The resurgence in traditional country music is gaining pace in recent years with artists such as Charley Crockett, Sierra Ferrell, Jesse Daniel, Brit Taylor, Kelsey Waldon and Joshua Hedley, to name but a few, all challenging the crossover pop music that is seeping out of Nashville, masquerading as ‘country’ music. Another name that can be added to that list is Amanda Fields. Her recently released album, WHAT, WHEN & WITHOUT, is a classic example of an artist with the ability to combine themes of sadness, joy and closure, across ten songs that play out like a movie soundtrack. Produced by Megan McCormick and backed by some exceptionally talented players, it marks the arrival of an artist with one foot in the past and one in the present. We spoke recently with Amanda and learned of her passion for bluegrass and country music, and her career in music that was launched at a very early age.
I understand that you are currently living in Nashville
Yes, I live about ten minutes north of downtown in a neighbourhood called Pleasant Acres in Madison, Tennessee. Three houses down from me was Loretta Lynn's first house when she moved to Nashville. If you go down the other side of the street and take a brief ride it's about maybe a half a mile to June Carter's house when she was married to Carl Smith. And just on the other side of that property was Mother Maybelle’s house. Kitty Wells was a mile away as was Patsy Cline and Hank Snow. I had no idea about all this when I got this house. I started discovering that after the fact and it's just it makes me so happy to be here.
You should be conducting country music tours in that neighbourhood.
(Laughs). I thought about that because I tell everybody about the area. I just love country music so much and country music’s history.
You are not originally from Tennessee.
No, I was born in Salem, Virginia and I lived in various locations in southwest Virginia during my childhood. It’s about six or seven hours from Nashville towards the Appalachian Mountains.
I expect your move to Nashville was prompted by your love of country music.
Absolutely. I always wanted to be a country singer growing up and I always wanted to be in Nashville and that's absolutely what brought me here. I came here right out of high school and then I spent a few years traveling and I moved out to California for a couple of years. I've always been somewhat of a rambler type of person, a traveling spirit. I would say that was from my upbringing, my family moved us around quite a bit. I've been in Nashville now for about ten years and I’ve got roots here now.
Was bluegrass your initial exposure to music?
That's right, bluegrass and gospel music, actually. My family had a Pentecostal church in Virginia and my first taste of performing was in church. I don't know if you're familiar with that sect of Christianity but the music in that church was very lively, there were tambourines, drums, guitars and bass guitars. It was just a very high-spirited environment and so that kind of led me into bluegrass and then country music.
Was your introduction to performing on stage at a young age?
It was a pretty young age, about ten or eleven. My aunt taught all of us to play guitar, we would learn the chords, about two or three chords at home and then go to church and she would teach us in church while she played piano. She would lean over and call the chords out to us to play, it was really neat.
Was the single Brandywine, which you released in 2021? Your first recording?
That was not my first recording. I've actually been recording since I was about eighteen in various capacities. When I was that age, I bought a little tape machine that I could record on and make my own demos of songs I was writing. I actually went to school for music business here in Nashville and so I did a lot of recordings at school. My first recordings where the music was released with my voice on it was a series of albums called PICKIN’ ON. It has tons of albums and it's bluegrass versions of popular songs. I was on a couple of those records, maybe seven or eight years ago. I've also recorded demos and printed up CDs to sell at my shows but officially Brandywine was my recorded introduction to the bluegrass world.
There is a definite connectivity with the songs on WHAT, WHEN AND WITHOUT. Are they based on personal experience?
I would say that most of it is personal experience but then some of it is secondary personal experience of things that other people that are close to me have experienced and where I felt a great deal of empathy for their story. I wrote it from first person but also telling somebody else's story that maybe didn't have that outlet.
The tracks play out very much like a movie soundtrack.
It's very perceptive to have you notice that as it did play out like a movie in my mind. That's exactly what I was thinking with the sequencing.
I can visualise the credits rolling on the last episode of the TV drama Twin Peaks on the closing track Without You.
That is so funny. Do you know what inspired that song and what I was watching during that time, Twin Peaks? I just caught wind of Twin Peaks a couple of years ago. I love that show and love the music in it.
The three words in the album’s title are represented in the names of the opening, closing and middle songs on the album.
I really don't know how the title came about; it just came out of nowhere. It was a coincidence that the first words of the songs in the beginning, middle, and end were ‘what, when and without.’ It's a play on words because in the song Morning Dove, I asked the question ‘what went without a goodbye?’ which is something that came to me through thinking about the grief that can come when you're not able to have closure and we're not able to say goodbye to somebody before they leave.
Over what period was it recorded?
There were four sessions in total. Chris (Contreras) came and added piano and sang one day. Ryan Culwell, who sang on Trail Of Unforgiveness, came and sang another day. The band and me all tracked live except for the piano and there just weren't very many overdubs. I wanted it to be authentic and I wanted it to capture the moment and what felt like the magic of us all coming together and playing that music. It happened very organically and it was an incredible experience to work with those people.
The pedal steel playing by Russ Pahl captures the atmosphere perfectly in the songs.
Yes, I love pedal steel and it’s one my favourite sounds.
Given your bluegrass background was it a conscious decision to record a traditional country album?
Yes, it was. I wanted to make a country record. I've played and recorded a lot of Bluegrass through the years and I love it, and I'm sure I'll play more and record more bluegrass but I wanted to make a country record.
Despite Country Music Radio being dominated by strictly ‘pop’ music, there is a noticeable increase in the popularity of traditional country music. Are you finding that?
Definitely. I think I think that traditional country and 90s country is making a big comeback. It is really nice to see it growing and I think a lot of that is down to people like you all at Lonesome Highway, Saving Country Music and other people that are shining a spotlight on independent country artists who are making music more traditionally and more organically.
That is also down to the growing popularity of Honky Tonk Tuesday at American Legion Post 82 in Nashville. Have you played there?
I've been going on and off going there for some years now but I haven't actually played Honky Tonk Tuesday. They do a bluegrass night on Wednesday nights and bluegrass was primarily my community for some time, so I have played bluegrass Wednesday nights there quite a bit.
There are a number of issues in Tennessee presently that are not at all positive. The recent expulsion of two politicians in Tennessee for their gun protest and the anti-LGBTQ bills come to mind. You posted recently on social media about cancelling a show at The Station Inn. Do you want to speak about that?
Well, it's a sensitive situation. I've known the current owner of The Station Inn for many years, and I've played music with him. I spoke to him directly about my decision to pull away from that gig and he and I left the conversation with ‘I love you and I care about you.’ I'm not sure that I would say too much about it other than that if I feel like a place is not safe for any marginalized group of people, I'm not going to go to that place. If I know that there are guns inside of a venue, I'm not going to go to that venue. If I know that there are people that are openly homophobic or transphobic, I'm probably not going to go to that. The purpose of my creating music is to heal myself and to hopefully heal other people. I feel that music creates a safe place to do that. And I don't want it to ever feel otherwise to myself or anybody else that listens to my music.
Megan McCormick had quite an input on the album as producer, player and backing vocalist. I believe she is also part of your live band.
Yes, she is. She's musical director in the band and plays guitar and sings. We wrote quite a few of the songs from the record together: she's my primary writing partner. I can't imagine writing without her now. I write on my own every day, but there's a synergy between her and me when we make music. She's also a very gifted producer and I was grateful that she took on my project, and I'm hoping that she does more records because there are not very many women producers, especially in Nashville. There's only a handful of women producers that I know of and I think that Megan has such a special gift to bring the musicians together, bring the songs together, and is just an incredible musician. She was born into a musical family and her grandparents are in the Western Swing Hall of Fame.
With a number of your peers like Sierra Ferrell, Brit Taylor and Kelsey Waldon getting signed to established record labels, were you tempted to knock on a few label doors?
I haven't reached out to any record labels. I think that they keep an eye on what's going on anyway. If they were interested, I think that they would find me. My record was put out on Meghan McCormick's record label, Are and Be, which she just started and is building. She wants to approach it more like a collective than a traditional record label. I like to kind of take the alternate route anyway as I'm really more after the intrinsic benefit.
I know the album has only been released for a few months but are you already planning more recordings?
I've already started working on something else, so we'll see how long it takes to get another album together. I've got about half the songs ready but, as you know, the biggest obstacle is financial. There are ways to get it done. Where there's a will there's a way, so hopefully, it won't be too long.
Finally, will we get to see you perform your songs on our annual trip to Americana Fest in September?
Yeah, I think I've got one show lined up for that. As I said, I'm more into the alternate route of things and a little bit of an outlaw spirit, so I didn't even submit to play as an official artist. A friend of mine puts on an event during Americana Fest, you might be familiar with him, but I won’t spill the beans now. But, I hope to play at that.
Interview by Declan Culliton