biography
written by
Rob
SImbeck
AMY SCRUGGS
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>She is one of country music's walking miracles. Amy
Scruggs has long
been recognized by those who know her as a force of
nature, "an upbeat
tornado with energy and focus like no one you've ever met,"
as one
friend puts it. It's a quality that brought her, three years ago,
to the
brink of national attention in Nashville. Now, having come
through surgery
her doctors said she wouldn't survive, Amy is back,
resuming the
career fate nearly stole away and taking her place again as
one of the
genre's most promising singers.
>"I feel stronger, wiser, and more ready than ever," says the
strikingly attractive singer with the passionate musical style.
"It's so good to
be back making music with people who believe in me."
>Those people include some of Nashville's most talented
and experienced
pros. For her upcoming album, California Country, Amy is
working with
producer Chip Martin, who has written for Mark Wills and
Billy Dean and
who is currently working with Kyle Lehning, a producer
whose credits
inclulde Randy Travis, Bryan White and Highway 101.
Among the
songwriters whose work Amy will feature on the project are
R. L. Castleman, who
wrote the Grammy-nominated "Like Red On A Rose" for
Alan Jackson; James
Dean Hicks, writer of hits for Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis
and Conway
Twitty; and Dillon Dixon, who has written for George Jones,
Steve Holy
and a number of movie soundtracks.
> It is an exhilarating workload
for a woman whose every breath is nothing short of a
miracle. Three years
ago, Amy had been in the studio finishing a project with
some of
Nashville's best before health complications from a
high-risk pregnancy
sidelined her completely.
>"I would just watch CMT and cry," she says of the period.
After giving
birth to her daughter and regaining her health, she began
work on a
new project with Billy Strange, a legendary singer,
songwriter, and
guitarist whose resume includes work with Elvis Presley,
the Beach Boys,
Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson. Then, after becoming ill
while on vacation
in the fall of 2006, she learned she had tumors and residual
damage
from her pregnancies that would require life-threatening
surgery.
>"They told me to get my affairs in order," she says. "I drew
up a
living trust and got ready for the surgery."
>Amy did pull through, and after a long, slow recovery,
regained her
health completely.
>"It was a miracle," she says. "It's so good, after all I've been
through, to go to a photo shoot and feel good and feel sexy
and feel like a
woman again. Everything I went through was very
empowering for me."
>She re-entered the studio for California Country with a new
outlook.
>"I'm not afraid," she says. "After facing that surgery, not
knowing if
I was going to come out the other side of that operating
room, anything
else pales in comparison."
>All she's been through just reinforces the positive energy
she's
always brought to life. She first sang with a children's choir
before 10,000
people at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds when she
was just three,
and though she had training in both piano and voice that
could have
carried her in any direction, her heart was rooted firmly in the
classic
country she and her father listened to when she was a
girl--to this day,
she is a walking country music encyclopedia.
>As she began performing publicly more and more and
dreaming of
Nashville, though, her fledgling career was interrupted by
the birth of her
first son when she was 18, and her subsequent marriage
and two more sons.
>"For the longest time," she says, "I literally had to turn that
dream
off." She became a stay-at-home mom and channeled her
musical talent
and drive into leading her church group, a large
contemporary band that
provided musical ministry for a congregation of thousands.
>"That always challenged my vocal and musical abilities,
and kept my
passion for music going," she says.
>Through a divorce and her successful entry into the
business world,
she kept her artistic vision afloat by joining a regional
country band,
singing at fairs and community events for outdoor crowds
that eventually
grew to 5,000 or so. Such was her born ability as a
multi-tasker that
she could sometimes be seen handing ice cream money to
her kids as she
closed a deal on her cell phone behind the drum riser
before walking
out to start the show.
>She began dreaming of Nashville, and during a trip there
she met an
independent songplugger who helped introduce her to the
city's writers,
producers and executives. That kicked off the process that
brought her
so far just before her health problems began.
>Back in the studio now, she is intent on capturing on tape
the sheer
compelling energy she carries to the stage and into her
everyday life.
>"My first passion is that live audience," she says. "It's what I
know.
It's who I am. By the time a show is over, people from the
front row
to the back know me really well. I put everything I have into
connecting
with them, and it translates into fun for both of us."
>To see her on stage is to see a woman consumed with
music, someone
whose life and art are infused with passion and joy that
grow out of an
indomitable spirit. She is, above all, a fiery performer who
conveys the
realities of the human condition, its joys and sorrows, in a
way that
links her unforgettably with her audience's hearts and spirits.
>Amy Scruggs is also a woman who knows the power of
hope, the pain of
self-renewal, and the way that music can help feed both.
>"I know what it's like to struggle for identity and to try to live a
dream, and I try wiith my life and my music to let people
know that I
understand," she says. "And so I find that I'm able to relate
both to
moms and to their teenaged girls in my audiences. There's
a connection
there that transcends generations."
>It is a connection destined to allow Amy to finally live her
dream of
taking her music to country audiences everywhere.
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About Amy

A%20Scruggs
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My Life Verse:
"Being confident in this,
that He who began a good
work in you will carry it on
to completion until the day
of Christ Jesus"....
Philippians 1:6