Actress mother, Priscilla Pointer featured on the album cover smudging makeup on a 2 ½ year old Amy (Album art by Taylor Rushing)
From Broadway stages to film, Academy Award-nominated actress Amy Irving (Yentl, Crossing Delancey) grew up backstage and on-set with her director father, Jules Irving, and actress mother, Priscilla Pointer (featured on the album cover smudging makeup on a 2 ½ year old Amy). She first garnered attention as an actress for her roles in Brian DePalma’s early films Carrie and The Fury. She went on to starring roles in Voices, Honeysuckle Rose, The Competition and Micki and Maude.
She now shifts into the world of music with her first studio album, BORN IN A TRUNK, featuring ten cover songs pulled from her life and career, set for an April 7th 2023 release on all digital platforms. Today, Amy releases her first single off the album, “Why Don’t You Do Right,“ which Amy explains: I am the singing voice of Jessica Rabbit from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Jules David Bartkowski (AKA GOOLIS) did a wonderful, very different arrangement for it…., as he did on all the songs.
Beyond BORN IN A TRUNK featuring songs like “Why Don’t You Do Right” there’s the Pino Donaggio track “I Never Dreamed” (from her feature film debut, Carrie) which has also been expertly arranged by Jules David Bartkowski (aka Goolis) to meld into a cohesive story-telling album. A big fan of these arrangements is Willie Nelson who heard the version of his song “I’m Waiting Forever” (reimagined as a galloping calypso) and asked that he be featured with his harmonies on the track with Amy. Goolis also lends his voice on the tracks “Children’s Song” (a Jimmy Webb song from the movie Voices (1987) updated to the style of a New Orleans second-line band) and “How Insensitive” (the Tom Jobim song featuring horns from former Lounge Lizard Roy Nathanson on saxophone). A hidden gem on the record is her song for her husband Ken Bowser, a sparse horn and percussion led cover of Death Cab For Cutie’s “I’ll Follow You Into The Dark.”
Born of a want to tell her own story, as well as her son (and music manager) Gabriel Barreto’s encouragement, Amy endeavored to choose the songs that could best tell the story of her life. When thinking about who could pull all of these disparate songs together, Gabriel recommended his client, the genre-bending Goolis (aka Jules Bartkowski) as someone who could help cohere these songs through orchestration. Amy explains to Hollywood Reporter, “Singing makes me happy. I grew up acting in Children’s Theatre musicals at my father’s company The Actor’s Workshop in San Francisco.
It was the family business. I considered myself an actor who could carry a tune, not a singer. My youngest son music manager Gabriel Barreto turned me on to a terrific band he represents. GOOLIS. He convinced me to cut an album with them. It was so thrilling to step into another world. Jules David Bartkowski, aka Goolis, did all the arrangements for the songs I chose from my life’s work, liaisons, marriages, and family. I love what he did with the songs. We made the album, then covid hit. I spent two years working with Celeste Simone, an amazing vocal coach, who taught me how to get up on the stage and sing the songs for the launch. My husband Ken Bowser helped me write intros to the songs. This is my story. It’s been quite a ride. And thanks to Gabe, and Jules, and Ken, (and our 2 dogs), the ride continues.”
As things coalesced over the winter of 2018, Amy and Goolis (Jules and 8 other band members) went into the studio and began laying down initial tracks. Unlike many records, this was tracked live, with the band playing in unison and Amy recording vocals in her booth, in full view. This was in an attempt to capture the excitement Amy felt when she first saw Goolis perform live, and share that excitement with the world through her songs.
After recording, mixing and tinkering and a few guest appearances at Goolis shows later, Amy was ready to release, and she and her team began that search for a home… This was at the end of 2019.
As most stories go as of late, there was a delay, a global one. Amy spent the two years of quarantine at her home training her voice with vocal coach Celeste Simone and living day in and day out with not just her wonderful husband and their two dogs, but also with the mixes she had available to her. She kept training her voice and requested instrumentals around 2021, and lived another year with those, singing almost daily.
With a new confidence to her voice, as well as updated vocal tracks and mixes, Amy is now taking her story to the stage, with Goolis in tow, and releasing her album to the world. In the live show of BORN IN A TRUNK, the songs are broken up by memoir monologues, weaving the songs together in the flow of the show with stories of her past loves, work, and family. She tells the story behind how she came to be the vocalist for Jessica Rabbit’s introductory song, how Willie Nelson came to write a tune for her, how Hollywood came for her father, and how sometimes through it all, you find a love that even death won’t part.
TRACK LISTING
- Why Don’t You Do Right — Reference Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) – Joe McCoy Cover
- Children’s Song (feat. Goolis) — Reference Voices (1979) – Jimmy Webb Cover
- People Alone — Reference The Competition (1980) – Lalo Schifrin Cover
- I’m Waiting Forever (feat. Willie Nelson) – Reference Honeysuckle Rose (1979) – Willie Nelson Cover
- How Insensitive (feat. Goolis) – Reference Bossa Nova (2000) – Tom Jobim Cover
- Queen Of The Castle – Reference Rumplestiltskin (1987) – only Amy’s ever sung this song by Max Roberts
- Old Boyfriends – Reference Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass (1994) – Tom Waits Cover
- I Will Follow You Into The Dark – Death Cab for Cutie Cover
- I Never Dreamed Someone Like You – Reference Carrie (1976) – Pino Donaggio/Katie Irving Cover
- Errol Flynn – Amanda McBroom Cover
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