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| Inside art for album Savage on the Downhill. Photo by Barry Goyette. |
Ascendant California-based
Americana singer-songwriter Amber Cross announces Ireland/UK tour from April
11-May 2, in support of new album 'Savage on the Downhill'
Amber Cross
Singer Songwriter/Folk | Home Town: Washington County, Maine
Singer Songwriter/Folk | Home Town: Washington County, Maine
Accompanied
by James Moore on guitar & mandolin
Amber Cross has created a record that
is rich in authentic wonders. It is cleverly varied, deftly produced (Ray
Bonneville, take a bow) and performed with such fervour and emotion that is
just breathtaking....I actually burst into applause when it came to an end.
Amber Cross has given us an album to savour - Fatea
Magazine
REMAINING UK LIVE DATES
Thu 18 April 2019 - Kitchen Garden Cafe, Birmingham (17
York Road, Kings Heath B14 7SA) @ 7:30PM Events
Tue 30 April 2019 - Le Public Space, Newport (Website; Le Pub, 14 High Street, Wales NP20
1FW) @ 7:30PM
Thurs 2 May 2019 - Otterton
Mill, Devon (Website; nr Budleigh Salterton, Devon, EX9
7HG) @ 7:00PM
Amber Cross - Shows
Amber Cross - Shows
Praise for Amber
Cross
“To me it’s unfathomable that Amber Cross isn’t one of the
darlings of the Americana world but with releases like this it can surely only
be a matter of time. When it comes to rootsy, these roots run deep and spread
far. This is honest, real, and expertly crafted.” Duncan
Warwick, Country Music People (5 stars)
“If there
was any justice in this benighted world the name of Amber Cross would already
be as familiar to devotees of the finest Americana as luminaries such as Nanci
Griffith and Iris DeMent, and the California based singer-songwriter's latest
self-released offering is already a strong contender for roots music album of
the year despite the fact that 2019 is barely a month old.”Kevin Bryan, Messenger
newspapers
“Cross is a
fine songwriter who knows exactly how to present herself. At times it seems she
is uniquely capable of cutting across the vast expanses and through the painful
intimate moments that define the Western folk genre.” Glide
magazine
“… the most
thrilling folk singer-songwriter I've heard in recent years.” Rambles.NET
Authenticity is a difficult thing to measure in American roots
music. It’s not in the hat you wear, or the twang in your voice. It’s in how
well you understand that the music comes from the land, and that its roots run
deep.
Americana songwriter Amber Cross understands this, and on her new album, Savage on the Downhill (Forst released July 2018), she makes music as beholden to the landscapes of Northern and Pacific California, where she lives and travels, as to the visually-rich songwriting she crafts around it.
Her songs hang heavy with the yellow dust of dirt roads, plunge deep into the soft loam of the forest.
Americana songwriter Amber Cross understands this, and on her new album, Savage on the Downhill (Forst released July 2018), she makes music as beholden to the landscapes of Northern and Pacific California, where she lives and travels, as to the visually-rich songwriting she crafts around it.
Her songs hang heavy with the yellow dust of dirt roads, plunge deep into the soft loam of the forest.
As a hunter, a fisherman, and a woman of the backcountry, she
knows the countryside well, and has a deep respect for the honest work that
makes you a steward of the land. It’s something she shares with other roots
musicians, a community she found attending her first Cowboy Poetry Gathering in
Elko, Nevada. Her contacts from the gathering helped her connect with Savage
on the Downhill’s producer, Canadian blues and roots musician Ray
Bonneville. Travelling to Austin to record the album with Bonneville, Cross
connected with other great American songwriters, Gurf Morlix and Tim
O’Brien, who both came onboard for the album, with O’Brien complimenting
her “no bullshit style of singing.” If there’s a rawness to
Cross’ voice, a plainness to the words, it comes from the fact that Cross knows
the roots of this music aren’t fancy. They’re built by hand and filled with
honest words and hard-won truths.
The songs on Savage on the Downhill are deeply
visual and inextricably tied to nature, whether the California forests that
Cross roams through, or the high deserts outside Austin, Texas, where she
recorded the album. Even the title of the album paints a picture of Cross in
the backcountry. “Savage” refers to a brand of hunting rifle, and the phrase
“Savage on the Downhill” refers to how a tracker should hold a rifle so as not
to bury the barrel into the dirt when side-hilling or climbing down an incline.
Like any artist that works with their hands, Cross has a deep love and respect
for tools, seeing the same artistry in a well-worn rifle butt that you would in
a perfectly crafted song. “I have always been drawn to work that
involves my hands,” Cross says. “It seems to me that this type of work
is more creative. Or maybe it is that working with my hands pulls the
creativity out of me in a way nothing else does.”
Throughout, Cross moves easily through different styles of country
and folk songwriting, from Bakersfield outlaw attitude to Woody Guthrie
plain-spoken folk. She’s a songwriter able to juxtapose a simple image with a
powerful poetic emotion. On ‘Echoes’, she paints the picture of a humble
domestic scene, then wonders what happens to a house when the people who made
it a home have left it behind. On ‘Pack of Lies’, she moves between hard-hitting
lines like “Pretending to love is a wicked game” and
vision-laden verses like “Barking dogs rule the moonless night.”
It may come as no surprise that Amber Cross first came to music
through singing in a small church in rural Maine, where she was born and
raised. Her father was a small-town pastor and she was raised on the rough-hewn
homilies of the hymnal. Now, Cross is creating her world by hand, working her
songs until they shine with a worn polish, finding truth in tradition.
CONNECT with Amber Cross:
Bio
Upon first hearing Amber Cross you might think you are listening
to an archival Smithsonian recording. Her old-time voice is clear and
captivating, like a strong muscle, fringed in lace. She's a singer and
songwriter who writes from her own life’s struggles and experiences, delivering
her stories with unforgettable power and emotion.
Originally from Maine, Amber spent her early years surrounded by
gospel music in a small town church where her father preached and her mother
played piano. In 2003 Amber left her studies at New Mexico State University to
pursue her love for music. She moved up and down the coast of
California; the San Francisco Bay Area, the Sierra Foothills, the San Joaquin
River Valley, the coastal range of Sonoma County, and now San Luis Obispo
County. She has opened for such artists as Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Gurf Morlix,
Mary Gauthier and Dave Stamey, as well as made frequent guest performances with
The Wronglers, Warren Hellman's band, founder of San Francisco's Hardly Strictly
Bluegrass Festival.
