloved or experienced loss in the past so we can find love that’s waiting for us in our own hearts. It’s not a quick fix. It’s a lifelong journey.