Amy Speace: From Shakespeare To Songwriting

"The Killer in Me" sounds twangy and tragic, with Amy Speace's velvety, achy voice recalling Lucinda Williams.

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At first glance, Amy Speace doesn't look like she has it in her. A perky blonde with a bubbly smile and a background as an actress in the National Shakespeare Company, Speace looks more like a Saturday Night Live cast member than a singer-songwriter battling (and expertly chronicling) heartache. But that's just what she does on her new album, The Killer in Me.

The disc's title track sounds like fodder for wallowing late at night in some bar in Austin, Texas. "The Killer in Me" sounds twangy and tragic — one of many songs Speace wrote after breaking up with her husband of 10 years — and her velvety, achy voice recalls an early Lucinda Williams. Sounding grounded but wounded, Speace exudes the vulnerability of someone who's loved and lost. Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople joins her for haunting harmonies on lines like, "When you cut my heart like you got no shame / hurts so good, I want to share the blame." It's not quite iambic pentameter, but Speace has a flair for tragedy well-suited to someone with a background in Shakespeare.

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