With Honest Life that she released in 2016, Courtney Marie Andrews came out of the relative confidentiality in which she had been roaming for a few years to finally appear as a solid hope for the contemporary folk scene. But it’s a folk that is slightly tinted with rock, blended with country or even with soul, following the path of Joni Mitchell or even of Linda Ronstadt… Two years later, with May Your Kindness Remain, the young American, a huge fan of Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Emmylou Harris, seems to be rather looking toward… Emmylou Harris, precisely!
Produced by Mark Howard (Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and… Emmylou Harris, once again), this fourth album, in which Courtney Marie Andrews adds gospel to her influences, offers even more introspection than usual. “The people that I’ve met on the road these past few years got me thinking about my childhood, and the people around me that I’ve known, and the stories that come from my family. It became clear how many people are struggling through the same issues … A lot of people — myself included at some point in my life — are loving somebody through this. That’s sort of the theme of the record: coming to terms with depression and the reality of the world we’re living in.”
With such a disc, Courtney Marie Andrews never takes the easy route and demands a certain degree of attention from her audience. This is undoubtedly the prerogative of self-demanding artists who always carve out their unique DNA with conviction and, in the case of Courtney Marie Andrews, with grace.
