Sunday Supper: Now and Then

Amy Speace, what a talent! I was drawn to her 2006 album, Songs for Bright Street, and found myself captivated by her next 10 or 11 albums, each one a career turner. Little did I know that in the past, she also had a successful stint as a Shakespearean actor. She earned an MFA in creative writing from Spalding University and is on the faculty of Cumberland University. 

Speace is a strong essayist for the New York Times and other publications. In her fifties, she began the "Menopausal Mommy" Substack. 

Here is a video for Amy’s brand new song, “The Days of Letting Go.” 

Amy has just published her debut collection of poetry, The Cardinals. A slender book, it's filled with 50 of her poems, drawing in inspiration that includes  her parents, her profound love for her son Huckleberry, and life in Tennessee where she now lives. 

The opening poem is titled “The Cardinals" and it uses the color red, signifying the death of her father. “Mother is a Country” is about her mother:

"Mother is a country, a little land
in the middle of an ocean where the edge 
of the sand is swallowed by a dream. 
… 
Peace was made with the storms that came, 
arms were laid at the foot of the harbor, 
a betting on the wrecking ball of the night."

I was saddened by the news of Duncan Sheik's passing last month at the age of 56. His 1996 hit, “Barely Breathing," was just one dimension of his career, which notably included a vivid theatre career. His collaboration with Steven Sater, who wrote the lyrics for the 2006 Broadway show Spring Awakening, won Sheik two Tony awards for best original score and best orchestrations. (Spring Awakening will be revived off-Broadway this fall.)

Sheik's theatre credits also included American Psycho, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Secret Life of Bees, and, most recently, Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen.

Around the time of Spring Awakening I reached out to Sheik, and a quartet of the actors — Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, John Gallagher, Jr., and Lauren Pritchard — and two backing musicians for a truly memorable "Sunday Supper" session. The performance also included Sheik's recent single at the time, “White Limousine,” along with material from the play. Considering how three cast members (Groff, Michele, and Gallagher) went on to greater fortune and how the musical director (Sheik) showed such wisdom about the theatre, I was pretty proud to have done this session.