Courtney Marie Andrews - May Your Kindness Remain

The Guardian 100

(Loose)

A couple of minutes into the title track of Courtney Marie Andrews’ new album, a stately ballad suddenly explodes with guitar: not noise, or shredding, just a simple but massively reverbed solo, the notes teetering on the edge of feedback. It sounds like a nod towards rage, even as Andrews pleads for tolerance in the new America: “If your money runs out / And your good looks fade / May your kindness remain,” she sings, as the rumble intensifies beneath her. That rumbling guitar – as if Phil Spector had been an Americana producer and decided to create the “wall of country” – crops up again and again on May Your Kindness Remain, giving it an oomph and a distinct identity among the many excellent Americana albums of recent months.