Amy Ray Live from Knoxville [PA]

I love the tradition of live releases. To me, it's a document of a time

and place. Songs always morph a bit when you take them on the road and

every musician brings her/his own magic to the mix. That's what inspired

this little release of Amy Ray and the Volunteers.

We recorded a show in

Knoxville, from top to bottom with a 4 tracks of computer magic. We

would have had more tracks, but the equipment failed us at the last

minute. For this reason, it's really "live"-no fixes and barely any

separation. We skipped a few songs that are best left in the ether

sphere and some babble that was probably better left unsaid. Other than

that, what you hear is what we played -songs from both solo

releases-Stag and Prom.

It was the last show of the Rocktober 2005 tour

and slimly attended. The energy was in the intimacy of the crowd and the

fact that we knew we wouldn't get to rock again for a while. After the

show, we loaded the gear into the trailer and without much fanfare,

celebrated at an all night Pita joint. There's nothing less glamorous

than a college town that shuts down early. The Volunteers went on their

way. The drummer Will Lochamy went back to Alabama, where he splits his

time between music and managing a bar. Les Nuby, the guitar man, dropped

by his home in Alabama, long enough to hang with the gang and then

headed out to L.A. to do session work, playing drums. Tara Jane O'Neil

went back to her life as a roving songwriter, singer, rocker, and visual

artist. Our fearless tour manager Carla landed an impressive job working

with the family pop/rock band, Laughing Pizza. I am living the high life

as an Indigo Girl and writing for the next Aray solo record. Written by Amy Ray