The Rural We: Amy Rigby
The touring musician and Spotty Dog staff member has written a book about her own fascinating journey.
The Spotty Dog’s longest-tenured staff member released a book of her own on Tuesday. Amy Rigby’s memoir, “Girl to City,” charts her path from the Pittsburgh suburbs to downtown Manhattan, and from punk rock club-goer to cult singer-songwriter. In the 1980s, Rigby played with bands Last Roundup and the Shams, made her solo debut with the hit record “Diary of A Mod Housewife” in 1996, went on to write songs in Nashville in the 2000s and, for the past decade has made music with her creative partner and husband Wreckless Eric from their home in the Hudson Valley. She’s toured the US, Canada, the UK and Europe; appeared on "Fresh Air," "Late Night with Conan O’Brien," "World Café" and "All Things Considered;" and had her music featured on television and in films. She’ll celebrate the release of her book at her home base, Spotty Dog Books & Ale, on Friday, Oct. 11 at 8:30 p.m.
I grew up in Pittsburgh and moved to New York City in the mid ‘60s to go to art school at Parsons. I always knew that I had to live in New York and I knew I would stay, and I did until ’99, living in the East Village and then in Williamsburg when I had a kid in 1989. I’ve been an artist and a musician my whole adult life, so I was always looking for a cheap place to live.
That’s what brought us to the Hudson Valley; my husband and I were living in rural France and he had never lived in the U.S. We got him his green card and knew we couldn’t afford to — and maybe didn’t even want to — live in a city. We did a lot of touring in America and in each place we said, "Could we live there?" I have brothers who live in NYC and a lot of friends there, and I still felt connected to it. A lot of our friends ended up living in the Hudson Valley — in Woodstock, Phoenicia, Hudson.
On one of our tours, we checked out Hudson and I knew this woman from the city, Deb Parker, lived up here somewhere. She started the Beauty Bar, Babyland and Tainted Lady Lounge. I was describing her to my husband, saying "She’s covered in tattoos" and he went, "Is that her over there?" And it was! I’ve never seen her in Hudson again, but it was a sort of serendipity. We were wondering if we could afford to move here and she encouraged us to check it out.
We moved here in 2011 and I went into the Spotty Dog and Karen Schoemer was working there. I knew her as a music critic and I asked her for help getting a job there. It’s been a wonderful thing to be able to work in this unique place that everyone who comes to Hudson passes through. I have off and on toured, traveled and made records, but I still get to go back and work there. And the whole time I’d been working on my own book, seeing wave after wave of books come through, memoirs by Patti Smith and Kim Gordon, coming out. I’ve seen the whole top shelf change from being all older white men. Now there’s so much more writing by woman and everyone else, and part of it’s got to do with the current administration, which has sparked a whole different kind of literature.
“Girl to City” is about going to New York from Pittsburgh, becoming a musician and a mom, and trying to do both and how that works. I’ve worked on this for so long, and I’ve made a lot of records and written a lot of songs. I wrote it over the course of 10 years, through some different drafts and attempts to find a publisher. It’s a big relief to have those many, many hours of work come to fruition. Making music is a lot more immediate. There’s much more instant gratification — you can write a song and get up and play it for people to see if you’re on the right path.
At the event, I’ll read some stories from the book and play songs that are related to the stories. There’s a lot of music in the book — other people’s music that inspired me, or things that happened me that I lived through and turned into songs. It’ll be pretty emotional for me — it’s been a long time coming — but I also might just grab a rag and wipe down the bar. Being a musician is so much about getting up in front of people and trying to sell them your records, playing shows and going on social media, selling yourself to everyone over and over again. I love waiting on people behind the bar because it’s not about me.
I have a lot of old four-track demos from back when I was learning to make songs and records, so I put that together to have it correspond to the book. I didn’t realize how much I had; it’s been a whole other journey to go back through those old recordings. I didn’t give myself enough credit to know what I was doing, I didn’t have enough confidence back then. I feel lucky to have these old documents of my past selves in 3D and it’s satisfying to bring it out into the light. I’ve written so many songs, this archive could keep on giving for a couple more years, but it’s always feels best to play a new song about something that’s happening right then.
When writing songs, you’re shaping them, there’s artistry involved, and you can say "It’s just a song. It’s not me, it’s a character." Writing a memoir is a lot more exposed. It’s honest, but now I have to go out there, and telling people "That’s what my life has been" is a little more raw.
