Girl To City: A Memoir

August, 1996. The month everything went right.

My first solo album. Modern dermatology. A kid who quotes Homer Simpson. The slow realization that the road goes on forever...

Songs in this episode:

• Twent…

1996. New York and Los Angeles. Letting go and finally getting somewhere...

Songs in this episode:

• You're Getting Old - mid-90s demo, A One Way Ticket To My Life
• Down Side Of Love - Diary Of A Mod House…

Breaking up is hard to do. The beginnings of Diary Of A Mod Housewife. Temp jobs and uncomfortable elevator encounters.

Songs included in this episode:

• When A Piece Of The Sky Falls - early 90s demo A …

The magic of three; life as a rock mom and the loud majesty of Urge Overkill and Big Muff distortion pedals...

Songs in this episode:

• Down At The Texaco - early unreleased Shams demo
• Almost Had Me Convi…

Moving to Williamsburg, back when Brooklyn was...Brooklyn. A day job at Tudor City. The Shams make an album, and a video.

Songs in this episode:

• All I Want original demo - A One Way Ticket To My Life
• Fa…

Adjusting to life post-October 1988. Harmonies and laughs with baby Hazel and the Shams; touring with the Indigo Girls, and an introduction to that sleepy backwater on the other side of the East Rive…

The last Last Roundup; birth of the Shams and life is a mother.

Songs in this episode:

• Grow Up Daddy - the Shams early demo
• Only A Dream - original demo - A One Way Ticket To My Life
• Only A Dream - the S…

Saying "I do," and keeping on doing. Playing for some tough customers (my parents) and going solo at the long term temp job variety show.

Songs in this episode:

• Beer & Kisses - from Diary Of A Mod Hous…

Two girls, two guys, one upright bass, lap steel, three acoustic guitars, banjo, fiddle and a washboard in NYC and Nashville: getting good takes time. And love is a country compilation cassette.

Songs…

It took a while, but in 1982-83 I finally started writing songs and playing music for real, although "real" is relative as the results were pretty primitive. But the energy and intent was there! The …

Back in New York, 1982. Ladies love outlaws until they learn to love themselves. Working a day job and learning the importance of a good cast iron skillet. Discovering country music.

Songs in this epi…

Life as a London art student & music fan circa 1980-81, in a squat with punk legacy that included first rehearsals by the Raincoats. Fashion illustration attempts; encounters with a past love and a f…

1980. He wore a tank top in winter and summer. But I loved him.

Songs in this episode:

• Dark Angel - original demo version + The Shams from Quilt
• Don't Make Me Laugh (B. DeMain/A. Rigby)  demo rough

1979: The Clash; a homemade club in lower Manhattan...and my first band.

Songs in this episode:

• Slow Burner - The Old Guys
• If You Won't Hang Around - The Sugar Tree (also 18 Again)
• Victory - Stare Kits l…

You never forget your first broken heart...or your first trip to England.

Songs used in this episode:

• The Leader from The Sandinista! Project
• Questions I Can't Answer sample from Faulkner, Dylan, Heinz …

1977. Friends, family, fashion illustration and trying to figure out where I fit into it all. Oh, and the Sex Pistols are coming.

Songs used in this episode:

• Yankee Wheels from The Stiff Generation & F…

Art school, black jeans from Trash & Vaudeville, and my first trip to the Bowery with a boy named Bob.

Songs used in this episode:

• Bob  live version from Faulkner, Dylan Heinz & Me + studio version The…

Babysitting, booze and boys; tall boots and the majesty of rock. Amy ventures on her own to downtown Pittsburgh, falls in love and plans her trajectory to NYC.

Songs used in this episode:

• Girls Got It …

In this first episode, Amy's teenage daughter poses a question that sends the songwriter and musician looking back towards her Catholic girlhood in 60s/70s Pittsburgh; early musical obsessions and at…