Amelia White, Mary Battiata, Siobhán O'Brien - Nasty Women of Americana In The Round

The Road is a harsh mistress, and East Nashville's Amelia White knows that all too well. "Sleeplessness and miles pile on the soul. It can bring you down, or it can bring you 'round." she sings on "Rainbow Over the East Side", a standout track from her dark, moody new record, HOME SWEET HOTEL.

Like most all singer-songwriters, Amelia Travels to scratch out a living. The endless Parade of coffee houses, bars and house concerts can overshadow any attempts to have a life at home with somebody you love. That tension is at the heart of her new record, produced by Marco Giovino (Band of Joy, Buddy Miller), with appearances from a wealth of stellar players backing Amelia, including multi instrumentalists Sergio Webb (David Olney) on guitar, Sutart Mathis (Lucinda Williams) on guitar, Ron Eoff (The Band) on bass, Paul Gordon (the B52's) on keys and Julie Christensen (Leonard Cohen) adding some guest vocals.

HOME SWEET HOTEL comes on the heels of a string of well-regarded releases and song placements in television shows like Justified and Summerland. Journalist and Music City Roots host Craig Havighurst says Amelia comes from "that classic place between singer/songwriter, jangle pop and country that comes for the beating heart of the Americana format. Her voice is plaintive and real, and her songs each have some fascinating crystalline shape that invites close attention and touch."

"I started writing 'Home Sweet Hotel' in a Days Inn in Allentown, PA." she says, "I was thinking about how many people who don't do music are intrigued with the touring lifestyle of a musician. The road holds temptation and adventure and heartache all in one suitcase. It can be glamorous one day and down-right humiliating the next."

Seductive and smokey, dark and woody like a road stop in the midwest somewhere, HOME SWEET HOTEL bounces acoustic and electric guitars against backdrops by turns delicate or rocking, framing Amelia's voice and its quiet urgency, bearing traces of Amy Ray and early career Lucinda Williams. "Dangerous Angel" is taut with a subtle but undeniable sensual tension, while "dogs Bark" is a bluesy sardonic punch at people who talk too much about other people. "Rainbow Over the East Side" is a defiantly optimistic salute to her adopted home town of East Nashville.

"This new record," she says, "in a lot of ways is about love. It's almost equally split between aspects of how hard, weird, and sometimes beautiful the road is and how good it is to come home to your family feeling like you've accomplished something."

Amelia's previous album OLD POSTCARD was met with a slew of praise from outlets like USA Today, American Songwriter, the Bluegrass Situation and more. No Depression said, "if Lucinda ever fronted Fleetwood Mac, this might be the outcome," with the Bluegrass Situation adding that "I think we're entering a great new era of alternative country music. If you need an example, look no further than Amelia White."

Born in Virginia to two Virginians bred in Boston, Amelia graduated from staging plays in her back yard to writing songs as soon as she acquired an acoustic guitar. The writing came quickly and hasn't stopped since. ("I like to think of myself as a writer-song singer instead of singer-songwriter." she says.) She came up through the ranks of Boston's highly competitive coffeehouse scene and discovered how busking in the subway meant making just enough money to get by. Things reached a point as they usually do - when she sought a more conventional job and life, so she moved to Seattle, one of the worst possible destinations if one wants to quit music. A few gigs later, she had a production deal to make a record, and a couple of years after that, she made the move to Nashville, comfortable with the fact that she was a lifer now, and there was no going back. Amelia also recently signed a publishing/TV/Film Sync deal with the upstart Nashville company American Echo Records.

Writing all the time, Amelia has had nearly a dozen cuts and placements in television shows. And HOME SWEET HOTEL looks to be the release that puts things over the top. As she sings in "Leaving In My Blood", "I'm like a riddle riding in the wind, singing my songs for strangers every town I'm in."


Little Pink is the ongoing alt-country project of singer-songwriter Mary Battiata. Little Pink's first CD "Cul-de-sac Cowgirl" (Adult Swim/2001) was recorded at Arlington's Inner Ear Studio and at the vintage- analog Scary Clown studio in Bethesda, Md., and its 12 tracks were co-produced by Mary with songwriters Karl Straub (Graverobbers, Karl Straub Combo) and Philip Stevenson (Carnival of Souls, Quinine). It was released on Adult Swim, the Arlington, Va. label of Dischord co-founder and Minor Threat drummer Jeff Nelson. No Depression called the record "a roots-rock pageant that shines with scuffed sophistication," and the novelist (and music maven) George Pelecanos wrote, "Think Emmylou or early Dolly, mixed with Richard and Linda Thompson." (Poet and music writer Richard Peabody also heard "Fairport-era Richard and Linda Thompson" in the sound.) The recording won a Washington Area Music Award for Best Debut Recording and landed Mary on Harp Magazine's annual short list of "Songwriters You Should Hear."
The most recent Little Pink CDs, "Gladly Would We Anchor" (Night World) and the 2003 live EP "12 Birds" were produced by Philip, with Mary, at Scary Clown and include guitar work from Stevenson and L.A.'s Ben Peeler as well as D.C. roots and jazz scene standouts Eric Shramek (upright bass), Chris Watling (accordion and baritone sax) and John Gnorski (Ghost Shirt). The record was released on Stevenson's Night World Records label in 2007. The influential music blog Lucid Culture (NYC) named "Gladly" one of the top 50 records of the year, alongside new releases by Aimee Mann, Elvis Costello, Burning Spear and the Bedsit Poets. The famously tough-minded music critic and journalist John Conquest (3rd Coast Music) named Mary to his 2008 list of Best Songwriters and gave "Gladly" four out of five stars.


Siobhán O'Brien (born in Limerick, Ireland) is a singer-songwriter who performs with acoustic guitar and harmonica.

?Siobhán has performed for Bob Dylan, guest vocalist with The Chieftains at Boston Symphony Hall, guest vocalist with The San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Her third album 'Songs I Grew Up To' features Paddy Moloney (The Chieftains) on her versions of 'Long Black Veil" and "Lakes of Ponchartrain. O'Brien Headlined UK's only Bob Dylan Festival during the Leyenshulme Festival, South Manchester UK. 2013 she joined the lineup with Christy Moore, Declan Sinnott and some of the biggest names in the music business for a Benefit for Henry McCullough (McCartney & Wings Band),Vicar Street, Dublin Ireland Live on RTE Radio.She has supported such acts as Donovan, The Cranberries, Damien Dempsey, Sharon Shannon, Maria McKee, Mick Flannery and Paul Brady.

She comes from four generations in the music business and is the niece of Brendan Bowyer (The Royal Show band). She is the great granddaughter of Albert Bowyer of The Bowyer Westwood Opera Company of Blackpool, England. She made her first musical recording of a sea shanty at the age of six. Her solo work incorporates traditions of American song, including folk, blues, rock,country, English, Scottish and Irish traditional music.