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Praise for Steve's CD:
"...full of strange-yet-rewarding twists and surprises.
..It's a goofy treat that will leave you hungry for a second
helping." (more)
--Port Huron Herald Tribune 12/16/05
"Steve Amick's Words Shine on New CD **** Amick knows how
to choose the best ingredients when he decides to whip up a
'Pie' such as this... 'Pie,' sliced into 12 tasty tracks, proves
that dessert can be a nourishing meal all by itself." (more)
--Ann Arbor News 1/21/06
"I guess I have to be doing all these things," says
Steve, referring to his interest in music as well as other aspects
of the arts. (That's his own drawing of the town of Weneshkeen
you see as the cover illustration of his debut
novel.) "Even the ones I don't do as well. They seem
to sort of fuel each other, spur them on, keep the energy going
There's
a fine line between Renaissance man and scatterbrain. And I
think we all recognize which side of that line I'm tilting toward."
From high school through college and even up into grad school,
when he was supposed to be focused full time on working to deserve
his fellowships, Steve played in bands with names like The Angry
Neighbors, The Big Garage and Steve Amick & His Own Worst
Enemies.
Back
when he was giving music an equal balance with his writing,
there was a 45 single, some college airplay and a nice review
in The Washington Post, calling him "a cheerful black
humorist who is seriously askew." He couldn't help noticing
that that could have just as easily been said about his fictionand
writing fiction didn't involve lugging a Fender Twin and a P.A.
up and down apartment stairs at two in the morning.
He stopped playing out, and though the songwriting continued
shifting slightly, infused with the mellowing that comes with
both age and the lower volume of an acoustic guitarit
was, for years, for private consumption only.
That began to change when he moved back to his hometown
of Ann Arbor in the late 90s. Soon, he was a townie again in
a great community of artists and musicians, and so monkeying
with music again, on some level, became unavoidable as a source
of social interaction. And with that came an unexpected thing:
encouragement from a few well-respected musician friends. Now,
he dabbles, continuing to write his original "goofy-sweet" songs,
sit in with pals for a song or two, provide the occasional opening
act or fills out a bill for the odd charity event. Public performance
is a rarer thing these days, but now, he says, it's fun.
"I can swing opening act these days," he says. "Maybe.
That's just about enough for everyone. I'm just not a headliner
guy, I now see. Along about the second set or so, they start
to harbor outrageous expectations like wanting you to sing well
or to play more than a few chords per song, and anyway, I've
got stories that need writing."
Still, it is fun. And definitely not your average fare.
Click on the links above for information about Steve's
new CD, There's Always Pie... and to listen to tracks
from the jukebox in the Wobbly Moose in Weneshkeen,
Michigan.
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