Amy Speace is a long-standing favourite of Americana UK, her most recent album, The Blue Rock Session, appearing late in 2025, a stripped-back collection on acoustic guitar and piano, recorded at a writing retreat in Wimberley, Texas. This followed her well-received albums The American Dream, There Used To Be Horses Here, and Me And The Ghost of Charlemagne, released in 2021, the title track from which was voted the Americana Music Association UK’s international song of the year.
Speace is among the most literate of contemporary American songwriters, and with her background embracing theatre as well as songwriting and performance, it is perhaps no surprise that she has pulled together her personal experiences and advice in her recently published book. Many readers will be familiar with Stephen King’s book On Writing, in which he devotes the first part to his backstory, and the second to his writing process, and advice to writers. Speace follows a similar format, devoting the first chapter to “how it happened for me “. For admirers of her work, this offers a fascinating insight into her background and development as an artist.
She tells us that for some 20 years she has been teaching week-long performance classes to singer/songwriters, developed from a broad range of experience; encompassing roles as a singer, musician and performer, including learning to love and perform the works of Shakespeare, all of which have come together to make her the top-class songwriter and artist she is today.
It is evident that Speace is above all else hard-working, and committed to a constant process of self-improvement, in every aspect of her creative and professional life, on her way to finding her own “best self “, carving out her life as a mother, educator, writer and performer from her East Nashville home.
Speace freely acknowledges the good fortune she has experienced along the road, always resulting from putting herself in places where opportunities arise, some more obvious than others. I was particularly drawn to the story of a chance encounter with a musician running a florist shop, whom she then sees the same night on stage. From these two events, an important and lifelong professional relationship develops.
The major part of her book, and indeed its purpose, is to pass on her accumulated wisdom of how to become a confident performer. Both comprehensive and personal, Speace highlights parallels with the world of theatre for the performing artist: knowing who you are speaking to and what you want them to take away; it’s not about what you are feeling, but how your audience feels.
A major concern for most performers is dealing with stage fright. Speace tells us that a tiny proportion of artists “came out of the womb comfortable on stage “. She addresses “Technical Details”; the sound check and set lists, and “The Gigs” is her guide to playing at open mics, bars and restaurants, coffee shops, writers rounds and house concerts, while “The Opening Act “sets out etiquette for that important role. Speace’s concluding chapter, “The Suggestion Box “, is really a call to action; yes, you can do it, but always remember to be the unique you. And, she reminds us that “I learned to make friends with rejection and keep going, because I knew I had something to offer “.
We are all eternally grateful that she has done just that and added such an insightful and valuable guide for performers, a must-read for performers and fans of Speace’s music alike.
You can buy Amy’s book on her website, but as that’s in the USA, postage is pricey to the rest of the world. It is only available in the UK on Amazon, by the look of it. Amy Speace has a book of poetry, The Cardinals, due out in Autumn 2026.
