Amy Crawford & The Electric

She's only been a songwriter for a year, but Amy has already created a catalog of songs that have been attracting the attention of critics and audiences from coast-to-coast. A former jazz pianist turned singer, Amy always had a love of classic American Song. After slugging it out in New York City jazz clubs for a few years, she decided to revisit the music of her childhood - The Beatles; Beach Boys; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Sly & The Family Stone; Rickie Lee Jones; and James Taylor, among others - and spent a summer writing madly in her unfurnished Brooklyn apartment.

Growing up in small-town coastal California meant spending days wandering the beach in search for the perfect piece of beach glass and getting lost in redwood forests. Her music career began as a jazz pianist, and by age 17 she was performing at the Monterey, Umbria, Vienne and Montreux Jazz Festivals with other young talents. A year of school spent in Los Angeles on an athletic scholarship led to involvement in the city's activist community on public health and environmental issues. Another three years of school on the East Coast found Amy performing and composing experimental music, which eventually brought her to New York City, where her cool voice evoked comparisons to Peggy Lee.

While in New York, Amy expanded her musical community to include filmmakers (see Lucas McNelly's "Gravida" [2007] featured in the NOW Film Festival) and choreographers. She is also the keyboardist and sometimes-vocalist for the rock band DeLeon (myspace.com/ilovedeleon). In 2007 she helped coach the Brooklyn Youth Chorus' performance at Elton John's sold out Madison Square Garden 60th Birthday Celebration and also helped the chorus prepare parts for a guest spot on Talib Kweli's new album, "Eardrum" and for Alicia Keys' appearance on a Sesame Street holiday special, among other events.

2008 has been a great year for Amy: she placed 3rd in the renowned Shure/Montreux Jazz Festival's international Jazz Vocal competition in Switzerland; spent time on the road opening sold-out shows for the Grammy-winnng band Ozomatli, Balkan Beat Box and Dengue Fever with DeLeon; recorded on DeLeon's self-titled record for the JDUB label; and is putting the finishing touches on her highly-anticipated EP with her band, Amy & The Electric. She is also a finalist in the 2008 Williamsburg Live Songwriter Competititon and will make her NY Songwriters Circle debut in December.

Her sound is undeniably catchy and upbeat, with a vintage sheen that makes Amy one of the freshest new songwriters on the scene.