With the jubilant, open strum of her acoustic guitar and a host of visceral memories circa the American bicentennial, Amy Speace kicks off her upcoming album with its apolitical, patriotic title track, “The American Dream.” A new sonic frontier for Speace, the heartland rocker captures its narrator as a young girl in the middle of a carefree summer, surrounded by a world that feels weightless and infinite.

It took Amy Speace just a day and a half to record her new album, Tucson, out April 8 via Proper Records/Windbone Records. Don’t think it’s some rush job, though—Speace spent most of her life finding her way to write it.

Looking back on a twelve-month span between her son’s first birthday and the loss of her father, award-winning singer and songwriter Amy Speace culled eleven new songs directly from her depth of personal experiences—childhood memories, coming of age in New York City, and losing a parent while learning to become one—to create her new full-length album, There Used to Be Horses Here; out April 30th on Proper Records/Wind Bone Records.