Jill Andrews Releases New Album 'Modern Age'
Produced by Lucas Morton at 4115 Studios, Modern Age features thoughtful and brilliant performances by an all-star cast of musicians.
By: Michael Major Aug. 18, 2023
Nashville singer/songwriter Jill Andrews released today her anticipated new album Modern Age. Available everywhere through Vulture Vulture/Tone Tree Music, Modern Age stands at the intersection of memory lane and tomorrow; a stunning reflection on childhood and changing times, and the complexities of simultaneously looking back and moving forward.
“When I was a kid, I never imagined the world would be like this. At 3 pm, when the bus dropped me off on the corner of Leanne Circle and Paty Drive, the feeling of freedom washed over me. My friends were a phone call or a doorbell ring away. My Keds were worn from exploring the streets, backlots, and woods of my neighborhood in East Tennessee.
Looking back on it now, I feel like I am an observer from the future. In the period of time that I have been alive, so much about human behavior has changed, my own included. This was especially poignant the other day when my thirteen-year-old son picked up my iPhone and read my screen usage stats to me. He reported that I had picked up my phone two hundred and eleven times that day. When I was his age, we had a land-line phone with a curly cord. We had an IBM computer in the basement with a black screen and green type.
I think you could play solitaire on it. My six-year-old daughter will never know any of this. She has grown up with the internet. A phone that has video chat and millions of apps. An endless source of entertainment. This album for me is about looking back. It’s about all the gains and losses. It’s a juxtaposition of childhood and adulthood. It’s the simplicities and complexities that surround both. And figuring out where I belong within it all.”
Modern Age is an ode to simpler times, one that goes beyond nostalgia to veneration of what were to so many, the golden years. With tracks that range from anthemic, pop dreams to intimate acoustic confessions, it’s a meditation on how far we’ve all come, growing up and looking back, but one that leaves the listener wondering about the price of “progress.”
In moments, the epitome of 90s pop perfection with ethereal synths and rich vocals, and in others, pared down and heart-wrenchingly intimate, Modern Age is dripping in reverence for a simpler time, when the world was as big as your high school, when love was waiting by the phone, when we wondered about the future instead of lived in it. With addictive melodies that evoke Susannah Hoffs and Kate Bush, Modern Age is at once a time capsule of and a love letter to the places we all began.
Produced by Lucas Morton at 4115 Studios, Modern Age features thoughtful and brilliant performances by an all-star cast of musicians including Tyler Chester (Sara Bareilles, Jackson Brown, Madison Cunningham), Juan Solorzano (Becca Mancari, Mary Gauthier, Michaela Anne), Graham Bechler (Erin Rae, Allen Stone), Anthony Da Costa (Sunny War, Molly Tuttle, Yola), and special guests Ben Cramer (Old Sea Brigade) and Becca Mancari on backing vocals.
The album has been met with critical praise including No Depression, American Songwriter, Glide Magazine, Under The Radar, The Bluegrass Situation, and Holler who called it “an ode to simpler times remembering an era where the rhythm of life played slower, when we rewound cassette tapes with our fingertips, and talked on the phone for hours.”
Tour Dates
08/18 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
08/19 - Charlotte, NC @ The Evening Muse
08/20 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
08/27 - Leicestershire, UK @ The Long Road Festival
08/31 - Nashville, TN @ Backyard Sessions (w/ Sam Johnston)
09/16 - Johnson City, TN @ The Down Home
09/29 - Derry, Northern Ireland, UK @ St. Augustine’s Church (w/ Roseborough)
09/30 - Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK @ Black Box (w/ Paul Casey)
10/02 - Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall
10/03 - Cardiff, UK @ Acapela
10/04 - London, UK @ Green Note
10/05 - Southampton, UK @ The 1865
10/06 - Bangor, UK @ Blue Sky Cafe
10/07 - Glasgow, Scotland, UK @ Classic Grand Social Lounge
10/08 - Liverpool, UK @ Liverpool Philharmonic
10/22 - Nashville, TN @ Lightning 100 Nashville Summer Nights - 3rd & Lindsley
01/23 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
01/24 - Portland, OR @ Al's Den
01/27 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hotel Cafe
Photo Credit: Fairlight Hubbard
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