Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Amy Farris, RIP


Any of us who saw Dave Alvin touring this summer with his Guilty Women tour were likely as impressed by the band as we were by Dave.

Sad news today, then, that fiddler, songwriter and wonderful musician Amy Farris has died. I met her in Los Angeles at a gig with I See Hawks In LA, and she was as charming and nice as she was musically talented.

Here's what her family posted on FB:

AMY FARRIS (violin, viola and harmony vocals for Dave Alvin & The Guilty
Women) passed away Saturday, Sept 26th after battling a long illness. A native
of Austin, Texas, Amy started playing violin at age ten. She is a vet of the
Austin music scene, playing with artists such as Ray Price, Alejandro
Escovedo, Kelly Willis, Bruce Robison and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Amy moved to
Los Angeles when Dave offered to produce her first solo CD Anyway, released
by Yep Roc in 2004. Along with Dave Alvin and Kelly Willis, Miss Farris has
also performed and/or recorded with Brian Wilson, John Doe, Exene Cervenka,
Stan Ridgway, Greg Dulli, Peter Case, and many others.

In leui of flowers, the family encourages you to send a donation in her
honor to Hungry For Music, Inc, a nonprofit effort to provide free musical
instruments to underprivileged children with a hunger to play.

www.hungryformusic.org

Or send checks to:
Hungry for Music
6 Grant Ave. Suite 3
Takoma Park, MD 20912

1 comment:

Susan said...

I'm sad to read this. I didn't take the opportunity to see Dave and the Women this summer (and kicked myself afterwards), but much enjoyed Amy's contribution to the CD.

Hungry for Music, BTW, is a long-standing organization which does good work. One of the ways they gather money is to produce CDs -- there are 8 or so Christmas-themed albums (not your regular run-o-the-mill songs, believe me), a couple for Chanukah, and a few about baseball.