lady amy

with strength enough to "die a hundred times" & still be standing.

03/16/07

sxsw

@

la zona rosa

&

making her way across the

sea…

 

amy.

 

that vinci heldt’s beehive torch being carried into the

21^st century (made her

signature)---

bearing a white wife-beater

& she smiles over at the one guitarist sitting with an

acoustic

ready to begin---

stripped down to just the bare essentials:

-a captivating & absolutely engrossing voice

-one line of stringed melody as a backdrop

 

with her right boot beginning to tap

&

keep the tempo of the song---

gently snapping her right hand on the offbeat---

she quiets the whole joint with the

opening of her

eyes simultaneously with the first words that come

in a paradox of

exhaustion & relentless

stalwartness---

eyes of a woman who has endured a long fight &

is still alive to tell the

tale.

 

she starts

“back

to

black”

with her left hand slowly rising

punctuating each

point of pain

appropriately.

 

& her eyes pierce right

through

you.

 

she may weigh in at 100 lbs. but you do not want to

f**k

with her---for she has been through what she sings

about---

made herself

numb

& indestructible---

there isn’t a punch you could throw that would make her

flinch.

 

you cannot move your gaze away,

because while she holds you in a trance

she rips out her own heart

so exceedingly quick

that it’s still beating when she grips it in her

hand.

 

then,

she shakes it at you---

it is bleeding down her tattooed arm,

pumping & spurting out

all which ways

promulgating her presence

with a visual & aesthetic explosion of

torment, distress & heartache---

& with this

horrible heartache,

she points the thing at all of us watching

forcing us to see what she is going

through

exactly in this moment

she may sing about the current past

but her pain pulsates with each note that comes

wavering

with

only

the

soul

of

which

she speaks so eloquently in the explicit

NOW.

 

she takes you down with her

dragging you on the ocean floor

like a shark who has just nabbed his prey---

then she sits with you at the bottom

&

as she labors out the end of the song

pulling no punches herself

through each striking tone of strife

&

we are gasping with her

trying to breathe

trying to come to a better conclusion than what seems

so destined

&

then we both make it to the top of the water

with

mutual breaths of relief.

 

all that much stronger she is for taking our hearts into a place

that only she knows

and making it one that we can all understand

because of its

brutal honesty.

 

her smile at the crowd when the song completely ends

& is engulfed with

applause and loving yells

is evidence

of a woman

defiant.