Fiddler, singer and songwriter Amy Farris, an in-demand session and touring musician who became a regular presence on the Los Angeles roots music scene after moving from Austin, Texas, to launch a solo career, has died. She was 40.
Her body was found in her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office said her death is being investigated as a suicide, but the cause won't be known for four to six weeks, when results of toxicology testing will be completed.
“A beautiful light went out -- it's a horrible thing," said Exene Cervenka, founding member of Los Angeles punk band X whose new solo album features Farris on several tracks. “There's a huge void in everybody's life right now. . . . It's devastating. She was really an important musician and an important singer. Everybody wanted to work with her."
Farris, who had played on stage or record with Texas musicians including Ray Price, Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis, met Cervenka in the 1980s when X was on tour.
“She was just a kid, and she was really sweet," Cervenka said. “Everybody said we were like sisters, because we looked a little bit alike. I always took that as a huge compliment, because I think she's a beautiful, beautiful woman. Over the years I watched her grow up and become this incredible woman, this talented, important woman. That was really a nice thing to see."
Cervenka said they had begun writing songs together and were planning to work more closely since Cervenka recently moved back to Los Angeles after four years living in Missouri.
Singer-songwriter-guitarist Dave Alvin, who recruited Farris for a new band he formed earlier this year, the Guilty Women, was a member of X at that time and also recalls being impressed with Farris' passion for a broad range of music.
“She was probably the only person on the Ray Price tour who also had an X CD," Alvin recalled Thursday. “One of the reasons I put the [Guilty Women] together was to showcase people like Amy who are incredibly talented but don't necessarily get the recognition they should," Alvin said.
He was on his way to the Bay Area, where he and the Guilty Women are scheduled for two shows this weekend. “We're going to keep this thing going, but now, she's not going to be part of it. It's just sad."
