Courtney Marie Andrews wrote her first song when she was in middle school. “I wanted to create a punk feminist band like Bikini Kill,” Andrews said. “I invited some of my friends to do it but all of them said I can’t, this is too difficult. I wrote three songs and recorded them on a Walmart microphone.”
A multidisciplinary artist from Phoenix, Arizona, Andrews was the artist in residence for the first edition of the Iowa City Songwriters Festival (ICSF), which took place at the top of September. Andrews uploaded her first songs on the internet and experienced the first reactions from listeners. “That’s not punk music, people wrote, that’s folk.” At that age, she had no idea folk music would become so important for her.
As part of ICSF, Andrews led a songwriting workshop at MERGE and offered a peek into her creative process. She shared one of her songwriting methods. Called titling, you start by selecting from a series of potential song titles, collected from books, poems, conversations, journals and other songs. You then develop lyrics in response to that title, drafted in a free-writing fashion.
“Try to sing the lines in your head,” Andrews said. “Try to imagine a melody.”
Though Andrews has been a keyboardist for bands such as Jimmy Eat World, the guitar was her first instrument. One of her childhood friend’s father played blues guitar, and upon seeing her enthusiasm for music, he encouraged her to pursue her curiosity. She told her mother, and they worked to get her an instrument.
“One of my uncles was living in Mexico,” Andrews said. “He bought me a guitar for 30 pesos and that’s how I started playing.”
In her lyrics, one can find a quiet longing for human connection. An only child, she grew up in a single-parent household and her mom had to work two jobs. She wound up spending a lot of time alone. “I guess I write because I need to say something to be seen, or to see myself reflected on others. In the end it is an act of love.”
Andrews read from her second collection of poetry, Love Is a Dog That Bites When It’s Scared, released in August of this year. The collection is divided in three parts reminiscent of musical movements: “Puppy Love,” “Sulking Strays” and “Expectations At The Zoo,” each different in content and tone.
“For me, poetry is like a philosopher’s-eye view of life; there’s mystery, and it’s more detached,” Andrews said. “There’s a distance, whereas with songs it’s like a conversation with a friend, something much closer. It’s my voice.”
Her series of paintings Tears on Tables were on display on the second floor of the Englert Theatre during ICSF. The series depicts the moments of hardship as a musician on the road. In bright colors, a young woman cries herself to sleep over a table at a restaurant. Like her music, the images convey a constant longing interwoven with the joy of being alive.
“Painting is my way of reconnecting with the child in me,” she said. “Songwriting has become my means to make a living, whereas when I paint there’s no pressure.”
For the past three years she has been working with a relentless dedication, which has led to significant results: two albums, a poetry collection and a series of paintings. She strives to find the balance between what García Lorca called the Duende and what the professional artist needs to do to hone the craft.
“Human spirit comes out so much easier when you don’t overthink. Later you can rework the song or edit it, but that first moment has to be one of freedom.”
