Lyrically Speaking features Grammy Award-winner Aimee Mann
Acclaimed Singer/Songwriter is 2nd Artist in Aspen Writers’ Foundation’s Interview/Concert Series

(July 20, 2006) Aspen, CO … The Aspen Writers’ Foundation (AWF) is honored to showcase Oscar-nominated and Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Aimee Mann in the literary organization’s next Lyrically Speaking event, to be held Friday, August 4th at the Belly Up nightclub in Aspen. Mann is the second recording artist to participate in the recently launched interview/concert series featuring songwriters who discuss their work and their creative process between performing songs.

“Aimee Mann is exactly the kind of songwriter we had in mind when we conceived the program,” says AWF executive director Lisa Consiglio, who along with Aspen writer and music journalist Daniel Shaw co-founded Lyrically Speaking. “She’s passionate, articulate and has a lot to say about the human condition.”

Mann struck gold and stuck in the public consciousness in the mid-1980s with her Boston-based band
‘Til Tuesday, when she wrote the MTV mega-hit “Voices Carry.” Like all of Mann’s songs, “Voices Carry” has a literary quality: It is a sharp, spare short story set to music.

Her fifth and latest solo album, The Forgotten Arm, is a concept album that has been called the equivalent of a novella. A dozen songs loosely knit together tell the story of a drug-addicted Vietnam veteran and boxer who falls in love with a woman trying to escape a dead-end existence while they embark on a cross-country road trip. Mann’s musical influences are evident on this album: The Band, Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection, Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story and even Mott the Hoople.

In the end, The Forgotten Arm is, like so much of Mann’s music, about the inexorable pull of co-dependency in human relationships. “The King of the Jailhouse / and the Queen of the Road,” she sings on one song, “think sharing the burden will lighten the load / so they pack up their troubles in an old Cadillac / that's her in the mirror, asleep in the back.”

Mann has long enjoyed critical acclaim and a fiercely loyal following, but it wasn’t until 1999 that she burst head-on into the mainstream as a solo artist when she penned the entire soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film, “Magnolia.” Anderson wrote in the album’s liner notes that the film, for which he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, was essentially an interpretation of Mann’s lyrics. The album earned her Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for Best Original Song “Save Me.”

At the Belly Up, Mann will perform songs from throughout her career, interwoven with a songwriting-focused interview conducted by American Songwriter magazine senior editor Paul Zollo. Zollo is an author, songwriter, photographer, and music journalist. Conversations with Tom Petty is his newest book, featuring interviews he conducted between 2004 and 2005 that focus on the music and life of this legendary artist. His best-known work is Songwriters on Songwriting, a voluminous collection of 62 interviews with the world's greatest songwriters, including Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, Townes Van Zandt, Madonna, MeShell NdegeOcello, Lou Reed, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson, and scores of others.

Doors are at 6 pm and the show begins at 7 pm. Belly Up is located at 450 South Galena Street.

General admission tickets are $25; discounted tickets for students, educators and hospitality cardholders are available for $15 (purchased at the box office, with I.D.); and VIP/reserved seating tickets are $35. Tickets are available at www.bellyupaspen.com and at the box office.

Lyrically Speaking is sponsored by Belly Up, American Songwriter magazine, and Daniel and Isa Catto Shaw.

The Aspen Writers’ Foundation, Colorado's oldest non-profit literary organization, has been bringing readers and writers together since 1976. The organization’s mission is to provide programs that encourage writers in their craft and readers in their appreciation of literature. Through its repertoire of eight year-round programs, the Aspen Writers' Foundation serves 17,000+ literary enthusiasts of all ages annually. More information is available at 970.925.3122 and www.aspenwriters.org.

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