An Affair to Remember

Before she was a singer-songwriter, Amy Speace studied playwriting at Amherst and acted with the National Shakespeare Conservatory in New York. “At the same time, I was dating a guy in a rock band,” Speace says. “I would just pick up his guitar every once in a while and teach myself some chords.” She wrote her first songs following their breakup, and started to balance her life in theater with acoustic club gigs. Following a performance at SXSW in 2005, Judy Collins signed Speace to her record label, and she released her debut album in 2006. Speace relocated to Nashville in 2009 after a divorce, seeking a personal and professional change of pace, and she credits the move with deepening her “relationship to the craft of songwriting.” Her latest album, That Kind of Girl, delves into the intimate and agonizing experience of her four-year affair with a married man. “[I had] a relationship that brought me to my knees and taught me a lot about myself,” Speace explains. The recording process was completed in a mere three days to maintain a live, raw feel. “I just had to tell my truth,” Speace continues, “and then trust that the song was gonna take care of me.”