As We Are

Amy Correia

As We Are

Self-Released

Apr 11, 2022 Web Exclusive By Austin Saalman

There is a sense of rustic intimacy infusing Amy Correia’s new EP, As We Are—a sound so personal and homespun that one imagines the Independent Music Award-winning singer/songwriter seated at her kitchen table, guitar over one knee, regaling us with poetic tales of her own soul’s inner workings. It is accessible and melodic, yet stark, with Correia’s unique singing voice lending character to each syllable, the collective instrumental skill she shares with her band (bassist and producer Kimon Kirk, drummer Andy Plaisted, guitarist Mike Castellana, and keyboardist Brad Jones) carrying the listener through each track on a wave of intrigue and beguilement.

Written pre-pandemic and recorded live in a single day, As We Are carries a sense of ruggedness at odds with the current scene’s penchant for broad soundscapes and anthemic chatter, embracing a more practical approach, with each note essential to the whole. Correia’s vocals on opening “Bow to the Fire” possess the folksy charm of a sly revivalist, as she declares, “I bow to the fire/Of creativity.” The track’s bluesy gospel-tinged electricity engages the listener from its opening, setting the stage for Correia’s artistic statement over the course of the EP’s five cuts. The subsequent “Sunday Driver,” while deceptively breezy in its melody, carries within itself an ominous force of fate, Correia singing, “Oh, what’s coming down the road/Oh, this twisting turning road.” Standout track “Sweet Things” continues in this vein, inducing sorrow despite the warm summer’s afternoon evoked through its easy picking, Correia delivering heartache in mournful lines such as, “Sweet boy, I thought I’d see you tomorrow/Now I’m trying to remember…” before confessing, “It’s a hard lesson you learn/When you lose the one you love.”

Melancholic character sketch “The Beggar” finds aching humanity in its hardscrabble protagonist, who explains, “My mind is broken glass/So many changing shapes and colors,” before offering a rough-and-tumble tale of divine proportions. Correia utilizes her Dylanesque rasp to its fullest on the closing “With All of Us,” dropping such solid lines as “Her truth was her beauty/Her beauty was the truth/And when she sang/It cracked me open like a shell.” As evidenced throughout her EP, Amy Correia is an Americana poet, her plainspoken eloquence conjuring spirits of backroads overgrown with weeds and empty alleyways crowded with thickening shadows.

As We Are embodies the best of Correia’s artistic abilities, serving heaps of soul without sacrificing the sophistication of its form. The effort proves both romantic and devastating, Correia’s homegrown sensibilities feeling at once familiar and elusive, her band continuing alongside her in perfect harmony. Amy Correia is a treasure of her genre, still running strong, offering glints of sunlight through the haze, finding strange beauty even in the events of loss and destitution. (www.amycorreia.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10