New York City-based alt indie-folk singer-songwriter Amy Jay is set to make her first appearance in Chattanooga with a performance at Yellow Racket Records on Monday, September 8th, at 7 p.m.
The stop accompanies a tour across the South promoting her new album, Mnemonics, set to release on November 7th of this year.
Since her debut album, Awake Sleeper, Amy has been crafting a vulnerability and intimacy in her lyricism and melodies, which is at times haunting and introspective. Her music feels like a mix of Big Thief and Phoebe Bridgers, often deftly blending softer, hushed folk ballads with indie-rock anthems that are raw and powerful, all while charting new ground.
In the newly released single off her upcoming album, entitled “Can’t Go Back,” Amy navigates a breakup feeling like death and how New York City shapes that feeling of wanting to go back and not being able to. She laments her flippant words and in her creative writing process talks about “Away not only in geography but the way this city is shaping me, the way everyone eventually leaves, and we can’t go back.”
She is holding two ideas in her head at once. The idea that everyone eventually leaves the city and the notion that everyone eventually leaves a relationship, whether that be through death or through a breakup. The song is a beautiful exploration of time, heartache, and how the city influences all of it.
In talking with The Pulse, Amy discussed how her songwriting has evolved and gotten more vulnerable over time.
“My style of writing has changed over the course of my projects, though I've leaned into more specific lyrics in recent years, whereas in the past I may have chosen to be more abstract, probably as a coping self-protective mechanism. I’m more comfortable just explicitly saying what I am feeling now, and sometimes the profound truths pop out in the mundane, day-to-day specifics.”
There’s a melancholy and dreaminess to her sound that is ever present in her latest album, where she marries lush vocals with soul-stirring lyrics. Amy is fully aware of the intimacy of her sound, and when first recording the songs, she didn’t actually plan to release them.
“Although my songs have always been melancholic and introspective in nature, I have never gone this personally deep before, touching the areas of my psyche that have previously felt off-limits. No one wants to face their insecure parts in public, but that’s the great thing about music as a medium. When I was writing the songs, I actually didn’t plan to release them. They felt so intimate that it felt too exposing to let the world hear them. But the more I thought, the more I realized that the discomfort I am feeling would probably resonate with others out there, and it could help someone not feel so alone, too, and that’s worth sharing.” Amy mentioned.
Amy’s music is a poignant exploration of themes like insecurity, heartache, death, fear, and control. She helps us feel less alone with her songwriting and effortlessly examines the things that make us all human with a beating and curious heart.
When asked about coming to Chattanooga on her tour, Amy said she was thrilled to experience the city for the first time.
“Definitely excited, this has been my biggest tour to date, and it’s been amazing so far, and Chattanooga has been on my wishlist for a long time now. Such a sweet place in the world.”
Amy Jay
- Yellow Racket Records
- 2311 E Main St, Chattanooga, TN
- Monday, September 8th, 2025 at 7 p.m.
- Tickets: eventbrite.com
- yellowracketrecords.com
Photo by Brittany Buongiorno