There was a point during the covid pandemic when Amy Rigby considered moving back to the Pittsburgh area.
The singer-songwriter from Mt. Lebanon, who has lived in New York City, Nashville, France and upstate New York over the years, got to the point of checking out homes online with her husband Eric Goulden, who performs as Wreckless Eric.
“There was a moment where we were looking at houses online, and I went into this whole deep dive on the whole idea of the Pittsburgh potty,” she said with a laugh. “… I think I had been discovering this whole other part of town from where I grew up — and of course things change — and I felt like that it had become actually kind of a cool place.”
Ultimately, the couple settled on Goulden’s native England, but Rigby will be back in the Pittsburgh area for a show on Oct. 18 at Bantha Tea Bar in Garfield. (Although she was just back recently for her niece’s wedding, praising the return of direct flights from London to Pittsburgh.)
“I just would love to play for people in Pittsburgh. And it’s still very much part of who I am. It’s a little scary to go back to the place you came from. And my husband’s always like, ‘Why should they come to see you? You left,’” she said with a laugh. “‘Why should they celebrate you? You left them.’ And so I’m like, yeah, but I always come back. I always do like a chance to celebrate the Pittsburgh-ness.”
Having played venues like Club Cafe, Thunderbird Music Hall and City Books in the past, Rigby was intrigued by playing in a new location.
“To me, it’s like the closest to doing a house concert, which I actually do a lot of those,” she said.
Rigby, who gained critical acclaim with her 1996 album “Diary of a Mod Housewife,” released her 10th solo album, “Hang In There With Me,” on Aug. 30.
“I think it’s a pretty uplifting record. And I think it’s pretty rocking,” she said. “I think I’m pretty known for my lyrics. I feel proud of the songs on there. I think they’ve got really straightforward lyrics that people can relate to. Maybe it’s a bit about getting older and just kind of soldiering on through that. But I feel like in the end, it’s more a kind of uplifting experience than a downer.”
In a video call from her home in Norfolk, England, Rigby discussed her move across the Atlantic, several songs from the new album and what she’d tell her younger self:
How’s the transition to England been?
I’ve spent a lot of time here over the years and my husband’s British. Even since we got together, we’ve spent a lot of time touring in England and just being here. In some weird way, it feels like coming back home because when we first got together, that’s where Eric lived. He was living in England, kind of in this general area where we are now. And so, at the same time, other days, it’s completely overwhelming. And I’m like, oh my God, like I’m really, really far, far away from the U.S., from home. So it’s a mix. But I do like the weather here. I know people always talk about how bad the British weather is. But these days, I’m just tired of sweating in the summer. And it’s nice to not have to deal with this brutal heat. I have to say that was kind of a big attraction, and even the sun feels more mild. So to go out in the sun just doesn’t feel as punishing.
Was it difficult to pack up your life here and move across the world?
(Pans her camera to show moving boxes) Just look at them. This is my life right now. And that’s like every room in the house. When we first got together, we moved to rural France, not Paris, but like four hours from there, and lived there for five years. And then we moved from there to upstate New York. And today I was even unpacking boxes that we shipped from France to New York and never opened. And we decided this time, that cannot happen again. It either gets used or goes in the trash. Except we both have big archives of records that we’ve made, recordings that never came out, photos. So that’s different. So that’s what a lot of that is. And I recently read Barbara Streisand’s autobiography, 1,000 pages long. It was a really great book. But when she talked about having a whole building, a whole bunker that’s an archive just of her wardrobe alone, I felt like it’s OK if you have to have a storage space or an extra room in the house to hold all this stuff. It’s OK.
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On the new album, you address aging and mortality, but it didn’t seem to be dwelling on it in a negative way.
Yeah, I think my last studio album, “The Old Guys,” maybe, and I didn’t think that was a downer either. I made that in 2017. It came out in 2018. And I feel like I was more dreading all of this. I remember just this one period where David Bowie died, Prince died, Tom Petty died. And it was kind of like, all of that was a shock. And I think maybe now the shock’s become just much more acceptance like, this is gonna happen. Like Bob Dylan is gonna die. It’s almost like you should never — what did they say? — parents shouldn’t outlive their children, but it can’t be that way with our heroes. The chances are we are going to outlive them. And it’s hard, but I think you kind of just start rolling with it. And then with our family members and people who we actually really are close to, that’s gonna happen, too. And it’s a shock. Unpacking my stuff, I just found a note from a friend, Scott, who was such a huge fan, came to every show. He never owned a car. Living in upstate New York, it was like, how the hell did you get from Rome, New York, to Albany? And how do you get home at night? But he just was such a huge fan, he would find a way. He would sleep at the Greyhound bus station. I just found this note from him. And he died back in June and totally not expected, and I think when you go and play gigs and people aren’t there anymore that always were, that’s really hard. They just were the believers and so that starts to happen a lot more, I guess, but at the same time, you just think they’d like you to keep doing it. It means even that much more to keep going.
“Hell-Oh Sixty” seemed to address how quickly time flies. Do you think that’s the way you feel about that one?
I think when you’re in your 20s, 30s, even 40s, it doesn’t seem to be going as fast. But I think as the years add up, it just feels like it all starts running faster and faster together. But you’re accumulating all these experiences. And so maybe that’s called perspective in a way. But while you’re in each decade, that’s what you’re dealing with.
If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what would you tell your younger self?
I guess I’d probably say to have more confidence in myself, don’t doubt yourself. Things that I was working on that maybe I didn’t think were good enough, now when I go back and hear them, I’m like, I’m still essentially the same person, nothing’s really changed that much. How come I can do this now? But when I was in my 20s, I was afraid to get up on stage by myself. I always wanted to be in a band with other people. And I just felt too shy, I guess. So yeah, I think, just believe in yourself, in your own abilities more.
With “Too Old To Be So Crazy,” do you ever feel like you’re not acting your age?
(laughs) I hope I’m not, I don’t really want to be. I probably won’t ever really be able to retire. Sometimes I probably wish I could have a good long rest, and I don’t feel like I’ll ever get that. I don’t know. I see people going to shows that are getting into their seventies and I do think as time goes on, the definition of what it is to be old is expanding. You see Keith Richards rocking and just still kind of looking the same in a way — maybe don’t get too close — but when you see him, just like his essence feels the same in a way. But I think that song definitely came out of that feeling of like, oh my God, like, am I really going to try to put another record out? What does it even mean now? Just kind of having to go, well, this is what I do. And it was crazy then. It’s crazy now.
On “Requiem,” you ask, “Is it better to burn out or fall apart?” So what would you choose?
In a way, they almost seem like the same thing, but I guess burning out feels to me like the tail of a comet, like that you actually just keep going until you’re just out into the stratosphere and nobody can see you, but you kind of left this whole vapor trail. So I think that that would be the way.
Mike Palm is a TribLive digital producer who also writes music reviews and features. A Westmoreland County native, he joined the Trib in 2001, where he spent years on the sports copy desk, including serving as night sports editor. He has been with the multimedia staff since 2013. He can be reached at mpalm@triblive.com.
