Amy Honey

"One thing I am sure of, and have no delusions about, is Amy Honey’s music. Her latest CD, Pioneer Woman, is aptly named. Amy has the true spirit of a pioneer in both her music and approach to life. No frills, yet full of the beauty, joy and heartache that are so easily hidden by all the glitzy trappings of modern day life. She sings of the things close to her heart, and after listening to Pioneer Woman I feel like I know her in a way I know very few people. She opens up her soul to those of us that take the time to sit a spell and listen to what she has to say. Whether she’s singing of sadness or joy, life or death, Amy finds a way to reach the depths of our hearts with her music."

Anne Murphy - Subter.com

With still over a month to go before the official release, Pioneer Woman debuted in the #1 spot on the weekly charts of CiTR 101.9FM in Vancouver, BC for the week of April 17, 2007. - Earshot Campus Radio Charts

Amy Honey is an artist and music represents only one brilliant note in her creative range. Photography is another; her photographs are bold in their use of contrast, just like her music. Finding beauty between the stark and sublime images, sounds and influences she fits together like Lego, Honey builds metal on melancholy. Recklessly soulful, the prowess of this pioneer woman is undeniable. From bands Clover Honey to the Nervous Breakdown to her second solo record following 2003's self-titled release, this is the land of Amy Honey. She has palate endowed with wide musical taste and a gift for aesthetic transcendence, style and grace. Her pop sensitivity is as keen as her ability to rock is hard and her love of tradition is true. The Victoria/Vancouver artist can't help but kick hipster ass and make it better.
-Travis Richie - Exclaim Magazine

"Amy Honey's first solo disc is as homey and inviting as a thrift shop from which none of the good stuff has been taken yet." - The Globe and Mail

"Honey, formerly of alt-rockers Clover Honey, is a clever charmer with an endearingly laid-back vocal delivery and a knack for genre fusion and neat hooks, and this self-titled disc is a thrilling hayride of gentle country twang, punk rock punchiness and witty lyrical twists that doesn't stop till you're drinkin' whiskey long after sunset."
- Now Magazine

"Was she funny or off her meds? By the time she kicked out the hilarious “Sabbath!�, she had won everyone over. If you’re at all curious about what Tony Iommi would sound like if he had grown up in the Ozarks, catch Honey’s next show and request this song." - The Georgia Straight

"Honeys debut is one of those difficult to pigeonhole efforts that defies even the most jaded music fans attempts to slap a label on it. She can belt out an upbeat country song one minute, a metal track the next followed by a synth pop tune - often in the course of one song." - sceneandheard.ca

Now that Neko Case is off making her own creepy brand of high lonesome noir, VanCity wailer Amy Honey could easily step up to play co-Corn Sister to kooky country soulmate Carolyn Mark (who delivers fine backing vocals and saloon-style piano on Pioneer Woman).

Like Mark, Honey has a tendency to write oddball pop pastiches of trashy country tunes, documenting the colourful characters who populate her urban hinterland with the warped humour of that brash regular who goads you to make it to last call at your local.

She's strongest when she reins things in, though, and there are affecting themes of Canuck survivalism, isolation, the inevitability of death and heartbreak. Lily My Deer's derelict mother and the beat-driven ode to Lost In The Barrens author Farley Mowat showcase Honey at her best.

Rating: NNN

Sarah Liss
NOW | JUNE 7 - 13, 2007 | VOL. 26 NO. 40 - Now Magazine