Amy Annelle Interview: SXSW 2010

After spending weeks in a remote cabin on the American High Plains, folk singer/songwriter Amy Annelle is back with her seventh full-length record. Annelle recorded the album in Austin, Texas, so we asked her for some insider advice on the best place to eat in Austin for SXSW. Performing for her fourth time at festival, Annelle shared her secret with us, and filled us in on the new album.

Describe your sound in your own words.

I feel kindred to musicians through the ages who make music that is attuned to the elements, and whose sound is like this attunement coming out of their own heart. It's not really of a particular modern style.

How did you start playing professionally?

I made my first recordings in the attic of a former stable on a four-track cassette machine. These, and other early recordings, make up 'A School of Secret Dangers,' my first solo album. Along with recording, I started traveling, and writing a zine, and writing more songs. Once I had enough songs to play a set, I got on a stage. A wonderful whirlwind of roving around, creative people, and curious circumstances ensued.

What are your musical influences?

Intuition. Something you couldn't see before reveals itself. Or something that you've only known in a lonely place is conjured in a song -- whether it's a song I wrote, or someone else's, or one that's been handed down and changed through time. It's not easily put in words, but when I feel it in music, I get happy and it gives me courage. I have done some touring with Michael Hurley, the great American folk musician. His dark luminous heart and veepin' guitar style are a strong current that moves me always. Singing with Jandek [and his] band at SXSW a couple years back was a conflagration of emotion and possibility. I have sung differently ever since. And recently, I recorded with R. Stevie Moore in New Jersey. His creative intensity opened a new channel. So it's ongoing -- broadcasting, receiving. Great folk singers like Roy Harper, Sandy Denny, Maddy Prior, Jean Ritchie, and Lal and Mike Waterson. Explorers like Ralph White and Linda Perhacs. The songs of the American plains, hollers, bayous, mines, and cotton fields. Folk music from far and wide.

What's your biggest vice?

Thrift stores. I love them so. Like just this week, I got a long cloak from Central Asia, a Holly Hobby coffee mug, and one of those '70s acrylic spoon holders with beans and weeds trapped in it.

Have you played SXSW before?

I played SXSW when my first album as The Places came out, way back in 2000. Things were different then. The album was called 'The Autopilot Knows You Best.' The pilot on my flight let me come in the cockpit for fun and take pictures with him. In 2008 I performed at SXSW in Jandek's band. [I performed] last year as a solo artist, and with Precious Blood, my duo with Ralph White.

What's in your festival survival kit?

I'll have the same stuff I always do: my guitar, some of my albums, a thermos of tea, snacks, a camera, whatever book I'm reading, something to write on.

Who was your first celeb crush?

I bought 'Revolver' at a garage sale when I was five, and fell for George and John.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

If you could see into my brain, all sorts of music would be roaming around and intermingling -- like animals by a watering hole in a big savannah. Guilt doesn't really have any place there. It's more about creation, variety, and survival. When I do listen to music, it's often to learn songs for my own live set, or for Precious Blood, which is all old folk and country songs. I sometimes listen to Austin's great community radio: KAZI, KOOP, KAOS, or the Norteno station. I love music that is alive and speaking in its native tongue, or speaking through the musician from the dream world. This is true of most folk music, and can be true of any of the music since.

Beatles or Stones?

Beatles have beautiful carapaces, and help clear the earth of rotten corpses. Stones are as old as the hill they rolled off of, and you can find them everywhere, just sitting there, waiting to tell you a story.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

To stay in a stranger's house is like a short story that is writing itself. It can be an oasis of camaraderie and warm hospitality. New friends, a fluffy pillow, sunlight streaming in through the trees in the morning, a fresh pot of coffee and homemade bread. But it's not always so. There's a few inauspicious situations I've noticed: you walk in, and one of those cheap stereos with detachable speakers is strewn across the floor. You wouldn't believe how often I've seen this. Aluminum foil on the windows is also a bad sign. There's bound to be somebody perched on a ruined WWII Jeep in the backyard drinking tequila and howling at the moon. I don't mind some crazy, but there's only so much of certain kinds of crazy that I can take anymore.

What are you listening to now?

I'm listening to the birds waking up outside and warming up their singing voices. Ornithologists call this "the dawn chorus."

What's your "Desert Island" album?

If I were truly stranded alone on a desert island, I would be more inclined to adapt to a world without recorded sound. Why spend time figuring out how to power the record player when you could be making banana bread and singing.

What can we expect to see at your live show?

Me on the stage with my old handmade Peruvian guitar named Melaza, singing our hearts out for you.

When can we expect to see your new record, 'The Cimarron Banks?'

Very soon! I'll have an advance version for SXSW, and the full edition on tour with me this summer.

Since you recorded your last record in Austin, do you have any recommendations of places to eat for those visiting for SXSW?

There's a new Sunday Farmers Market at East Fifth Street and Waller Street, right near downtown, where you can get something good from a restaurant stall or local baker, and go eat it under a tree by the railroad tracks.


Jennifer Bergen is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.