Nantucket to Nashville
Island-based singer-songwriter Amy England will celebrate the release her new CD entitled Nantucket to Nashville this Saturday, June 30 at the Talking Stick Coffeehouse in the Unitarian Church, 11 Orange Street at 8 p.m. England will perform songs from her new release and sign CDs after the concert.
England’s music is steeped in family tradition. She was born and raised in Pound Ridge, New York, one of six children. "Our dad brought us up on country music. He was an editor who played banjo on the side, and my mom was always playing the piano and singing. My grandma made sure we all had piano lessons; she was a great fiddle player herself. She loved us to be in touch with our Irish roots through music. My great-grandfather founded Nolan's Marching Band, who were big in Brooklyn in the 1920s...We grew up with music around," England explained.
With a style described as “conversational” and a “rich and expressive voice,” England’s music is full of “sassy vocals, folksy warmth, and bluesy swagger.” She sings of love and heartbreak, relationships, work, and the natural world. All but one of the songs on Nantucket to Nashville was written on Nantucket and most are evocative of the island, particularly “Catch and Release” and “Sweet Sea Clover.” One of the songs, “Darlin’,” is a lullaby that she wrote for her three-year-old daughter, Ella.
England recorded the new CD in Nashville last fall under the direction of multiple Grammy winner Bil VornDick. VornDick past projects were done with artists including Alison Krauss, Rhonda Vincent, Ralph Stanley, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Bruce Hornsby. England met VornDick at the annual Folk Alliance conference in Austin Texas where he heard her play.
“One of England's greatest strengths,” says Bil VornDick “is her exceptional songwriting. Depending on different album projects, I listen to hundreds if not thousands of songs, and her songs caught my ear.”
VornDick lined up an all star band for England while she was in Nashville: Guitarists Johnny Hiland and flatpicker Russ Barenberg, known for his work with Bluegrass artist Jerry Douglas; Mark Fain on bass and Andy Leftwich on fiddle, both part of Ricky Skaggs band; and drummer Bob Mater, who plays with Nancy Griffith.
VornDick also helped England to get five songs from Nantucket to Nashville signed to prominent Nashville publisher Jim Denny. Denny is currently working to get the songs into the hands and ears of Country Billboard charting artists.
“Being able to make this recording in Nashville with Bil was a dream come true. The musicians were great and we had a lot of fun making the CD” says England.
How does a country singer end up on an island off the coast of Massachusetts? “I started coming here as a child,” England explained. “One of my Dad’s colleagues had a house in Wauwinet.” When an older sister decided to move to Nantucket, England had just returned from overseas and “didn’t have much to do” so she came to Nantucket for the summer of 1995. She and her sister stayed: “we both met and married island boys.”
Being near family is important to England: members of her family and her husband’s family live on Nantucket. Her husband, Peter, is not a musician but he is musical—“he’s a little bit rock-n-roll and I’m a little bit country,” she joked, “and that has opened me up.” And her daughter Ella likes to sing with Mom. “We sing kid and folk songs together...she doesn’t like it too much when I play because she gets a little jealous that I’m holding the guitar and not her.”
England says she wasn’t sure at first if she’d find inspiration on Nantucket: “I used to write songs while I was driving on the highway, and you can’t do that here,” she laughed. But she finds the island a wonderful place to write: “It’s hard to live here and not be inspired...I think we’ll be staying for a while.”
Individual songs from Nantucket to Nashville as well as the entire CD can be purchased and downloaded at the Amy England’s website www.amyengland.net and stores around Nantucket, including Bookworks.
