Diary Of Amy Rigby

Unexpected endingsGoodbyes of all kinds as Eric and I pack up to move. I've included a bit of an old live track from a legendary show at the Mercury Lounge in NYC circa...1994 (?) put together by dear recently departed Jeremy Tepper and his band the World Famous Blue Jays - giving it my best blues rock shouting to keep up with what must've been about ten musicians onstage. Everyone chose or wrote a song in keeping with the theme Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, glad I have this memento from a fun era...ps there is no organ (but a helluva lot of saxophone)Thanks for listening!

A visit to the county of Shropshire and a 70th birthday makes me think about the past, long ago and more recent.Eric's pal Dave loves Neil; a cool record store encounter...includes an old favorite.

Putting a house up for sale to move across the ocean, trying the change on for size...Soon to be an All American Alien Girl - nothing a little Roger Miller won't fix.

A momentous occasion for me, a brand new single and video ON A LABEL (Tapete). Nerd alert! The nuts and bolts of Dylan In Dubuque- song, recording and video. What inspired it, how it got made and out into the world.Hear the demo turn into the record before your eyes or ears! Thanks for listening, you can find the full Dylan In Dubuque single here: https://orcd.co/amyrigbyand video here: https://youtu.be/D9iTxYcrB5A?si=if7xdlXuBfSxxAl3

A drive back home from an NYC gig...feeling that nostalgia you get when you know you're leaving.O'Jays, Nazareth, and a little Wreckless Eric in the background.Thanks for listening! 

Getting photos taken to publicize a new album, it's almost like being in showbiz. Looking forward to my release date in August 2024, and looking back at an album photo shoot for The Sugar Tree (a fan on Bandcamp calls the cover "one of the worst I've ever seen"! I agree that's one awful font but Jim Herrington's photo is quite striking)Nashville in the year 2000, with an excerpt from  Girl To Country work in progress and a snippet of music from that album.https://theamyrigby.bandcamp.com/album/the-sugar-tree

A catalogue of everyday moments as Eric and I prepare to sell this house and move on.Suggested tag for this piece on WordPress was...Jesus?  Does kinda feel like our fate is in the hands of the gods.Affection for this place we've called home for almost thirteen years.Stuck a rough demo of a song -in-progress on the end: Too Damn Late To Call It A Day

Letting go...it's a process.Cleaning up to try and sell this house there's a lot to sift throughSaw Lenny Kaye play his great song The Things You Leave Behind last week but I cover a different song here, one I heard for the first time in a long time as I sorted through my old CDs.Thanks for listening!

It's Never Too Late To Do A LittlePlanet Fitness, 30-Day Sketch Challenge, guitar dreams all attempts at self-improvementSunny Side of Heaven from Bare Trees fumbling attempt Thanks for listening!

January, radio and IG posts from the 30A Songwriter Fest get me thinking about David Olney .Includes a song Life Is Change that's on a demo/rough collection Cut Two

The taste of travel...and Babs riding shotgun.Songwriting camp on the shores of Lake Michigan and heading west to Chicago listening to My Name Is Barbra all the while.Bit of a rough demo from a song camp prompt: Build A Better Girl, notes from a reluctant stage mother

Border crossings, house concerts, Michigan and good ole Tom Petty.Wonder which snippet of a cover I recorded for this one?

What makes an article of clothing special? And does it work to try and duplicate the magic?Hope the power pop community will allow me the cover song at the end of this, it couldn't be helped.

Peering into the void and...it's not so bad! A trip to Manhattan with a silk scarf around my neck.I turned a rehearsal tape for a recent Burt Bacharach tribute show into a song for this episode with a slight geographical adjustment: Do You Know The Way To...Avenue A?

A trip to Nashville and AmericanaFest feels almost like coming home.Includes a new song

Storage space reverie...This one cried out for the Lenny Kaye song I recorded for Little Fugitive, "The Things You Leave Behind" Thanks for listening!

They say a change will do you goodI love talking to strangers...being in England...taking it easy.Sorry for the occasional pops on here, without my usual set-up for recording. The music is a little bit of a demo "Life Is Change". Thanks for listening!

I wrote this in my journal a few days after my dad Philip McMahon died. Writing is one way to begin processing this inevitable but epic loss at least a little bit. I read it at his funeral.I also wrote this song. A friend asked if we were going to play any music at the funeral and that led to me scribbling down these words and trying to come up with a suitably Irish melody. If my dad's in the waiting room of heaven, I hope they won't hold any of this against him.Philip McMahon, Aug 22 1927 - Jul 16, 2023

Sweating, drowning and...waving - waiting for summer to start, really start.Includes a rough beginning of a new song, as referenced in the story.Thanks for listening!

Gigs are what life makes them. We lost our dear music friend Scott Schinder two weeks ago. He wrote about music and shared what he loved. He and I saw so many shows together. This one's for him.Live audience recording of Here's Where You Belong, thanks to Henry Laura 

Travel with my husband Eric can be entertaining. And does a rental car make the couple?I cover a song I shouldn't have dared, it was  fun!

Going west and then east, thankful to be traveling.Couldn't resist this cover to end the show.

Doing what we always do isn't second nature anymore...Thanks for listening! The song I included here seems to be having a moment right now.  Apologies to the other A & E !

Owning up to being female, live Everything Is Fine podcast event and...shoesSongs in this episode-Invisible from Middlescence- WTICBIYS from A One Way Ticket To My Life (80s/90s 4 track demos)

Going to see Magnetic Fields makes me fall in love with the live music experience all over again. Sitting at the kids table. Feeling protective.I felt so inspired and learned & recorded a fave MF composition for this. Thanks for listening!

Being where you are...Festival billing and getting on with stuff.Includes a cover of a Traveling Wilburys song I always dig when it comes up on long drives. I'm no Jeff Lynne but it was fun to have a go!

Have you been watching Daisy Jones and the Six? It's great fun to dream about swilling champagne in the recording studio - the reality is often a lot more mundane.(A) pot on the porch is as crazy as it gets around here.With apologies to CS&N!

Glad to be working a little, just a little glad to be working. Includes a snippet of a difficult song I'm trying to learn. It may take a while! Thanks for listening.

A visit from a toddler. Learning life skills never stops - and where did those waffle irons go? This episode includes a bit of a rough demo for a song I wrote called Kid Again. Thanks for listening!

The benefits of sticking to it... A good time in Florida No extra music this time - I am really trying to get the second draft of my book finished so a little pushed! Hope you enjoy this episode.

Internal monologue as I get ready to fly down to Florida. Lucky to be going! Trying to make the most of this thing called life. I include a song I wrote on the plane three years ago flying back home....

Dressing for the long game. I try to find clothes for Eric's daughter's wedding and realize that as the years add up we're just lucky to be around for the celebrations. Musical bit here in tribute to a recently departed genius of song...

Time change and times change: Joyce; Sally, Frank & Emma...and Dad. Track in this episode Not Dark Yet

A short tale about keeping the fantasy alive. Includes a demo of a new song Gimme Bangs Thanks for listening!

Wanting to be real, and good - and maybe to hug a tree...with the great Stevie Nicks as guide. Songs in this episode: Invisible & a snippet of Sorcerer (Stevie cover)

Dad, and dealing with dementia. Writing and music are the only ways I can make sense of any of this right now. Hope maybe this helps someone else to deal. Music inspiration from Mississippi John Hurt

"...and I think my spaceship knows which way to go." Sometimes a trip to Manhattan and some good old classic rock is what it takes to make it through. Traffic, and Traffic. Music in this episode - you get one guess.

Dropping some of the heavy weight of stuff I've been carrying around forever. Should be easy to get rid of most of it...right? Heard this JJ Cale song when I was thinking about archives and career ephemera and it felt just perfect.

Vanity, tragedy and everything in between. Prayers to St. Anthony. Worked in a new song demo (spot the Spinal Tap reference). Shout out to my invisible friends Kim and Jenn at Everything is Fine podcast.

England, NYC, upstate...a little bit of this and that because sometimes the big things are just too big. Apologies to Dr. Hook...

Serendipity and hard life lessons - sometimes the teacher is there all along. An appreciation of a true star Ronnie Spector. Buy Ronnie's book Be My Baby at your local bookstore or order online through bookshop.org. Her story will make you laugh, wince, cry and remember why she is truly one of the greats – her voice! The postscript she wrote in November 2021 will lift and then break your heart. You can find All I Want on The Very Best Of Ronnie Spector. (I recorded my own version for Middlescence in 1998) If you or someone you care about is suffering from domestic abuse/coercive control, please reach out https://coercivecontrolcollective.org

Looking for self-knowledge isn't the escape it used to be. Virtual appointments remind me of the old days when therapy meant furniture that didn't come off the street. Music in this episode: So You Know Now from Little Fugitive Invisible from Middlescence

Going out west to visit my grown up daughter Hazel, I think about travel and getting older. How good it feels to see your kid doing good, how much I love Southern California. A fellow passenger's question on the way home gives me pause. With a bit of music inspired by Joni Mitchell's This Flight Tonight, which thanks to Hazel I found out was a hit for Nazareth? Never knew that. There's forever so much to learn. It's the one year anniversary of the Diary podcast! Thanks for listening.

Traveling and family, regret and wondering who we musicians are on the road without a guitar. Invisible Tomorrow's All We've Got from A One Way Ticket To My Life

Funny how the mundane experiences inspire and remind us who and what we love. UK travel, tea and biscuits. Music in this episode: Invisible from Middlescence and Do You Remember That from A Working Museum by Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby

Go on, treat yourself. Or should I? Every time a new year rolls around, I go through the same struggle: To splurge on a beautiful handprinted calendar or take what I'm given. What would you do? The Dolphin Studio is the home of the beautiful calendar. Music in this episode: Invisible Days

Low-key holiday joy, music and a day at the bookstore/bar. Music in this episode: Invisible Shopping Around Waters of March by Susannah McCorkle

I was hoping a pair of overalls would lead me in a new direction, but old ways are hard to shake, especially in challenging times. Tracks in this episode: Invisible Some of Shelly's Blues - Mike Nesmith cover

Trying to write (and swing) myself out of some darkness. Gigs, getting older; Margaret Renkl and (what else) a cameo by Bob Dylan. Songs in this episode: Invisible (theme music - from Middlescence) You're Getting Old - early 90s demo from A One Way Ticket To My Life

I wrote and recorded the first half of this post/episode back in August, but it felt too effortfully "light" so I decided to shelve it. The second half came to me two weeks ago at a writing workshop in Michigan where I was instructor and student of some great poets and novelists. I recorded a cover song to go with it. When places we don't even like become an important part of our lives, we realize we did like them after all, at least a little bit. Songs in this episode Invisible from Middlescence Only A Broken Heart (cover of a song from Tom Petty's Wildflowers)

A hose is a hose is a hose... As promised, a more lighthearted episode.