"I feel stronger, wiser, and more ready than ever," says the strikingly attractive singer with the passionate musical style. "It's so good to be back making music with people who believe in me."
Those people include some of Nashville's most talented and experienced pros. For her upcoming album, California Country, Amy is working with producer Chip Martin, who has written for Mark Wills and Billy Dean and who is currently working with Kyle Lehning, a producer whose credits inclulde Randy Travis, Bryan White and Highway 101. Among the songwriters whose work Amy will feature on the project are R. L. Castleman, who wrote the Grammy-nominated "Like Red On A Rose" for Alan Jackson; James Dean Hicks, writer of hits for Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis and Conway Twitty; and Dillon Dixon, who has written for George Jones, Steve Holy and a number of movie soundtracks.
It is an exhilarating workload for a woman whose every breath is nothing short of a miracle. Three years ago, Amy had been in the studio finishing a project with some of Nashville's best before health complications from a high-risk pregnancy sidelined her completely.
"I would just watch CMT and cry," she says of the period. After giving birth to her daughter and regaining her health, she began work on a new project with Billy Strange, a legendary singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose resume includes work with Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson. Then, after becoming ill while on vacation in the fall of 2006, she learned she had tumors and residual damage from her pregnancies that would require life-threatening surgery.
"They told me to get my affairs in order," she says. "I drew up a living trust and got ready for the surgery." Amy did pull through, and after a long, slow recovery, regained her health completely." It was a miracle," she says. "It's so good, after all I've been through, to go to a photo shoot and feel good and feel sexy and feel like a woman again. Everything I went through was very empowering for me." She re-entered the studio for California Country with a new outlook. "I'm not afraid," he says. "After facing that surgery, not knowing if I was going to come out the other side of that operating room, anything else pales in comparison."
All she's been through just reinforces the positive energy she's always brought to life. She first sang with a children's choir before 10,000 people at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds when she was just three, and though she had training in both piano and voice that could have carried her in any direction, her heart was rooted firmly in the classic country she and her father listened to when she was a girl--to this day, she is a walking country music encyclopedia.
As she began performing publicly more and more and dreaming of Nashville, though, her fledgling career was interrupted by the birth of her first son when she was 18, and her subsequent marriage and two more sons. "For the longest time," she says, "I literally had to turn that dream off." She became a stay-at-home mom and channeled her musical talent and drive into leading her church group, a large contemporary band that provided musical ministry for a congregation of thousands. "That always challenged my vocal and musical abilities, and kept my passion for music going," she says.
Through a divorce and her successful entry into the business world, she kept her artistic vision afloat by joining a regional country band, singing at fairs and community events for outdoor crowds that eventually grew to 5,000 or so. Such was her born ability as a multi-tasker that she could sometimes be seen handing ice cream money to her kids as she closed a deal on her cell phone behind the drum riser before walking out to start the show.
She began dreaming of Nashville, and during a trip there she met an independent songplugger who helped introduce her to the city's writers, producers and executives. That kicked off the process that brought her so far just before her health problems began. Back in the studio now, she is intent on capturing on tape the sheer compelling energy she carries to the stage and into her everyday life. "My first passion is that live audience," she says. "It's what I know. It's who I am. By the time a show is over, people from the front row to the back know me really well. I put everything I have into connecting with them, and it translates into fun for both of us."
To see her on stage is to see a woman consumed with music, someone whose life and art are infused with passion and joy that grow out of an indomitable spirit. She is, above all, a fiery performer who conveys the realities of the human condition, its joys and sorrows, in a way that links her unforgettably with her audience's hearts and spirits.
Amy Scruggs is also a woman who knows the power of hope, the pain of self-renewal, and the way that music can help feed both. "I know what it's like to struggle for identity and to try to live a dream, and I try wiith my life and my music to let people know that I understand," she says. "And so I find that I'm able to relate both to moms and to their teenaged girls in my audiences. There's a connection there that transcends generations." It is a connection destined to allow Amy to finally live her dream of taking her music to country audiences everywhere.
ROB SIMBECKp align=center
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