The big show is one day away and we are “rejoicing” that we’ve gotten some excellent press about it! Community Newspapers ran a story in dozens of their (Massachusetts) regional publications (thank you Margaret Smith for writing the article and Ashling Keating for reaching out to Margaret!). You can read the article here. Also, the Lowell Sun ran a photo in their Stepping Out section today. Excellent!

The band practiced on Tuesday night and everyone is sounding great. We decided to record one of the songs (a living room recording) to share with you as a “sneak preview” for Friday. This song is from the first set which is comprised of bluegrass, classic country and some folk. The song, The Angels Rejoiced was written by the Louvin Brothers 50 years or so ago. Dolly Parton recently recorded it. We do her version. That sweet high harmony you hear is my sister’s voice (Corrie Jones). She will be singing with me this weekend. It’s always a treat to have her!

Listen to the the song here. Enjoy and I hope to see you soon (tomorrow would be ideal!).

Andy Sicard did it again. Andy’s the bass and mandolin player for the Red Clay Rascals, but he’s also the creator of this website and now the creator of these nifty banners for the upcoming show. If you want to take one and put in on your Facebook, MySpace or elsewhere, please feel free. I’ll take all the help I can get. The links to the images are below. Please link the image to www.amyblacklive.com. Thank you! Amy

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Today’s adventure started with a need. I needed a new promotional photo for the papers for the upcoming show on September 26 at the Bull Run. My husband, Ryan, and I headed down to a super cool abandoned building not far from our house.

We live in the small New England town of Groton and more specifically West Groton. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Groton. It’s a very quaint little town with many old, well-preserved buildings and very little flash. Also, it has beautiful public places (Groton Place) and wide open spaces. Yep, I’m a country girl at heart. : )

When we got down to the building we realized that the little shop on the corner–Clover Farm Market an adorable little market that was recently purchased and refurbished–was having a big outdoor party complete with music. We took the photos (the best posted here) and then headed home. But I wasn’t done with the Clover Farm Market!

I’ve been looking for opportunities to promote my show and it hit me that the store’s all day music fest was just that. The people there like music and they live close to the Bull Run…perfecto!! So, I got a stack of my small flyers and headed back down. I’m friends with the owner and checked in to see if I could talk with folks. The answer was yes–so I had some excellent conversations with music lovers and found some who wanted to go to my show.

A bit later, blues guitarist Ronnie Earl (we got a lot of cool folks living in Groton) got up to play a few songs. Man, I love the slide guitar. He drew a good size crowd of attentive listeners. When Ronnie was done tearing it up and the next band was ready to set up, I asked one of the owners if I could sing a song and invite people to come to my show in two weeks. He handed me the mic. : )

I sang one of my favorite songs sans guitar–Shadow of Doubt sung by Bonnie Raitt (click the player below to hear my version) and then invited people to the show. The response was a good one. And the best part was Ronnie. He came up to meet me, shook my hand and said, “You are going to do very well.” That meant a lot coming from him. I hope he’s right. : )

Long story, long, I’m on a mission to spread the word about my biggest show yet in hopes that we have at least 200 people in attendence. And some times spreading the word also means singing it!