Amy Hindman to Release Third CD: In My
Waking Dream
Amy moved to La Conner in 1979, several years after she graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane. Her college buddy, Suzi, was living in Seattle, and wanted to check out a restaurant for sale in the area. They were both fans of Tom Robbins, local author, and after reading Another Roadside Attraction and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, two of Amy’s favorite Robbins’ books, Amy said, “yeah . . . let’s go check out La Conner and see what it’s like.” She swears she was NOT stalking Tom Robbins, although she did meet him at a book signing years later, and got an autographed copy of Still Life with Woodpecker.
When she got to the lazy, quiet town of La Conner in mid-January, standing in the middle of First Street, she pronounced “I’m moving here.” Suzi said, “what, are you nuts? What are you gonna do?”
“I’m gonna sing.”
Amy says of that time: “I was so drawn to La Conner and really felt I was home. I had a house to move into in March of that year.” (Incidentally, in 1979, La Conner’s police cars were Le Car’s!!)
La Conner's Mayor today, Ramon
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Amy looked a little like this when she moved to La Conner in 1979 :)
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She had graduated from Whitworth College with a BA in English and a minor in “The American Experience”, a study of sociology, philosophy and history, as well as a secondary teaching degree. In 1975, there were tons of English majors entering the teaching field, and Amy had an interview to teach English in the very small community of Prosser, Washington, where there were 400 applicants for one job! She was one of 4 interviewed, and didn’t get the job. The retiring teacher was very disappointed that Amy had not been hired to take his position. Amy was a little disappointed, and also relieved, as this gave her a clear sign to return to Spokane and pursue her music and other passions.
As a 28 year old, she had worked in group homes with adolescent teens, adult drug rehabilitation homes, bookstores, racket clubs, and as a Campfire Girl counselor, and eventually as a Child Development Counselor, working in Skagit County, with children who had been abused or neglected, or had suffered some major loss in their lives, causing them to act out behaviorally.
When asked if she, in her early career, wrote her own songs, she nonchalantly said “no”, and never had tried or pushed herself to do so. She had been singing songs of her favorite musicians at the time: Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, The Eagles, and many more.
“When I moved to La Conner, I had written one song. Songs started flowing through me when I lived on the Skagit Bay, on Pull & Be Damned Road, outside of La Conner in 1979-1980.” She wrote a song at that time called “Puget Symphony”, entered it in a regional songwriting contest, and it took First Place. That song and two other recent award winners will be on the new CD. The other two songs won awards in a Worldwide Songwriting Competition, entitled “Song of the Year”. She received “Honorable Mention” for her song “Gandhi and King: Becoming the Dream”: the judges included Paul McCartney, Sting, Rihanna, and many other music industry professionals. Then, last week, Amy was informed that another winner was “Seattle Blues / Island Hues”, which took a SEMI-FINALIST placement.
When she released her 1st Album, back in 1992, she received a phone call from Dorothy Ives, who had heard her original music on “Beneath the Surface”: she invited her to sing with the infamous Burl Ives. Dorothy said “Your voice is beautiful! Would you like to sing with Burl?” Dorothy did not know that the invitation came on Amy’s 40th birthday, while living in her log cabin on Guemes Island, her home for 6 years.
Singing with Burl Ives and Company “On the Old Front Porch” has been one of the highlights of her life, she says. The two concerts were at Skagit Valley
College in 1993, with an audience of 2000 people, a Benefit for the Skagit Enhancement Foundation, and Amy sang a solo for each concert, one of the songs being “Puget Symphony”. Randy Sparks, who started the “The New Christy Minstrels”, and a prolific songwriter, who wrote “Today”, was part of the concert. All of the musicians sang with Burl. Angie Dickinson was the MC, and she introduced Amy to the audience for her performance of “Puget Symphony”. After the concert, Randy said “do you wanna know what Burl said about you?” I said “maybe”. Burl whispered to Randy during Amy’s performance, “Her voice is so clear; she sounds like a piccolo”. This was Burl Ives last performance.
Amy’s music is not only rich with her experience of the Skagit Valley, but of her very unique childhood, growing up in Iowa, Korea, Texas, Thailand, and Colorado, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and Naval Chaplain / Captain (before her birth). Her father was in the Navy on a ship during World War II, knew what it was like to be away from home in a time of war, and had the desire and passion to move to Korea, to create a ministry to servicemen overseas, with his wife, Bertha. The Hindman family lived in Seoul, Korea for three years when Amy was 5, with her 3 older brothers and sisters, and they all attended Seoul Foreign School. The eldest sister, Carolyn, went to college in Japan for a year.
When asked if she, in her early career, wrote her own songs, she nonchalantly said “no”, and never had tried or pushed herself to do so. She had been singing songs of her favorite musicians at the time: Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, The Eagles, and many more.
“When I moved to La Conner, I had written one song. Songs started flowing through me when I lived on the Skagit Bay, on Pull & Be Damned Road, outside of La Conner in 1979-1980.” She wrote a song at that time called “Puget Symphony”, entered it in a regional songwriting contest, and it took First Place. That song and two other recent award winners will be on the new CD. The other two songs won awards in a Worldwide Songwriting Competition, entitled “Song of the Year”. She received “Honorable Mention” for her song “Gandhi and King: Becoming the Dream”: the judges included Paul McCartney, Sting, Rihanna, and many other music industry professionals. Then, last week, Amy was informed that another winner was “Seattle Blues / Island Hues”, which took a SEMI-FINALIST placement.
When she released her 1st Album, back in 1992, she received a phone call from Dorothy Ives, who had heard her original music on “Beneath the Surface”: she invited her to sing with the infamous Burl Ives. Dorothy said “Your voice is beautiful! Would you like to sing with Burl?” Dorothy did not know that the invitation came on Amy’s 40th birthday, while living in her log cabin on Guemes Island, her home for 6 years.
Singing with Burl Ives and Company “On the Old Front Porch” has been one of the highlights of her life, she says. The two concerts were at Skagit Valley
College in 1993, with an audience of 2000 people, a Benefit for the Skagit Enhancement Foundation, and Amy sang a solo for each concert, one of the songs being “Puget Symphony”. Randy Sparks, who started the “The New Christy Minstrels”, and a prolific songwriter, who wrote “Today”, was part of the concert. All of the musicians sang with Burl. Angie Dickinson was the MC, and she introduced Amy to the audience for her performance of “Puget Symphony”. After the concert, Randy said “do you wanna know what Burl said about you?” I said “maybe”. Burl whispered to Randy during Amy’s performance, “Her voice is so clear; she sounds like a piccolo”. This was Burl Ives last performance.
Amy’s music is not only rich with her experience of the Skagit Valley, but of her very unique childhood, growing up in Iowa, Korea, Texas, Thailand, and Colorado, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and Naval Chaplain / Captain (before her birth). Her father was in the Navy on a ship during World War II, knew what it was like to be away from home in a time of war, and had the desire and passion to move to Korea, to create a ministry to servicemen overseas, with his wife, Bertha. The Hindman family lived in Seoul, Korea for three years when Amy was 5, with her 3 older brothers and sisters, and they all attended Seoul Foreign School. The eldest sister, Carolyn, went to college in Japan for a year.