AMY LOFTUS: LISTEN TO THE MUSIC
By Brian Hodges/Greenwich Village Gazette
AMY LOFTUS
PERFORMING ON MONDAY, JULY 30
ACME UNDERGROUND
9 GREAT JONES STREET
 t was
purely a stroke of luck the first time I ever had the privilege of
meeting Amy Loftus at a little bar in Los Angeles. My friend Bill and I
were heading out to Manhattan Beach for a Friday night at Harry O’s bar.
The 2000 Democratic National Convention happened to be finishing up that
night and the freeways were absolutely jammed. We decided instead to
find a place in the city. We somehow managed to get lost, and after
driving aimlessly around Hollywood for almost an hour we finally saw a
sign that read "Molly Malone’s." It was a little hole-in-the-wall place
that you don’t often find in L.A. There was good beer, so Bill and I
grabbed a pint and a seat right near the little stage just as the first
performer went on. At first we treated it like any other bar that has
entertainment. The singer is in the background and you watch and you
clap, but you never really stop your conversation. By the end of her
first song, my focus had shifted completely away from Bill, and for her
entire half-hour set, I was riveted. My foot was tapping, my head was
nodding and I was playing drums on the tabletop. Never had I been so
drawn to a somebody’s music.
Before we left the bar, I screwed up the courage to just
go up and tell the singer just how much I enjoyed her set. I figured
she’d be a typical L.A. "artist" who just kind of nods and says
"Thanks," but never gives too much attention lest this person decide to
keep talking. Instead, we talked for a good ten minutes about music and
life in general. From the very beginning, I saw that Amy Loftus had a
quality not seen in many other musicians (or people for the matter). She
genuinely loves her music, her creation, and she loves equally when she
hears that her creation has moved another person in the way she had
hoped it would.
If comparisons have to be made, let’s say Tori Amos,
Stevie Nicks and Jewel – but with ten times the passion of any of them.
Her songs are a little bit folky, a little bit bluesy, a little bit
rock-n-roll, and a whole lot soulful. In writing and in delivery, Amy
feels what she sings and makes you feel too. And she accomplishes it all
without seeming like she’s trying too hard. No overly breathy singing.
No false emotions expressed through unnecessary twists and warbles of
voice and pitch. Just simple, honest poetry, delivered by somebody who
truly believes the words and notes she sings. Not to say that she has no
range. Her voice is nothing short of spiritual to the point that you
wonder how she is doing it. It’s not simply the notes that she hits.
It’s the way that she hits them. On songs like Emmett’s got an Angel and
Lift Your Glass you can’t help but close your eyes and just feel the
stirring she evokes inside you.
Amy grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, dancing and
drawing and singing into tin foil microphones, always dreaming of being
on a stage. She received an art degree from the University of Kansas but
had no idea what to do with it. It wasn’t until she met her "partner in
all things beautiful," Samuel John, that the floodgates of her true
art-form started to pour out. The two started writing songs together.
"It seemed like the years of writing I hadn’t been doing came pouring
out in a matter of a few months," says Amy. The two played in several
bands, both at home and in Los Angeles where they both eventually moved.
Trying to juggle singing a not-so-successful acting career at the same
time, Amy’s life took a turn when she met legend Jerry Lieber, writer of
songs like "Hound Dog" and "Stand By Me" (for instance). Jerry basically
told her, "Do what you have to do." Small, empty words, and perhaps a
tad cliche coming from any regular person to any other regular person.
But one year after listening to these words, Amy says she finally heard
them. She and Sam sold off most of their possessions and took off across
the country in a van to live on the road and on the stage.
So perhaps the Jewel comparison isn’t so far off. Amy and Sam live in
their van, moving from town to town, singing by night and parking by day
at camper-friendly Wal-Marts throughout the mid-West. Amy likens herself
to Christopher McCandless, a young man made famous in the book "Into the
Wild" because he died in the Alaskan wilderness after two years of
travelling the country – abandoning society’s vision of success in favor
of a life totally immersed in experiences. He was always seeing new
things, new places, new people. It was his world, not somebody else’s.
In Amy’s world, it is all about the music and the people she meets. "My
faith gets renewed in people in general. I think people are good, and
each life is sacred and each meeting matters and there is information in
all of it. You have to stay tuned in though." Staying tuned in for her
means resisting the imagined need for a comfort-zone, "for a sink, a
counter, a place to bring flowers home to. I love singing and I love
meeting people and I am meant to be doing this. Anything I have to
sacrifice for that is worth it. These songs shed light for me so I need
to share that. I think [people] are getting kind of numb. My goal is
simply to help them feel."
This passion for life and beauty resonates throughout her music.
There is never a false moment when Amy sings. Her and Samuel John make
and excellent team, both off-stage writing, and on-stage with Amy on
vocals and Sam on guitar. They have produced several CD’s together
including Amy’s first solo album, which they are distributing with the
help of Stimuli Productions.
Amy has said that "God dreams a bigger dream for you than you even
dream for yourself." There is no question in her mind that there are
angels who are just waiting for the chance to help us if we would only
just ask. There is no question in my mind that God and his angels have a
wonderful dream for Amy Loftus. She is going through her humble
beginnings now, but nobody with this much talent and passion will go
unnoticed for long. For now, she is simply living in the now, being a
part of "everywhere and nowhere," while sharing her soul and making
people feel. The future is unknown, but she wouldn’t have it any other
way. As she says in Lift Your Glass, "It’s so beautiful to let your life
unfold."
You can find out more about Amy’s performance locations and dates on
her website www.amyloftus.com
Her music is also on the web at
www.mp3.com/amyloftus
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©2001 Brian Hodges. All rights reserved.
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