Jill Andrews Photo 06 (credit Fairlight Hubbard)
Over the last few months, Jill Andrews has been drip-feeding us tracks from her upcoming ‘Modern Age’ album due August 18th On Vulture Vulture/Tone Tree Music. The latest single is the gorgeously melancholic ‘Better Life’. Lush, yet intimate, ‘Better Life’ is probably my favourite of the four singles released from the album thus far, and it had to beat some pretty stiff competition to win that accolade. One listen to the sublime blend of Jill and Becca Mancari’s vocals as the song closes is all you need. Jill will make a flying visit to the UK for The Long Road Festival in August before returning for a full tour in September. More about the single, the tour and Jill follows:
“I traveled back to my hometown in East Tennessee after hearing the news of a childhood friend who had passed away after a long battle with addiction,” stated Andrews. “While I was there, I swung by our old neighborhood. I drove by her house and walked to the bus stop where we used to stand on all of those cold, dark mornings together. I had known her since second grade. She was with me at the AMC Theater when I saw Titanic for the first time, crying into the same box of popcorn. She was with me when I smoked my first cigarette (one of her Grandmother’s Benson and Hedge’s 100’s that she had sneakily lifted from some mystery drawer). She was with me the day that I decided to see if the fire extinguisher worked on the school bus and promptly sprayed white foam all over my friend’s and new found enemies’ heads. It turns out it worked very well. Standing there as an adult, at the bus stop, I was struck by how close we had lived to each other. If I turned left, I could see my house, and if I turned right, I could see hers. It was startling how different our lives were, even back then. And how our paths grew further and further apart as we got older. So far apart that we really didn’t recognize each other anymore”
ABOUT JILL ANDREWS:
From her years as a founding member of the celebrated Alt-Country band The Everybodyfields, to her critically acclaimed solo career, to her latest collaboration, Hush Kids, which she co-founded with Nashville songwriter and producer, Peter Groenwald, Andrews has delivered irresistibly melodic, genre-bending music for nearly two decades spanning three full-length albums, four EP’s, and countless singles. She’s collaborated with artists such as Seth Avett, Buddy Miller, and Langhorne Slim, as well as toured and shared the stage with The Avett Brothers, The Secret Sisters, Drew Holcomb, Watchhouse, Joan Osborne, and Willie Nelson among others. Anchored by frank songwriting but continuously and unapologetically evolving, Andrews’ tape deck hosts a range of influences from Joni Mitchell to Diana Ross to Wilco to contemporaries, Brandi Carlile and Phoebe Bridgers. The result is bold, infectious, introspective music that NPR Music called “transfixing” and Rolling Stone hailed as “gorgeous, gentle” while American Songwriter praised her “expertly crafted songs.” Her music has also served as the backdrop to some of America’s most beloved television series including Grey’s Anatomy, This Is Us, Nashville, and Wynnona Earp, to which she composed the theme.
