Jessica Andrews: Defining Who She Is

Publish date: 2024-08-13

ABOUT the only way you'd know for sure that Jessica Andrews is still a teenager is her favoring the word "awesome." The newly minted 17-year-old uses it to describe her feelings about "Who I Am" topping Billboard's country music singles chart (which it did for four weeks) and her similarly titled album rising as far as No. 2 and rapidly approaching platinum status.

"It's been awesome," says Andrews, with the same exhilaration and exuberance that mark her hit and much of her second album.

"I wanted this record to be first and foremost great," she adds. "I wanted the songs to be awesome. I wanted to deliver them the best way I could, and I wanted the presentation to be great -- I wanted it to be an awesome record."

By the way, Andrews doesn't hail from Awesome's Creek, but from Huntingdon, Tenn., and you can sense an enriching familial environment in her hit song.

"I am Rosemary's granddaughter/ the spitting image of my father," Andrews sings. "And when the day is done/ my mama's still my biggest fan/ Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy/ but I've got friends who love me/ and they know just where I stand/ it's all a part of me, and that's who I am."

Actually, Andrews's grandmother is named Patsy Jean, but everything else in the song is pretty much accurate, as though Andrews herself had written it. In fact, she found the Brett James and Troy Verges-penned celebration in the song-search ritual so unique to Nashville. After two A&R people from Andrews's DreamWorks label narrowed things down while she was on the road, the singer listened to "hundreds of songs over 18 months to find the best 10."

And the most representative of this latest stage of her life.

"One thing that I do want to let people know on this record is that I've grown up a little bit," says Andrews, whose age is belied by an unusually mature voice. "I wanted it to be just a little more mature. Everything is, I think, the next step up from the first album."

Andrews's 1999 debut, "Heart Shaped World," came out when she was just 15 and established her as one of the most promising members of a new wave of youthful acts that included golden girl LeAnn Rimes, Lila McCann, Billy Gilman and Alecia Elliott; last year, Andrews was voted Top New Female Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music. Signed to DreamWorks at age 12, Andrews received her initial exposure on a soundtrack, "The Prince of Egypt." Her contribution to the country-focused collection, "I Will Be There for You," was the only one by an unknown act and got Andrews's foot in the door at country radio, followed by "Unbreakable Heart" and "You Go First," a charmingly innocent love song.

Thankfully, Andrews has decided not to grow up too fast. You'd never guess from the album's songs about young love that she hasn't really even dated yet, but you'll be glad to know that she hasn't slipstreamed into adulthood for mere commercial purposes.

"I think it's pretty much obvious when you don't need to do a song," Andrews says. "If you're talking about cheating and drinking and being at the bar and all that sort of stuff, I don't sing about that. But as far as love goes, and all the themes of love, I really don't think there's anything I can't sing about. I don't think people say this is too old or this is too young. Hopefully, they just respect it as growth in my career."

And a long career it's been already, beginning with a fourth-grade talent show victory (Andrews sang "I Will Always Love You" -- the Whitney Houston version, not the Dolly Parton original) and a sixth-grade audition in Nashville for producer Byron Gallimore (this time, she served up an a cappella version of Shania Twain's "If You're Not in It for Love").

Gallimore, who has worked with Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Jo Dee Messina, pretty much signed Andrews on the spot and seventh grade was her last year in public school and in Huntingdon. The Andrews family moved to Nashville and mom Vicki started home-schooling Jessica four hours a day. The bulk of Andrews's education would come on Music Row and on the road, an exchange she fully embraced.

"Don't get me wrong -- I was very much a part of the social activity in my school and I loved it," Andrews says. "But I hated going there every day knowing that what I really wanted to do was sing and make music and travel."

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Andrews has had chaperones, of course. Not only her mother but superstars like Hill and Trisha Yearwood, on whose tours she served as an opening act.

"Because I'm a young female, first of all, I feel like I have lots of aunts and uncles and moms and dads and brothers and sisters," Andrews says with a knowing laugh. "And that's a great thing. Nobody ever tries to be overprotective -- they let me live, they know I'm a teenager, and it's a lot of fun. But they also look out for me -- they don't want me going down any wrong roads.

"When I went out on my first tour with Faith just a couple of years ago, she was the one who took me under her wing," Andrews says.

"The one thing she told me was that there are so many things that happen in the beginning of your career, with people pulling at you in different ways all the time, the most important thing is to have fun and enjoy it and not forget it. Take pictures, keep a journal to remember all of these things because it won't be easy five or six years down the road . . ."

As for Yearwood, Andrews points out that "Trisha is a very smart businesswoman and she also suggested 'Don't let anyone make decisions for you. Take input from people, but make sure you don't get walked on in this business. Because you're a young female, that can easily happen.' "

Points all taken, apparently. Andrews was much more involved in the shaping of the new album than on her debut. "I'm learning all the time and absorbing everything around me as far as producing and songwriting," she says. Indeed, the new album features Andrews's first writer's credit, on the love song "Good Friend to Me," co-written with Bekka Bramlett and Annie Roboff (who wrote Hill's hit "This Kiss").

"That was one of my goals, to have one of the songs that I wrote on this album," says the proud author, adding that she was her own harshest critic. "I didn't want there to be one weak song on the album just because I wrote it."

Later this summer, Andrews and the 13-year old Gilman will hit the road together (look for them at the Patriot Center July 7). Along with Rimes, they're the class of the new kids on Music Row. Youngsters are not new to Nashville -- remember Brenda Lee and Tanya Tucker? -- but they've never existed in the numbers we're now seeing. Chalk it up to corollary movements in teen pop and R&B. Obviously, Nashville is turning to younger acts to attract new listeners to country radio, whose popularity has been declining in recent years.

"It's very exciting to be a part of something that's so huge, to have a bunch of young people that are being successful," Andrews says. "But it's also scary for me because young people are very fickle. They can like something one day and a different thing tomorrow."

It's why she's working to appeal across programming borders and demographic distinctions.

"I do music that I love and that fits me well, and if people from all different kinds of music want to buy it and want to play it, that's a beautiful thing," she says. "I just want everybody in the world to be able to enjoy it. My goal is to be the best I can be, to make the best music I can. I want to be around 10 to 15 years from now. I just hope the fans are there with me every step of the way."

JESSICA ANDREWS -- Appearing Saturday with John Michael Montgomery, Billy Ray Cyrus, Pam Tillis, Jamie O'Neal, Sons of the Desert and Mark McGuinn at Nissan Pavilion. * To hear a free Sound Bite from Jessica Andrews, call Post-Haste at 202/334-9000 and press 8109. (Prince William residents, call 690-4110.)

"I've grown up a little bit," says 17-year-old Jessica Andrews.

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Jessica Andrews: Defining Who She Is