For Amy LaVere her brand of soulful Memphis-based Americana has captivated audiences with a sweet warm-hearted charm. After the release of Anchors & Anvils back in 2007 the journey has taken her to foreign shores for a performance at Jools in Holland. After recording with famed Bob Dylan producer Jim Dickinson, things for the songwriter forge forward.
LaVere will be embarking on a short East Coast leg before rollin’-n-tumblin’ back to Tennessee for some well deserved down time. The area performances are noted by a taping at the Conan O’Brien Show on Feb. 2.
A phone call in the late afternoon woke the bass plucking LaVere from a cat nap. With a voice to die for, it got right down to business.
How was the taping of Jools in Holland as far as an experience for you?
That went really well. I was really nervous but it went well. We played with Coldplay and Glenn Campbell which was amazing.
Did you get to spend any time with Jools himself?
Not really. I was introduced to him before the show but he is a very busy man.
He didn’t invite you out for a steak after the show?
Sadly not [laughs].
How was the UK leg? Did you have any memorable stories?
You got me on the spot here. I could tell you something tragic.
Fair enough.
We were really excited to go to Liverpool for the obvious reasons. We had a list of places that we wanted to see—places that were relevant to the Beatles. We wanted to check out some of their hangs. We stopped at the pub that they apparently used to ‘plan world domination’ in. There were others places we wanted to hit but we decided to go check out the Beatles Museum. It was something outrageous to get in, like $26. I don’t remember how that works out in pounds, but it was expensive. I am a Sun Studios tour guide back home in Memphis and I pulled my card and told them that back in Memphis we let touring bands get in for free, which is true. We will let them tour for free in trade of a CD. I asked them if they would work the same deal and they said they would. We ended up being really disappointed with the museum. Most of all was a bunch of Beatles mannequins that were hanging out in a mock studio that kind of made me feel a little uneasy. The drag of it was that it took so long to get through it that by the time we got out we didn’t have enough time to see more of the real places.
