Diary Of Amy Rigby: Recent Episodes
Amy Rigby
Art, aging, identity and overalls. What happens when you realize this thing you started doing for fun in your twenties is your life's work? Amy Rigby has been writing, performing and recording her transcendent songs about the everyday for years, first with bands Last Roundup and the Shams in NYC’s East Village, then as a solo artist beginning with Diary Of A Mod Housewife up through The Old Guys and 2020 single “Vote That Fucker Out” with sometime duo partner Wreckless Eric. Her first book, Girl To City: A Memoir was published in 2019.
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Trying it on...
A trip to Liberty, preparing for the role of Mother of the Bride.
This was a nice chance to use a Shams track, called Dressed To Kill.
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Sense memory past and present...
Played a festival, went boating, finished a book, had a barbq—my first English summer.
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Good things about growing old(er)
Summer in England: gardens, peaches and pulling the plug on Too Much early (too early?) and a poem about being here: A Yank In North Walsham
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All the English summer stuff (bits n bobs?) and advice for my new memoir I didn't know I needed from Keith McNally. Plus a bit of a Pulp cover.
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I was going to talk about summer in England, but Brian Wilson is gone, every fan has their own Beach Boys
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On the rails...with my first episode in almost a year! Out playing gigs in Sweden and Germany; thinking about Jill Sobule (recorded a bit of one of my favorite songs of hers, felt like I could've written it myself), toughing it out and working on things.
Hope you're hanging in there - thanks for finding me here again.
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)
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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/amyrigby
and 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.
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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 through
Saw 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.
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It's Never Too Late To Do A Little
Planet Fitness, 30-Day Sketch Challenge, guitar dreams all attempts at self-improvement
Sunny Side of Heaven from Bare Trees fumbling attempt
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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"
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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 man?
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...shoes
Songs 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!
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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.
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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
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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)
Sometimes it's all a little too much. Covid burnout, post-Ida angst; vertigo and...Dad.
A mysterious visitor; small town livin'; Nanci Griffith.
Music in this episode
- Invisible from Middlescence
- a late-night version of Nanci's The Flyer (nb This is a late-night cover of Nanci Griffith's The Flyer...I originally did a version for the Nanci tribute Trouble In The Fields that Pete and Maura Kennedy put together - here just trying to capture a little of the moment in one of my favorite songs. Maybe I was drawn to it cause she mentions Pittsburgh but I think she really captured that lonely but hopeful feeling of being a woman on the road as well as anyone ever has.
"I never thought I'd develop such a fondness for boats" and other thoughts on identity, ambition - and gravity.
Songs in this episode:
- Intro music - Invisible from Middlescence
- Read the Room - unreleased demo, 2020
Manhattan miles, memories and hopes. This old girl's out, but her old man's in.
Songs in this episode:
- Invisible (theme music)
- Dirty Bridge both from Middlescence
Am I eternally hopeful, or just a pushover? Learning to say no, one random encounter at a time.
Music in this episode
- The Good Girls from Diary Of A Mod Housewife
- Invisible from Middlescence
Working hard or hardly working; a return to some kind of normal. Journey, George and the old broom knows all the corners.
Passing pandemic time in front of British tv shows Escape To The Country and the Hotel Inspector, I end up seeing too many scary parallels. Is it time to go back to work yet?
Songs in this episode:
- Invisible from Middlescence
- You're Getting Old from A One Way Ticket To My Life
Pandemic wedding anniversary; ghosts of past tours...burgers and ancient amplifiers - these are the things memories are made of.
Trying to keep up with the way we do things now can wear a person out...
Music in this episode
- Invisible from Middlescence
- The Old Guys from The Old Guys
Book returns; poison ivy. Pay it forward and farewell to a friend. Looking back; trying to write a new book. Bongo therapy.
Music in this episode from Middlescence:
- Invisible
- Ivory Tower
Tonight we're going to party on the Looking For The Magic podcast - Amy and
@paranoiacs Elizabeth Nelson will discuss the weird magic of birthday shows, wedding gigs gone wrong...join us live at 6:30 pm, working on your birthday is proof you're alive.
Happy Birthday Amy!
Elizabeth and Amy discuss firsts. First studio recording sessions, first tours and more!
Looking For the Magic stream live on Youtube Wednesday's at 6:30pm EST on the LFTM youtube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcVrR6LQ_mBP3ae1IOBs56Q
Elizabeth and Amy discuss the unfolding insurrection in Washington D.C. and talk about protest songs.
Good riddance to 2020, the shittiest year. Sharing stories of worst gigs, stage outfits, venues and performances by other bands. Also things we thought might be crap that turned out to be good.
Referenced in this episode:
The Center Of Nowhere - documentary about Springfield MO music scene
Bobby Keys documentary: Every Night's A Saturday Night
Glenfarg
Philly
Business suits on stage
"The jacket"
Replacements at the Ritz
Luton on LSD
Love for NRBQ
Rod Stewart's autobiography
Elizabeth and Amy brave a December snow storm Wednesday night. It doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Bee Gees doc
Luc Sante's Maybe The People Would Be The Times
Alright Alright Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed & Confused
Braving the elements
Jimmy Page's argyle vest; Kurt Cobain's sweater
Yo La Tengo's Hanukkah shows & Do You Remember That
Sex Pistols Pittsburgh show that never happened
We share memories of first live shows, last live shows, best nights ever and hope for future gigs.
Peter Murphy at Roseland
Sonny & Cher
The late David Olney
Drive-By Truckers
Wussy
Fave music venues
https://youtu.be/PwXQpT7Vkqk
This is the second episode of our new podcast about music. This week we share some reflections on Columbia Recording Artist Bob Dylan.
Show Notes: 11.25.20
Conversations with Tom Petty / Paul Zollo
They Might Be Giants / Live at The Music Hall of Williamsburg 11.29.15
Emma Swift / Blonde on the Tracks
Peter Paul & Mary / Blowin’ in the Wind
Hippies / Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
Bob Dylan / Biograph
Bob Dylan / True Confessions Tour with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Bob Dylan / Chronicles
Suze Rotolo / A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties
Carole Bayer Sager / They’re Playing Our Song: A Memoir
Bob Dylan / Knocked Out Loaded
Bob Dylan / Street-Legal / The Changing of the Guards
Bob Dylan / I Contain Multitudes (Emma Swift / I Contain Multitudes)
Charlie Daniels / Off The Grid: Doin’ It Dylan
Oxford American
Bob Dylan / Nashville Skyline / New Morning (Charlie Daniels)
Charlie Daniels / Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye (Last Roundup)
Amy Rigby / The Old Guys / From philiproth@gmail to rzimmerman@aol.com
Tony Garnier
Mary Lee Kortes / Mary Lee’s Corvette / Dreaming of Dylan
Bob Dylan / Theme Time Radio Hour
Bruce Bennett / Action Swingers / Hoodies / Mike Bloomfield
Ratso Sloman / On The Road With Bob Dylan
Bob Neuwirth
Bob Dylan / Planet Waves / Going Going Gone
Bob Dylan / Fort Worth Texas / May 16, 1976
The Last Waltz
Thanksgiving
Bucket Hats
Looking For The Magic gets off to a start with a discussion of current reads, brushes with greatness and things you shouldn't say to your heroes.
Discussed in this episode:
Peter Frampton's memoir Do You Feel Like I Do
Chris Frantz's book - Remain In Love
Pittsburgh
Richard Thompson
Shants
Interviewing NRBQ; Terry Adams
Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys
Touring with Warren Zevon
Jill Sobule
Tom Petty
Joe Strummer; The Clash
Beethoven; Theme from St. Elmo's Fire
Herb Alpert - Whipped Cream & Other Delights
All the greens from all the (pressing) plants
Recorded live here https://youtu.be/cVm_5Sr6Vno