Arizona born Seattle based singer/songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews describes her third full album “Honest Life” as a coming of age album. This latest release by the 25 year old singer is preceded by an already decade long career of recording, touring on her own within the U.S, and performing with artists such as Damien Jurado and Jimmy Eat World. The ten track collection, produced by Courtney herself, was recorded at Litho Studios in Seattle and released through Portland’s Mama Bird Recording Company. It is indeed a coming of age story, written first on the road, then overseas within the displacement, longing for home and first time heartbreak that came during several months of living and performing in Belgium. She returned stateside, secured a job tending bar in a small town tavern in Washington state, and found both home and inspiration for the final songs to complete the album. The songs on Honest Life are filled with loneliness, solitude, self-awareness and resolve, everyday stories sung with straightforward purity and restraint that could draw comparisons to Emmylou Harris and early Joni Mitchell. Andrews’ vocals are clear and controlled, and resonate a vulnerability that stops at an unflinching distance from nostalgia or sentimentality. In “Rookie Dreaming” she sings “I was too broke too shallow to dive deep, too busy carrying the weight of everything…” she reflects, in the title track, “right when you think you have it all figured out, life comes to throw you another doubt, but my heads up high and I ain’t got nothing but time…” Accompanied by pared down arrangements, piano, guitar, and steel pedal guitar, with thoughtfully placed inclusions of keyboards, the album’s tracks hover gently between folk and country, warm, earnest, and resigned. A lovely and aching reflection on finding out how much you don’t know. – Written by SLynch
SIMILAR | Asher Deaver, Alela Diane, Laura Gibson, Joni Mitchell