One of the fastest rising singer-songwriters, Courtney Marie Andrews, returns to the UK for a new tour including a Manchester gig at the Deaf Institute.
The Manchester Deaf Institute date comes just one day prior to the re-release of the Arizona native’s 2013 album On My Page. On My Page will be re-released on 25 August digitally, on CD and, for the first time on vinyl.
Courtney’s music has already drawn diverse comparisons to heritage artists including Emmylou Harris, Judie Sill & Townes Van Zandt whilst also evoking modern artists including: Laura Marling and PJ Harvey. Spanning genres through Indie, Folk, Country and Alt-Rock, introspective and personal, her music and voice are both unique and classic. Channelling Nashville and Laurel Canyon, free of pastiche – Courtney is a musical gem – leading the charge of a new wave of female troubadours.
Courtney has spent pretty much the last 10 years on the road, since she left her Arizona home for her first tour at 16 years of age. She travelled up and down the West Coast, busking and playing any bars or cafés that would have her. Soon after she took a Greyhound bus four nights straight from Phoenix to New York to do the same on the East Coast. For a decade or so since Courtney’s been a session and backup singer and guitarist for nearly 40 artists – from Jimmy Eat World to Damien Jurado – but she never stopped writing her own material.
Courtney moved to Seattle in 2011 and recorded On My Page. However, the record had hardly been released before she was on the road again performing other artists’ songs, eventually leading her overseas to play guitar and sing with Belgian star Milow. It was during this time that Courtney also wrote many of the songs on Honest Life. She found herself realising the impact of growing up on the road and this constant reconciling between her own and others’ art and identity.
Courtney Marie Andrews explains, “While in Belgium for four months I was going through a major heartbreak. I started growing homesick for America and the comfort of family and friends. That’s where I wrote the first songs for Honest Life. It was a giant hurdle in my life, my first true growing pains as a woman. That’s why I feel this record is a coming of age album. A common thread that runs through the songs is a great desire to fit somewhere, when nowhere fits – and wanting to get back home to the people I know and love. Once I got back to the USA I started to work at a small town bar. At the bar I felt I could truly empathize with the stories and lives of the people there. I wrote the other half of the songs about coming home and feeling a sense of belonging again. A lot of the stories at that bar definitely ran parallel with my own, even though our lives were so different. I was the “musician girl”. They were farmers, construction workers, plumbers, waitresses, and cashiers. But, no matter how different, I felt we were all trying to live our most honest life.”
Where and when does Courtney Marie Andrews play in Manchester?
Courtney Marie Andrew’s Manchester gig takes place at the Deaf Institute on 24 August. The show is one of 12 headline and festival dates she will be playing in the UK and Ireland across August and September.
