Amy Jo: Hold Your Horses
(Do Something Records)
DL/Streaming
Out Now
Acclaimed UK country/pop singer Amy Jo has just released her new single, Hold Your Horses, on Do Something Records.
Althought not the usual LTW fare, we have previously covered the artist, describing her as ‘a Morecambe Bay resident who sounds like a Nashville-era Taylor Swift’. Hold Your Horses was inspired by a conversation with a close male friend who revealed how tough it was to conform to certain ideas of masculinity that actually still prevail today – a sentiment that’s widely echoed in shows like Heartstopper, the existence of young- mental-health charities like Young Minds and Spark UK – a leading youth-led mental health charity, committed to sparking conversations around youth mental health.
Amy Jo comments “I wrote Hold Your Horses not realising how many people would relate to it, and for so many different reasons. It’s really written as a letter to a close friend of mine or, at least, as a letter to his younger self, to say, ‘hold your horses, look at this amazing life you’re living now’, so in a sense it’s me lending an ear to the men in my life. For some, it’s a personal story, for others, they are reminded of people they have lost to suicide. Now, I find that no matter where I play the song – from Shepherds Bush to Edinburgh – no matter how big or small the venue, there will always be someone in the crowd crying their eyes out. It’s a special song for me and I think I’m beginning to learn it’s a special song for lots of other people too.”
Over the last year Amy Jo has had more than 185,000 streams, won the ‘Keep It Country’ festival competition to play the 02 Indigo in 2025, was handpicked by Kylie Morgan to support her at Bush Hall in 2025, has featured as a three-minute slot on ITV Granada, and has played some of the UK’s most iconic venues in including Barrowlands, New Century Hall, Edinburgh Corn Exchange, and Birmingham Symphony Hall. She is due to play Lytham Proms Weekend in August with Aled Jones, and The British Country Music Festival in September.
Amy Jo will be doing a livestream event for Reasons To Stay the extraordinary mental health and suicide prevention website established by campaigner Ben West, who lost his fifteen brother to suicide and launched in January this year. More details can be found here
For more on Amy Joe visit her LinkTree
Photo Courtesy of Jane SavidgePR
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree
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