Courtney Marie Andrews

Courtney Marie Andrews first attracted attention inside indie rock circles during the early 2010s as a singer and songwriter noted for emotional candor, later earning widespread praise after she moved into the Americana and contemporary folk landscape. Her expressive voice delivers direct sincerity paired with a gentle melancholy, while her songwriting produces melodies that mirror the longing and pain expressed in her words. By the time 2013’s On My Page appeared she had already logged extensive road and studio experience, yet 2016’s Honest Life marked her breakthrough, presenting a collection of tracks that laid bare her innermost feelings with striking impact. Drawing from everyday lives strained by hardship, 2018’s May Your Kindness Remain followed, and 2022’s Loose Future took shape during an introspective period spent along the East Coast.

Born November 9, 1990, in Phoenix, Arizona, Andrews began composing her own lyrics while still in her early teens. She first performed those songs publicly at age fifteen and soon resolved to treat music as a profession instead of a pastime. At sixteen she left home for an initial tour along the West Coast, singing and busking on boardwalks, sidewalks, and in shopping centers as well as bars and restaurants. She then headed east, and 2008 brought the independent release of her debut album, Urban Myths, issued on the River Jones label. The same imprint followed with Painter’s Hands and a Seventh Son in 2009. After a short return to Arizona that year, she met Jimmy Adkins of the pop/punk band Jimmy Eat World. Impressed by her voice, Adkins asked her to supply backing vocals on the group’s 2010 album Invented and to join their 2010–2011 tour on keyboards and additional vocals. In spare moments she finished a third album, 2010’s No One’s Slate Is Clean.

Andrews moved to Seattle in 2011 and formed a close association with singer-songwriter Damien Jurado, who recruited her for his touring band and frequently featured her as an opening act. During this stretch she issued her fourth studio album, 2013’s On My Page, while 2014’s Leuven Letters emerged as a live-in-the-studio EP recorded with her road band augmented by additional session players. Several months in Belgium found her adding vocals to singer-songwriter Milow’s 2014 album Silver Linings. There, homesickness and the aftermath of a breakup left her emotionally unsettled, and the resulting material became the core of 2016’s Honest Life. Released on Mama Bird Records, the record drew enthusiastic notices from critics in the United States and England and enjoyed substantial independent radio exposure. Even amid this new recognition she contributed vocals once more to Jimmy Eat World on their 2016 album Integrity Blues.

Fat Possum signed Andrews in 2017, and the label issued May Your Kindness Remain the next year in partnership with Mama Bird. Produced in Los Angeles by Mark Howard, whose prior credits include work with Lucinda Williams and Bob Dylan, the album explored empathy amid social and political unrest and showcased some of Andrews’ most deeply soulful performances. Critics again responded strongly; the record reached number one on the U.K. Americana chart and number five on the U.K. Independent Albums chart, while in the United States it peaked at number fourteen on the Americana/Folk albums chart and was selected by Rolling Stone as one of the twenty-five best Country/Americana albums of the year.

Old Flowers, released in 2020, continued the thread of songs shaped by romantic disappointment. Beyond further acclaim, it earned Andrews her first Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album. That same year she supplied backing vocals on Kathleen Edwards’ Total Freedom, the singer-songwriter’s first album in eight years. When the COVID-19 pandemic halted touring, Andrews withdrew to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where hiking cleared her thoughts and she set herself the task of writing one new song each day. The interval also allowed her to complete Old Monarch, her debut book of poems, published in April 2021. She later recorded at a residential studio in upstate New York with producer Sam Evian, resulting in the bittersweet personal songs collected on Loose Future, issued by Fat Possum in October 2022.