Songwriter Amy Rigby on
penning her autobiography
BY BOB KRASNER
“Writing about your life is
great!” says singer, songwriter
and now author Amy
Rigby. “Everyone should do it.”
Singer/Songwriter/Author Amy Rigby performing at the book launch
for her memoir “Girl to City” at WORD, a bookstore in Brooklyn.
Which is not to say that the task was
easy.
Rigby, who once called the East Village
her home, recently released her memoir
“Girl to City” , a chronicle of her journey
from Pittsburgh to New York City and beyond,
a voyage that included bands , tours,
marriage, temp jobs, divorce, a solo career
and single motherhood.
It’s an extremely well done and enjoyable
read, written with heart and humor. It’s the
result of a long process that Rigby benefitted
from in ways that she did not foresee.
She began the project in the early 2000s,
just making notes. The story starts in Pittsburgh,
where she grew up, and ends the
year she finally left New York.
“I’ve finally admitted that it’s been twenty
years since I left New York,” she says. “The
book was closure.”
Now living in upstate New York with her
husband, the musician Wreckless Eric, she
“read a lot of “memoir how-to books ” in
preparation for the task and subsequently
found that the act of writing about her life
made her re-examine a few things.
Although her much acclaimed songs have
frequently dealt with personal subject matter,
creating the book was different.
“Writing is a way of thinking about
things – it’s a way of getting to something
that you wouldn’t get to otherwise, ” she
explains.
Writing about her dad gave her a new
Singer/Songwriter/Author Amy
Rigby reading from her book “Girl
to City” at WORD, a bookstore in
Brooklyn.
perspective on him and recounting her
mom’s life changing car crash “brought
out feelings that were pushed aside when
it happened,” she admits.
“Writing about people made me appreciate
them more. There were incidents when
I thought that someone else was the villain,”
she muses, “but I came to realize my part
in it.”
Another by product of the process
was a song simply titled “Bob“, about an
ex boyfriend who figures prominently in
her story. Wreckless Eric encouraged her
to continue doing gigs and recordings while
working on the book, but stayed out of the
way otherwise.
Which was fine with Rigby, who did not
want to talk to anyone about it while she
was writing.
“I thought it would knock me off course,”
she said. “There is a fear of getting it
wrong,” she admits, ” but that gets in your
way. ”
“Besides,” she adds, ” everyone else is
welcome to write their own version.”
Younger sibling Michael McMahon, a
musician who followed Rigby to New York
City, played with her in the band Last
Roundup and worked with her at Tier 3 (
the short lived but legendary downtown
club) proclaims that this book proves that,
“Amy has always been one of the cool
kids. And I don’t say that just because
I’m her
brother!”
br ot h -
er!”
H e
PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER
goes on
Singer/Songwriter/Author Amy
Rigby photographed in an old
neighborhood haunt, Veselka.
to mention that “Amy has told an entirely
personal story of her experience. I don’t
think that she was attempting to capture
the era for anyone but herself.”
Rigby backs that up, but found that her
tale struck a chord with many people: “I
didn’t expect so many people to relate to the
book. People see themselves in the story.”
The author, who still works in a bookshop
upstate, relates that “it took a couple of
years to not find a publisher.” After all the
rejections, she made the decision to publish
it herself.
Glowing reviews followed as Rigby
promoted it with numerous bookstore appearances.
However, that began as a nerve
wracking experience, alternating between
reading her stories of her life out loud and
performing songs that related to the text.
“I literally thought I’d have a nervous
breakdown!” she admits. “I was driving to
the first one when I realized that I’d forgotten
my guitar!”
Fortunately, the 25 or so appearances
that followed got easier as she went along.
So, after creating albums with Last
Round Up and the Shams, seven solo
albums, three collaborations with Wreckless
Eric and many, many performances,
Rigby is sure of one fact: “Writing this
book is definitely the hardest thing I’ve
ever done.”
“This is my Bob Dylan hat,” she said.
“And my Dylan smirk.”
Info, music and video at Amyrigby.com
Schneps Media February 27,2020 17