In the Strauss Black Box Theatre at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center
Amy Speace:
Heralded by Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Billboard Magazine and NPR’s
“Weekend Edition,” Amy Speace was discovered by Judy Collins, who signed her to her
record label and has recorded her songs. She’s the 2020 winner of the AMA UK’s
International Song of the Year. “The Blue Rock Session,” her 10 th solo album, was
released in December 2025 and reached #1 immediately on the Folk Radio Charts. It is
a truly solo acoustic project Amy recorded in 3 hours at The Blue Rock Studio during a
writer’s retreat there. Her 2024 release, “The American Dream,” became the #1 record
and the title track was named #1 song in the FAI Radio Charts for its first month out.
She has been featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” and in a segment for
“Marketplace.”
Craig Havighurst of Nashville’s WMOT radio calls her “Sublime and
inimitable…Speace has been one of [Nashville’s] premiere folk artists of the last
decade.” Amy has played many festivals around the world, including Rocky Mountain
Folks Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Glastonbury Music Festival, legacy stages
like The Grand Ole Opry and The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and is a favorite of
“Mountain Stage Radio.”
A well-respected writer, she’s had essays published in The New York Times, No
Depression, Working Mother Magazine, Salon.com and leads workshops in songwriting
and performance. Her forthcoming debut collection of poetry, The Cardinals, will be
published by Red Hen Press on September 1, 2026. In 2025 she published To The
Performer: A Handbook for Singer-Songwriters. She holds an MFA in poetry from
Spalding University.
Beth Bombara:
Beth Bombara’s It All Goes Up is for this moment what Kathleen Edwards’ Back To Me was for the early 2000s. It’s all there – the songwriting first and foremost with a voice that connects on a raw, emotional level alongside production led by Bombara’s undeniable musicality, retaining the intimacy of being wholly conceived by the artist herself.
Bombara’s last album, Evergreen, was well-received by fans and media alike. “The likes of Aimee Mann and Jewel are fair comparisons,” noted the L.A. Weekly, “every tone is tinged with emotion, nothing is wasted.”
With It All Goes Up, Bombara has risen to a new level and let some light in. “There's more light, more hope in this record,” she says, “and it feels more positive sonically, as well.” These songs were written during the chaos of the past couple years, and the time found Bombara looking for silver linings, writing to keep herself positive and keep her mind open and fresh. She continues, “During the pandemic I reconnected with an old guitar that had been collecting dust in my closet for many years. It’s a classical guitar, and I wrote a lot of the songs for this record on it, which brought something different to them and took the tone of the record in a new direction.” Bombara’s songwriting certainly did take a turn – upwards, in more ways than one.
After studying music in college, she began playing in other people’s bands. It speaks to the depth of her musicianship that she played guitar and percussion in one band, bass in another project, and keys in yet another. So, just in case you weren’t aware – Bombara has talent and ears way beyond those of your average singer-songwriter.
Bombara spent years on the road in other bands before encouragement from peers led her to start writing and performing her own music. “I never set out to be a lead singer,” she admits. “I wasn’t comfortable being in the spotlight like that. I struggled with anxiety and talking into a microphone just froze me up.” Yet the songs were there. So Bombara slowly started performing her own material, watering the seeds that would grow into her own flourishing career. After releasing her first album, she was invited to perform in front of 10,000 people at the Missouri Botanical Gardens' Whitaker Music Festival, and that was a breakthrough moment for her as a performer. “I figured, if I can do that, I can do anything.”
It does seem that way. Bombara produced this album herself, along with her partner, Kit Hamon. The drums, bass, and rhythm guitar were all tracked live, with lush sonic layers laid on top of the basic rhythm section one by one. Supported by her smart musical sensibilities, emotionally savvy lyric writing, and the strength of her production skills, Bombara’s latest batch of songs shine.
