INTERVIEW: Amy Annelle Urges Late-in-Life Queers to "Keep Going"
Austin-based veteran singer-songwriter Amy Annelle is no stranger to regret and resilience, as her upcoming album The Toll (August 2nd) demonstrates. (We featured “Pull Tabs and Broken Glass,” on last week’s playlist.) ” Anelle is best known for her rendition of Townes Van Zandt’s “Buckskin Stallion Blues,” which was featured prominently in the Golden Globe-winning, Academy Award-nominated film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. With an eye to the future, Annelle chronicles her battle with chronic illness on The Toll, and it what it all means. In our interview, Annelle talks about how to take the past and future in stride all at once.
Name a perfect song and tell us why you feel that way.
I am a huge fan of the queer New Orleans musician, James Booker, and his version of St. James Infirmary. It was recorded live at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans in the late 70s. This was his regular local gig, and you can hear that the piano is ever so slightly and sweetly out of tune. His version of this ancient folk/blues song conveys all the pathos of the mourning lover, and he somehow sings it like he’s at a barrelhouse bar and a funeral at the same time. It swings so hard, but it’s so sad. Every song Booker plays has two hundred years of American musical DNA pulsing through its veins. Blues, country, folk, jazz, and an avant-garde flair that is purely his own. It’s like the muses are exploding out of him every time he plays.
What would you like to say to people who are currently questioning their identities?
Keep going! If you feel isolated, you can reach out and start to build community through apps, queer organizations and social media. Volunteer for a queer event. And don’t be afraid or ashamed about coming out “Late In Life.” A lot of queer people have lived many lifetimes before they realize that their queerness is central to their identity. Life is complicated. Coming Out does not have a deadline, or an expiration date.
Recent release you cannot stop listening to?
The new self-titled album by Creekbed Carter, a queer trans folk artist based out of Austin. The first time I heard his meet-you-at-the-crossroads song, “Apiary,” it transported me to a world of golden hazy light, slow-motion beating wings and dark confessions.
Explain the title of your album.
The Toll has several meanings: the mournful sounding of a bell, a way to quantify the damage done, the price paid to get past a barrier or advance to a better stretch of road. The title comes from the last song on the album, also called “The Toll,” which is a resolute lament of lovers locked in battle. It ends with the lines, “I have no answer to the questions that burn in the dark night of your soul. I am but a weary traveler, with no coin to pay the toll.”
Tell us about your favorite show you’ve ever played.
In the mid-aughts I played a show at an intimate venue in New York City called The Fez (RIP) while there was a blizzard outside. I played with a lineup that only appeared with me once, playing a set of songs that would never make it on to an album. Afterwards, we trudged with our guitars through shin-deep snow as the flakes flew, laughing and slipping down the sidewalk.
To celebrate the release of The Toll, Amy will be performing on July 27th at the Austin Scottish Rite Theater with special guest, queer trans folk phenomenon, Creekbed Carter. The event is made possible by a City of Austin Live Music Fund Grant, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit nonprofit Communities For Recovery. The evening will be a celebration of mental health awareness and recovery, and there will be an info table by the SIMS Foundation, a crucial organization providing mental health and recovery services for Austin music industry professionals. More information is HERE.
The Toll will be out on August 2nd
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