Amy Black

Even though Amy Black is based in Boston, her music is firmly infused with the musical influences of a childhood spent in Missouri and Alabama. Her rich vocals are filled with soul and honkytonk spirit that relates both to the churches her minister father served and the heritage of famed Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where both sets of her grandparents welcomed her to their homes. Amy stopped by the Folk Alley studios in Kent, Ohio, to perform a few songs in the fall of 2014.

Amy grew up singing hymns from the pews in church, but it wasn’t until her family moved to Alabama from Missouri, that she got her first dose of real southern gospel. After graduating from college in Boston, Amy went worked in the corporate world as a marketer for more than a decade. She got married and was content singing at weddings and occasionally at church. But one night, sitting at her kitchen table at her home in suburban Boston she made the big decision to do something with her voice.

In her early shows, Amy and her band played covers of her favorite American roots artists, but she soon discovered her talent for writing her own songs and in April 2011 released her first album of original music. Amy Black’s been playing, touring and writing ever since, and this year, with the release of her second solo album of originals, ‘This Is Home,’ she has fully committed herself to a career in music.