It was a warm and muggy evening in the heart of Exeter, there weren’t many people about but as I neared The Phoenix, I was met by an excited huddle of people hading in, it appeared I was following them as I too was off to see the mighty Courtney Marie Andrews on her UK tour and tonight, she was playing an intimate show to a couple of hundred people in the heart of the city. A good friend had seen her the weekend before at the Black Deer Festival and told me how good she and her band were so I was really looking forward to the show.

I was surprised to see that tonight was a seated show, I say surprised as I can probably count on one hand the amount of seated shows I’ve been to at The Phoenix but having done a little research on CMA, it was clear that people would be there to listen rather than blether to their friends about Love Island and other meaningless TV soaps so I was glad there were chairs to relax and hunker down into.

Opening the evening’s entertainment was singer, songwriter and actress Lola Kirke who, with her country tinged Americana style, was showcasing tracks from her sophomore album ‘Lady For Sale’ which was released on Jack White’s Third Man Records on April 29th. Lola was accompanied by Hannah Reid on fiddle and backing vocals and between them, they knocked out some incredible tracks including ‘Better Than Any Drug’ which Lola commented that she’d played it in a few churches so doubts that she’ll be welcome in Heaven….

After a short break, Courtney Marie Andrew appeared through the curtain with her backing band which consisted of drums, bass, guitar/keys and strode into her set, sounding exquisite as she did so.

Tonight was the last date of their UK tour and saw CMA heading off to Ireland for a couple of solo shows before jetting off back to the US to prepare for the release of her forthcoming ninth studio album ‘Loose Future’ which is available digitally in October (physical copies of the wax disc may be a little later owing to pressing plant delays).

Her set comprised of tracks from her Grammy nominated album ‘Old Flowers’ and her back catalogue which kept the audience enthused throughout, it was great to see a couple of the new tracks from the forthcoming album sneaking onto the setlist as well. This was the first time that she had played Exeter and her blend of heartfelt and emotional tracks was exactly what the room was searching for. The atmosphere was incredible, between songs, you could hear a pin drop and CMA tanked the audience for behaving in a manner that she would expect people to do so but sadly, back home in the US, she said that people come to shows to meet up and chat rather than sit and listen to the band…I can relate to that! 

Midway through the set, CMA took to the keyboard, freeing up the guitarist (Jerry?) to unleash a tremendous sounding guitar solo which echoed around the room, taking no prisoners. 

CMA apologised for singing so many “sad songs”, though it was these that the audience most related to so no need to apologise at all….This lead into a story of her singing ‘Tomorrow’ from the movie ‘Annie’ at her kindergarten talent contest and she said that singing sad songs has stuck with her ever since.

Someone from the back of the room asked CMA to tell us a story and she told us of a time, many moons ago when she was travelling the west coast of the United States in her van (nicknamed ‘Little Orphan Vannie’) and how she used to stop at Walmart parking lots every night as they were free to use until one night when a local sheriff advised her that her van wasn’t big enough to qualify for the free stopovers in the lots so she moved on to a casino parking lot in Vegas. It was in this very parking lot that she wrote a track called ‘Table For One’ and she dedicated it to all of the people who move from place to place, parking in random parking lots all over the world! 

It was fascinating to hear that CMA took part on songwriting challenge during the initial lockdown caused by the global pandemic in 2020, rather than writing a song a day for a month, she decided to up the ante and do it for 60 day! Give me 60 days and I’d struggle to come up with an idea for a song, let alone a completed number so hats off to her for taking part (and completing this monuments task). CMA said that this has caused a problem because she now has tons of new tracks that she has no outlet for at the moment, I guess she could always release a collection of ‘Lockdown Songs’ over a series of CD’s or LP’s and create a nice boxset (just an idea Courtney!)

During the encore, CMA returned to the stage solo to perform a couple of songs, just her and an acoustic guitar, which left her sounding bare without the backup of the band, vulnerable and alone but sounding SO tight and polished. The band joined her for the final fling and left Exeter on a high but wanting more….

Keep your eyes on her site for news of more UK dates once the new album has landed, maybe in early 2023, she might take a trip back over to showcase more of what promises to be a standout album, maybe even a contender for ‘Album of 2022’…..

Words and Pictures by Steve Muscutt