The world of Amy Rigby is mixed up and muddled up, catching her live show Simon Jones found it diverting and attractive.
“I used to play CBGBs in New York, it was a crazy place,” informs Amy Rigby, whilst juggling her acoustic guitar, with glasses perched on the end of her nose and waving a book as page heavy as the Bible in her free hand. It’s quite a remarkable balancing feat. In fact it’s a pretty apt comparison to Amy Rigby herself who seems to be a balancing act of experiences and influences.
Tonight could well be billed as her life story as she mixes passages from her biography and songs which directly relate to each event, all laced with her slightly off kilter approach. She asks us what we think frequently, you’re lured in with entertaining asides and wonky philosophies scattered here and there. Everything is very casual and seems off the cuff. Even the half time interval occurs randomly, “I sort of feel now might be a good time to take a break, so let’s do it,” she says. So we do.
You could say Amy Rigby is unconventional and you’d be right, there’s a lot in her fighting to get out, consider the ground covered in this small, intimate gig – at one of the best folk/roots clubs in the country, Up In Arms, held in the peaceful setting of St. Lawrence’s Church, Biddulph in North Staffordshire – marriage, divorce, romance and the search for it, moving continents, daughters, New York, punk, Nashville, country music, singer songwriters, Hull, Norfolk, Portugal, dancing and er…. Wreckless Eric. Yes, you read that right. She is Mrs. Wreckless Eric or he could be Mr. Amy Rigby, I’m not sure. But what I do know is that despite appearing a bit dizzy and flustered Amy put on a hugely enjoyable gig, which made me smile and feel a whole lot better.
She’s not scared of letting her background show either as she mixed gentle acoustic picking with heavy strumming betraying the times she’s had to fight to be heard. “Hey, you’re listening, that’s great,” she observes. The surroundings of St. Lawrence’s are perfect as her ballads spiral up and around, the angrier, edgy protests echo and resound. The whole seems a cathartic release, a rush of adventure, incident and happening which have shaped her, but then it is a long, weird road from dancing with Joey Ramone to North Walsham. She sang a song about how an American adapts to life in the rurality of East Anglia, “we’ve got a Sainsburys and a post office and station,” she seems in awe. Contrast that with New York, “it’s changed, all gentrified, all clean.” You get the feeling she’s glad she made the move.
I went to this gig wondering what I was going to experience and came away quietly impressed by her. Certainly she plays by her own rules and has independent spirit galore. Hers a glorious mix of a life and that she shares it with you in such appealing fashion and honesty is to be applauded. More power to you Amy Rigby. Catch her if you can.
www.amyrigby.com
