By Michael Gaither

One thing I’ve always appreciated — and been inspired by — regarding songwriter Amy Rigby is that she writes about exactly where she is, right at the exact moment she is in her life. Her 1996 debut was the appropriately titled, “Diary of a Mod Housewife.” She followed up with the 1998 “Middlescence.” Fast forward to many great records — and a couple of decades later — she released “The Old Guys.” Her latest, “Hang In There With Me,” is no exception to the clever, heartfelt and just damn fine and honest songwriting that she’s known for.Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rigby spent time in New York in the late 1970s, honing a punk DIY attitude and work ethic, and playing in bands such Last Roundup and the Shams before going solo. She spent time in Nashville in the early 2000s and is now based in England with her husband, musician Wreckless Eric. Rigby hasn’t done a West Coast tour since 2019. She’s in town this Saturday for a long-awaited return and an evening at The Ugly Mug Cafe. The Sentinel caught up with her by phone recently before traveling back to the states.

The trip started with a visit to her daughter in Los Angeles. A few shows evolved, and then she had the idea of playing in Santa Cruz. “I have such happy memories of playing there. I thought, if I’m that close, it seems a shame not to play there. I actually haven’t played in a while, but for this record, I have five shows on the East Coast and four out west.”

Like all of her work, “Hang In There With Me” is of the moment and reflective on who she is now. The opening track, “Hell-Oh Sixty” sets the tone for the album. For that tune, “I was sitting in the audience at a Bob Weir show. I was watching his hands play, and all those words kind of came to me,” she said. That song was actually written in 2018. “I wasn’t 60, but I was close,” she added.

“Sixty seems like such a milestone that you can’t believe you’ll be there. Once you’re there, it’s not easier, but there’s kind of an acknowledgement and acceptance of it.” That number made even more of an impact for Rigby after the pandemic because “my mother-in-law died, my husband had a heart attack and we lost John Prine to COVID. Mortality is looming,” she said, “but (with this new record) I was trying to accept and be more celebratory about the aging process, where the last record (‘The Old Guys’) was raging about it.”

Rigby’s wit is also firmly in place in this new work, as well. For example, “Hell-Oh Sixty” name checks decade after decade, “Forty was a field a field of dreams/ Fifty didn’t fit had to let out the seams.” And “Bangs” deals with the dilemma of middle-aged appearances while doing a back-in-time fun pop culture drop, “Let’s make a pact/ Style treaty/ Come on and cut me/ Like Warren Beatty in ‘Shampoo’/ I’ll play Julie Christie for you.”

In addition to songwriting and recording, Rigby released a memoir “Girl To City,” followed by a book tour, in 2019. The book documented her time in New York City. A new record is already in the planning stages as she finishes her second book, “Girl to Country.” It chronicles her years in Nashville.

She’s planning to fast track both the book and a new album. “I started working on ‘Girl to Country’ after my last book came out, and it feels like it’s been long enough. You can only work on these for some time,” she laughed. “The new record took three years to make and get it together,” she said. “Since that time I’ve written a whole new set of songs, so hopefully I’ll get some out and together much quicker.”

After the pandemic, the move to England and so many life changes, she added, “At this point, it feels there’s no guarantee of time anymore.”

Michael Gaither is a performing songwriter, radio DJ and the music writer for The Santa Cruz Sentinel.