Courtney Marie Andrews at the Union Chapel

 

Courtney Marie Andrews   

Memorial
Union Chapel, 2 November 2021 

Hard to believe but it's been over a year and a half since I've been to a gig. Of course these have been unusual, unprecedented times due to the pandemic and I remember at the beginning of 2020 feeling quite nervous about my upcoming concerts and grateful when they ended up being postponed (or in the case of Greg Dulli, cancelled altogether). 

I was also feeling nervous returning to gig going. I realise concerts resumed months ago but as someone who is caring for an elderly mother with Alzheimer's disease I've been very cautious about exposing myself to Covid for fear it would affect someone far more vulnerable than me. Thankfully the Union Chapel did everything to make us all feel safe, requiring either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test at the door to enter (with warnings that they would refuse entry without one or the other). There didn't seem to be any problems with this, no one appeared to protest and it didn't take any longer going in the venue than usual.  

This Courtney Marie Andrews show was originally intended to be at Omeara (a venue I've never actually been to) back in June last year, then postponed until March 2021 and changed to the Union Chapel and then postponed again until now. Part of me didn't believe it was really going ahead until I started seeing photos of Andrews playing other dates in the UK. It feels weird but wonderful that things are approaching normal again although it was definitely a different experience watching a show wearing a facemask the entire time!

I can't imagine a better atmosphere to return to gig-going than the warm, welcoming feel of the Union Chapel. Luckily I managed to secure my usual spot near the front and I can't deny the pleasure these days of having a seat even at such an intimate gig such as this.

First though came the support act, a British two-piece folk band called Memorial, consisting of a duo of singer-songwriters, Jack Watts and Oliver Spalding, who apparently toured with Andrews before as her backing band. I don't really know much about Memorial, they appear to be a fairly recently formed band as they've only this year completed their first tour and, other than the fact there seems to be bunch of other groups also called Memorial, they admit when they saw their name on the banner of venues such as the church they are playing tonight, they realised how their name might be mistaken for announcing the headliner's death! (I bet there were more than a few people who saw the church event: "Courtney Marie Andrews, Memorial" and thought it was some poor girl's funeral).  

But there is definitely some strange magic happening with these two young fellows. I understand when it's two family members singing together, how their voices fit and blend together but it is a lovely mystery how two guys like Watts and Spalding can sing together and their voices move together is such a sweet, soothing way: each complimenting the other and finding the same tones and shapes. Of course they obviously have the same influences, which probably formed their sound, and I heard Turin Brakes, Fleet Foxes, Midlake and more in their songs. I'm not sure they have found their own unique thing quite yet but they definitely have something.

The last time Andrews played London was back in 2018 at this very same venue. I was there and despite battling a cough, she sounded spectacular. Even she remarks that it seems perfect to end the UK tour here again, like she's come full circle, this time in perfect health and voice despite everything that has happened in the past year. 

When she walks onstage Andrews looks like a beautiful throwback to the golden age of Laurel Canyon folk rock, with a dusky, floral dress, made of floaty chiffon. With her long sandy hair and straight fringe, she reminds me of Joni Mitchell but sounds like Linda Ronstadt in her folky or early country stage.  

This tour, she tells us, is belatedly in support of her last album, Old Flowers, which came out last year during the height of the pandemic. It really doesn't feel that long ago: the songs still sound so fresh and new. Despite opening with an old favourite, Rookie Dreaming, and then trying out a new song called James Dean (she says she has been writing lots since the last album came out so maybe there will be a new one before long!) she pretty much gave us the whole of Old Flowers live (only Together Or Alone was skipped). 

I've seen Andrews play with a band, and she sounds great that way and, of course, her records usually have a more fleshed out sound too, but there is something spine-tingling hearing these songs played as she probably first wrote them: just a voice and guitar, full of emotion and longing, bare and intimate as if we are sharing the moment with her. Her voice is so clear and strong, especially evidenced at the end, performing How Quickly Your Heart Mends and, at a audience suggestion, Rough Around The Edges, without a microphone, her voice so pure and beautiful echoing around the rafters of the Union Chapel to spellbinding effect.

She tells us she wrote Table For One, before the success that came with her breakthrough album Honest Life, alone in the back of a van, parked in a store car park, interrupted mid-creation to be told to move on. Now she's playing it in front of a sold-out crowd far away from her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, yet its poignancy remains.

She also tells us that the cover of Old Flowers was taken during the last full moon of the decade, before singing the song it inspired, If I Told, and somehow that dark, glowing feel of that final moon peeping through the crowds, seems to echo the atmosphere in the Union Chapel tonight. The song seems even more beautiful with the moon glowing through the church's stained glass windows. Perfect in fact.

Memorial join her on stage, singing back up on If I Told as well as Burlap String and Break This Spell, and again it's interesting how well her voice blends with these deeper male voices. She's also joined later by another British duo, whose name I didn't catch (apparently they met in the States though) for the song Old Flowers, again, proving what a great harmony singer she can be. 

The album Old Flowers is apparently Andrews break-up album, written after a long-term relationship came to an end. The songs are definitely sad but, like tonight after enduring the past terrible year of the pandemic, somehow hopeful. Which is exactly what we all needed.

This may be my last gig for a long time. Due to my mother's condition she needs someone with her at pretty much all times and often that person is me. But if this is the last one for a while it's definitely a good, heartfelt one to go out on.