Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Barnhart
Hi Amy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Amy’s always loved to sing. She grew up on the East Coast singing along to Carole King, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles and Ella Fitzgerald and you can hear those influences in her powerful voice, evocative lyrics and soaring melodies. Her voice has the expressiveness of Brandi Carlisle, the vulnerability and honesty of P!nk, Grace Potter’s dynamics, with a Bonnie Raitt bluesy quality.
She’s always turned to music to help her work through some of her life’s most painful experiences, to feel hope, and find a new way of looking at a challenge. She started songwriting at 50 years old in 2015 at a yoga retreat in Idyllwild, California she was attending with Bri Schillings, local indie singer songwriter of Sweet Imperfections. After being inspired by the song Bri wrote, she got some tips from Bri and wrote her first song, “We Shared Music” about Amy’s mother, who struggled with alcoholism, drugs and toxic relationships and died tragically young at 60 years old. Throughout the rough times of her childhood, her favorite memories are sharing music with her mom, whether it was singing and harmonizing along to albums or belting out made up bawdy lyrics drinking spiked hot cocoa on a winter beach.
As Amy’s 60th birthday approached, the call to share her music became much stronger. And in celebration of her 60th birthday, she will be releasing her first six songs. She was absolutely thrilled to record her music with Producer, Engineer and guitarist, Jeff Berkley. The studio session musicians are like San Diego’s version of the Muscle Shoals swampers. It felt like they could read her mind and emotions and created just the right accompaniment in only a few takes. Her first single, an uplifting rock anthem, Dragonfly, was inspired by the spirit message of this ancient magical creature. The messages of transformation at whatever time is right, rising to fly and bringing in lightness and beauty have always fascinated her and she enjoyed putting those healing messages into a song.
Jeff Berkley describes her: “Amy Barnhart is a force to be reckoned with! Her voice is pure power and energy! There’s so much joy and pain and sorrow in the way she delivers her extraordinarily beautiful vocals! Her songs are brave and intimate and a direct conduit to her soul.”
Amy’s also a multi-instrumentalist. She has played the baritone saxophone since middle school. She also plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, ukulele, piano and keys.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Amy’s childhood was wrought with upheaval and isolation. Her mother, who struggled with alcoholism divorced her father when Amy was nine years old and then proceeded to marry and divorce three more times in the following nine years. Amy was bullied extensively when her family moved from Puerto Rico to Maine in the 5th grade. She was always small for her grade (only 4’11 and 85 pounds as a freshman in high school). Music was always a comfort during the hard times and once she started playing the saxophone, she found her place with the school band and her favorite teacher, Richard Orway.
She went to the University of Rochester for her Electrical Engineering degree. She started DJ’ing at the college radio station, WRUR in 1985 and met her now husband when they were paired to do a live show at a local dance club. She moved to San Diego in 1986 and focused on her career and raising two children, which left very little time for herself. Whenever she struggled with a particularly challenging parenting situation or sometimes just life, she would put the message, that helped her through, in a song. From 2015-2021 songwriting was sporadic (13 songs during that time) but an empowering part of Amy’s life. Now that her children are 25 and 23, she’s really enjoying the time to lean in to songwriting and she’s written more than 30 songs and collaborated on many more since June of 2023.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Amy has very strong spiritual beliefs and has learned a lot about psychology, coping with difficult people and situations and personal development. She enjoys crafting songs with stories from her personal experiences and beliefs to help people feel more empowered, uplifted and connected to possibility. One of Amy’s collaborators, Ted Molter, who is a lyricist and drummer, says “If you want to get to know Amy, just listen to her songs.”
Her songwriting process usually starts with the message of the song and then she’ll draft lyrics and a first pass at song structure. Next she likes to play with the type of song (ballad, driving rock, blues, jazz) that will best suit the message and journey of the song. Then she plays with a capella melody ideas and then adds chords and rhythm. She often crafts the songs on her own but also enjoys collaborating with local songwriting friends as well as friends all over the world through Sam de la Haye’s “Your Truth Amplified” online community, dedicated to singing, piano and songwriting. That community has members from Australia, all over the United States and Canada as well as Germany, France, England, Scotland and Ireland.
Amy can be found most Mondays at Writer’s Round San Diego at the Ould Sod, 3373 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116 from 6-9 pm. This group is run by local singer-songwriter, Lauren Leigh Martin. She loves the listening room with featured artists and especially the once-a-month prompt nights (last Monday of every month) where songwriters share new songs. It’s so fun to hear so many unique expressions of music for one prompt and Amy is endlessly fascinated with the creativity and beauty of the songwriters in this group.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Amy’s favorite books and apps for creativity and writing include:
1. Mary Gauthier’s Saved by a Song that shares how powerfully moving and healing song can be.
2. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic, which was so encouraging just to show up and trust in the process and in the muses. Gilbert encourages creatives to not be consumed by the worry about whether or not their work is good or bad, but rather to focus on creating something that resonates and speaks one’s truth.
3. Pat Pattinson’s Writing Better Lyrics and teaching object writing has been great at developing more imagery and relatability to lyrics.
4. Amy creates all of her charts with lyrics and chords in an app called Onsong, which is a great way to organize and keep track of the songs as well as easily edit, transpose or share them.
5. Google docs is great for developing lyrics especially when collaborating around the world.
6 The voice memo app on her iPhone is key for quickly developing and documenting her ideas.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.amybarnhart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amybarnhartmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553711043059
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AmyBarnhartMusic
- Other: https://linktr.ee/amybarnhartmusic
Image Credits
Jon Naugle took the photograph of Amy with the darker background and red liptick. All other photographs were taken by friends and family.
