This compilation actually began in a hotel room in Austin Texas, at South by Southwest in March of 2000. Sitting on a plastic chair, guitar in hand waiting for Launch.com to roll tape, I counting the complimentary Launch guitar picks I'd scooped from a glass goblet, absentmindedly dropping them from one hand into the other. 

That morning I'd been listening to American Music Club on my headphones as I drank styrofoam cup after cup of shitty Motel 6 coffee beside what must have been one of the most grotesquely dirty swimming pools in the free world. This - the music, not the pool, I mean - had me thinking once again of the Tribute Paradox. With all these 'songs of' cds out there, why had no one ever done one featuring AMC? Granted, not all AMC fans are as skewed as myself (would you like to see my AMC live tape collection? Of course you would...) But it would be so great. 

A few hours later in that room draped with the bluescreen used by digital video folk, I looked up from my guitar and there was Mark Eitzel. Had he come in to hear us play? Well, no... as Neal from Launch took relish in informing me later, he came into the suite looking for gratis refreshments. But it was a sign of sorts or so I chose to believe. If no one else was going to do an American Music Club tribute...

Fast slightly forward to September 2000; a wish list of participants is, amazingly enough, represented on the record largely as I'd envisioned. The casually sublime harmonies of Ida. The stealth guitar and vocal swagger of Steve Wynn, here in spades in a song about his own former stomping ground, Los Angeles. Nashville's Lambchop, running AMC's "Why Won't You Stay" through that unmistakeable hangnailed, hayseed soul blender. And Jenny Toomey and Amy Domnigues' "Last Harbor" is possibly even bleaker than the original, a song of unflinching honesty that they met head on (could someone in the DC area look in on them?). And that understated nylon string, scorched earth sway of Calexico on the gorgeous "Chanel #5". Etc. Etc.

Of course, a couple got away. Although he even sang a goddam song about listening to AMC's "Johnny Mathis' Feet" on a Scud Mountain Boys release, I was stonewalled by Joe Pernice's management and never even got to ask him. And a certain popular singer/songwriter (whom I greatly admire and therefore will go nameless here so that this particular folly will not cause her any more anguish than it already must), turned down participation flat, because she "really just wished people would buy the original records".
Uhhh... well, me too. That's the goddam *point*. We can either moan about it or take a flying leap at doing something about it. Thirdly, Marcy Mays of Scrawl would have been a great addition, had not phone tag and ultimately time constraint reared their collective ugly head. I still wonder what song she would have chosen. Damn.

Paula Frazer, Chris and Carla of the Walkabouts, Dakota Suite - all said yes in a heartbeat. Many folks don't listen to compilations too often, which is understandable; many of them suck. Those billing themselves as "samplers" are one thing, and are often the best way to check new stuff out given the sorry ass state of radio these years. Compilations taking a shot at being a cohesive package that people actually want to listen to from beginning to end tread more tenuous terrain. It was only the participants love of AMC (and in some cases some repeated, wildly melodramatic assurances that *this* one would be *different*) that got them to choose a song and push that record button. Only heard a couple folks say "well, who else is on it?", an understandable but quasi-deflating initial response to receive. More exciting were replies like Jenny Toomey's. After I wrote to her and described the idea, I got an immediate reply, all of one sentence long - "I'd do it in a minute."

American Music Club has influenced and inspired countless bands and songwriters, and the opportunity to toss the AMC shingle back into the limelight (well, relatively speaking, of course) was exciting to everyone. More than one participant who has enjoyed popularity and critical success themselves sounded a tad weak-kneed at the prospect of covering American Music Club. God bless 'em, they did it anyway. 

If this compilation leads fans of the participating bands to discover the American Music Club records, that's great. And if AMC fans who hear it decide they then want to check out Vera Clouzot or Matt Ward or Jenny Toomey's Tsunami, that's great too. And if all that happens is a few people find this record, bring it home, and it changes everything the way everything changed for me after seeing American Music Club live for the first time... 

Okay no more of this windbag shit so let's wrap it. Here are 12 great songs, recorded by AMC fans for AMC fans. Your comments, criticism, reviews, thoughts and anything else listening to this record might conjure up are most welcome. If you've gotten this far, you're one of the people this whole thing was for. Hope you like it.

- Paul A. / Big Night
September 2000