Career
Following graduation Loftus moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. From 1998-2000 she made appearances on Days of Our Lives, HBO's Tracey Takes On... and in the films Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and The 13th Floor. She also became one half of a musical duo and began learning guitar in 1998 for co-writing, but still only "barely played." In LA she held a number of part-time jobs, including as a limo driver for music producer Jerry Leiber. In 1999 he gave her the advice to focus on her most necessary artistic outlet.
One year later in 2000 she moved into a van and left Los Angeles for Nashville, booking a year of shows for the musical duo she was in at the time. According to Loftus, the duo was moving towards a traditional record deal in Nashville. However, she began to feel she wasn't contributing to the co-writing sessions and that her solo material was being phased out by the label. In 2001, after seeing Bonnie Raitt perform at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, Loftus was inspired to fire her managers and duck the record deal.
By Spring of 2002 she was actively learning guitar, and began recording her own demos. She met Nashville producer Will Kimbrough in 2002, befriending him and beginning to work with him musically. He would go on to produce her first two albums. In 2003 she began performing solo shows, touring to sing her own material, living in her van and at times trading yoga lessons to pay for musicians.
Read more about this topic: Amy Loftus
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