Milbre Burch, NSN Circle of Excellence Storyteller
"Although his stories are set in a world populated with famous names, his work is emphatically not about name-dropping.
He has created appealing and delightful stories that offer us a slice of the folk music life, and a tasty sampling of the stew of human interaction on stage and off.
He is a gifted wordsmith and a wonderful chronicler of the life he's known; he's giving voice to a culture. I see parallels in his work and the work of the cowboy poet - both let us see inside a life-style that most of us will otherwise never get to experience.
I don't know anyone else who's doing the work Bill Amatneek's doing: telling funny, sweet, thoughtful, humble, generous stories about the very specific and
rarefied culture of the folk musician.
I think the folk music world has found its Homer."
"Your stories speak to the folk-revival movement, create a bridge to younger generations, and stand alone as pieces of literature."
" 'Paris Remembers' is a great story!"
"When I heard you at the National Storytelling Festival, you told a story about performing with Peter, Paul & Mary, and it was absolutely entrancing - you struck a chord with everyone in that theater. I knew that your tremendous talents and truly unique blend of stories would be a wonderful addition to WinterTales.
My expectations were fully realized for you moved us all with the power of your telling and the depth of your experience.
It was a joy and a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with you - an experience I will hold dear always."
"Bill, this is Ed Enright of Down Beat calling. It's Tuesday night. I'm sitting here at home doing a little homework, doing a little editing and stuff, . . . . Got your piece. 'Jazzbeaux Got There,' read it just this minute, and it is absolutely beautiful, wonderful, unbelievably good. I just wanted to let you know that. This is a piece I'm going to really be proud of putting in the magazine."
" 'Layin' Buddy Down' is great material, and a perfect, professional specimen of a personal essay - enough research, detail, and feeling to hold the whole thing in the road from start to finish. Graceful ending, smart structure, nothing missing."
"During my near twenty years at Sweetwater, there were only a small handful of performers whose sheer poignancy made me cry: Watching John Lee Hooker walk on stage; Elizabeth Cotten, at age 88, forgetting the words to her song 'Freight Train,' and the audience singing the lyrics for her; Ralph Stanley singing so lovingly about his departed brother, Carter; Alan Shamblin telling how he came to write 'I Can't Make You Love Me,' which became a huge hit for Bonnie Raitt; and Bill Amatneek, when he finished telling 'Paris Remembers.' It was so touching I burst into tears."
" 'Jazzbeaux Got There' was just extraordinary. You made the evening for me. People were so touched, applause would have been a violation of the space you had created. That is the highest mark of respect. That closing was the most powerful I've experienced, . . . the work of a master."
"Your stories are MUSIC to my ears."