Biography
Americana singer and songwriter Amy Black first surfaced within Boston’s roots music community toward the end of the 2000s while fronting the Red Clay Rascals. Raised in Missouri and Alabama as the daughter of a preacher, she later moved with her family to the Boston area. Although she had long enjoyed performing and appeared in assorted bands, Black waited until her late thirties before treating music as a serious vocation. The Red Clay Rascals issued a largely acoustic album in 2009, after which she stepped forward two years later as a solo act whose fuller sound incorporated blues and R&B alongside folk and country. Issued in 2014, This Is Home pushed further into roots-rock territory, whereas The Muscle Shoals Sessions (2015) led her back to her Southern origins through vintage soul and R&B covers. Lex Price produced the album, which included guest appearances by Spooner Oldham and Regina and Ann McCrary of the McCrary Sisters. After relocating to Nashville, Black partnered with Scott Bomar of the Memphis soul-jazz outfit the Bo-Keys. Her 2017 release Memphis, like the earlier Muscle Shoals project, mined her Southern soul background yet consisted entirely of original material.
Albums