Amy brings Glastonbury songs to the fore
Adam Guest
After recording a collection of songs in Glastonbury and a warm reception to her song Seashore, Amy Morgan is set to play as part of the Jazz and World Sounds Festival.
Morgan travelled south to capture her self penned tunes on record and worked with Joe Watt to mix the <i>Seashore</i> track, which has had a positive response on the Shetland Singers and Songwriters Facebook page.
In April she performed at the JAWS sound bites, her first gig outside of the regular singer-songwriter nights.
She thoroughly enjoyed the show at the Lerwick Legion and has been asked to perform in Saxavord, Unst, on Monday as part of the upcoming festival, which starts this weekend.
Morgan takes influence from a range of music, though she said: “I like a lot of the bluesy, jazzy, solo-ey stuff and older music as well.”
There is a sweetness and fluidity in her voice, reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.
“I really used to like Annie Lennox growing up,” Morgan said.
“I like the way Joni Mitchell paints a picture with her songs. I’m not the best musician technically but I guess it comes from a soulful place; I write what I feel, it’s more of a therapeutic thing.”
She admits that she struggles to just sit down and write something and she writes when inspiration strikes.
“I suppose it’s a mixture of that and drawing from personal experiences, life’s challenges and making sense of things.”
She decided to record the songs in Glastonbury as she was visiting the town.
“I suppose maybe I was a bit shy about doing it up here,” she said.
Morgan recorded 13 songs with vocals and guitar but is hoping to pull in other musicians and create an album in future. She is also working on broadening her music into a band.
Dirk Robertson of the Heavy Metal Buffet is hopefully doing the album artwork too and she hopes to have it finished by the end of the year.
Watt has been very supportive of her music, she said and added: “He has been really good for my confidence, he was really enthusiastic about the music, we are hoping to do some more in the summer and Stevie Hook has offered to do some more as well.”
And Shetland is a great place to find folk interested in music, be it performing, recording, or working as sound engineers.
She is wanting the album can be a collective effort, and is open to people putting their own ideas into the songs.
“Everyone has got a skill in some way and I think it would be really good to create a community project where people can use those skills and share their gifts.”
More in Friday’s Shetland Times.
