In 1996 Amy Rigby released her first solo album "Diary of a Mod
Housewife." In 1996 I was the music director at WYSO — we had her album in
heavy rotation. She came through our area on tour and stopped by our
studios to perform some songs from the album on the music show I hosted
every weekday, "Afternoon Excursions." We had a lovely time that day.
Thirty years later that album still holds up beautifully. I consider it
to be a masterpiece.
A few years ago Amy published a memoir, "Girl to City." Over the years
we reconnected on Twitter-I was excited about having her appear as a
guest again on WYSO, this time in the Book Nook. Peter Hayes digitized
the tape I had made of Amy's on-air performance from 1996 and we
interspersed musical segments with our conversation about her book for
that interview.
Amy recently published a second memoir, "Girl to Country," which picks
up chronologically right after the release of "Mod Housewife." In this
new book she takes us to Nashville where she had moved to try to become
a successful songwriter in that hotbed of country music. This second
memoir is also a love story as we find out how Amy became smitten with
an English musician, Wreckless Eric, and how they eventually fell in
love and were married.
They live in the UK now. I finally tracked her down to record this
interview when she was back in the U.S. to attend the Folk Alliance
conference in New Orleans. Amy is a fantastic songwriter and her
literary pursuits are just as compelling.
