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The folk world has many fine musicians and singer-songwriters so I would like to give a shout out to a few. I thought I would start close to home with a fellow singer-songwriter that I have met a few times, Welsh born Amy Goddard who lives in Portsmouth.
We first met about seven years ago at the Woolston & Bursledon Folk Club near Southampton. She had a gentle, light voice which suited her well crafted songs. She also made guitars, and I think she may well have played one of her creations that evening. It was around the time that she released her first album, Burn and Glow, which my husband Steve bought, and I listened to it with interest. We saw her and her husband at the folk club on a few occasions after that, and her parents also came once or twice. I learned then that the family were from South Wales, not far from the Rhondda Valley where my mother grew up.
I was a little envious when I heard that Amy was performing at the Beggars’ Fair and then Wickham Festival. She seemed to be a few steps ahead of me in promoting her music. I saw her perform at Wickham – she had a friend on stage with her to sing harmonies and seemed more confident in her delivery. I recognised a few of the songs from Burn and Glow such as “Taking the edge off the day” and “Make you whole”.
Just over a year later I discovered that we were both on the same online musicians’ course. I made a point of following her progress, and this then turned to my advantage. I received a message from her about a radio show on a station based in Hampshire that was featuring her music and she recommended the show to me for submitting my music. The show was Brian Player’s Acoustic Café Radio Show on Wey Valley Radio. It turned out to be a good recommendation as I have since had a number of my songs played on the show, but Brian Player once commented that Amy was the most featured artist on the show!
Amy’s next project was an EP of mining songs, Down in the Mine. I was impressed with the songs, particularly the haunting “Remembering Aberfan”. Written from the point of view of the mother of one of the children who died in the disaster, this song won the award of FATEA Song of the Year in 2016. From reading Amy’s online biography I learned that she had been influenced by Simon & Garfunkel, a duo that I often listened to in my early teens.
There was further recognition in 2020 when her 2019 album Always a Dreamer (a tribute to John Stewart) was number 2 in the critics’ choice as album of the year in Country Music People, ahead of top artists like Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton. It was also nominated for best album of the year in the 2020 Folking Awards. It is success that is well-deserved, from seeing some of the work she put in along the way.
As well as being a singer-songwriter and luthier, Amy teaches music and paints. She went back to painting, a love from her late teens, during lockdown and now sells her art work along with her music on her website at https://www.amygoddardmusic.co.uk/