Courtney Marie Andrews: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

Bob Boilen | August 20, 2020
In a sunlit room in Nashville, Courtney Marie Andrews sings about the fear of love. "I've grown cautious, I've grown up / I'm a skeptic of love / Don't wanna lose what I might find." Yet, "Burlap String" is also a song about how love's memory lingers, and how the mind rekindles its beauty. Complex emotions are a hallmark of Courtney Marie Andrews's music over these past 10 years, and she's still just 29. In an intimate setting such as this, her voice is also her strength. You can hear it in her 2019 Tiny Desk Concert and hear the way her pleasing vibrato intertwines with Mat Davidson's (a.k.a. Twain) pedal steel guitar. Bassist Paul Defiglia also recorded this performance, which starts with him as part of a trio, that turns to a duo, and finally ends with Courtney alone, singing the final song on her seventh album, Old Flowers, about that lost love, hoping for closure with fondness.

SET LIST
"Burlap String"
"It Must Be Someone Else's Fault"
"If I Told"
"Ships In The Night"

MUSICIANS
Courtney Marie Andrews: vocals, guitar, wurlitzer; Paul Defiglia: bass; Mat Davidson: wurlitzer, pedal steel, vocals

CREDITS
Audio by Paul Defiglia; Video by Haley Kaye; Producer: Bob Boilen; Audio Mastering Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Video Producer: Maia Stern; Associate Producer: Bobby Carter; Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey; Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann