Album Notes

Goodbye New York brings together all my favorite genres: blues, rock, soul, European cabaret and alternative. In some ways it's like a trip through my many lives Iived - a retrospective of sorts. My love for John Lennon goes way back, so doing a cover of Mother was really like going back to the womb. The song Old Man and Where Are You? were written about my father, I guess I was hoping to get to the core of some things. Then there’s Tango and Let's Pretend written and recorded in Italy, my home away from home- a place I go to perform and rejuvenate. I've built some mind blowing friendships in that glorious country. My dear friend Adrianna Toman who lives in Calabria and is a co writer on Tango also directed the Video for Where Are You? I've known her now for so many years and when I'm in Italy she blankets me in the grand beauty of her farm in the mountains. Let's Pretend is a collaboration between me and the late Gege Guido, who knew more about American popular music than most American's I've ever known. His son, gifted guitarist Riccardo Guido plays on the track along with another wonderful guitar player, Giuseppe Romagno. Time To Believe was sent to me on the wings of my oldest friend in the world, Noelle Pollet. We grew up together on the wild streets of Brooklyn and somehow survived it. Her lyrics felt so authentically optimistic, I had to it on my CD, what a huge gift to have it come from her!
Working with producer David Cooper has been such a joy. His sensitivity and, what can I say, genius has been a constant inspiration. We started working on Goodbye New York about four years ago. I've known David for years, been a fan of his band 46 Bliss and worked on various projects with him, I performed in his musical Captain Gravy's Wavy Navy at The New York Musical Theatre Festival and we worked together on a project called Voice Play but we never did any recording. It was time! We talked about it for awhile and one day he said, "You know Amy, I think you should do Lennon's song Mother. " The minute he made the suggestion I knew I had to do it. The whole process was so fluid. We ended up writing some songs together, which was a gas and I got favorite musicians, Andy Bassford, Leroy Guy and Donna Kelly to play on a number of the tracks, always a heavenly experience. There's also the awesome Mitch Margold playing organ on three tracks, a young glorious guitar player named Sam Crawford soloing on Eight Arms, backup vocals par excellence by Pharon Derek and Joyner on Anyone Who Had a Heart along with a killer sax solo by Bill Holloman on the same track. The biggest surprise and treat was finding two young men from Africa now living in the states, Said Bulle and MG Man to do backup vocals and rap in their native tounge on Time to Believe. They magically appeared and gave that song a kind of universality.