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Ingrid Andress Is Teaching Me To Be A 'Good Person'

Concert coverage, recent TikToks, and more.

I reviewed Ingrid Andress’ 2023 headlining tour for Substream Magazine, but I’m sharing it here to save you a click.

Ingrid Andress is the exception. Andress is a beacon for owning your mistakes in a genre filled with songs about jaded lovers and how others have done you wrong. She’s making a focused effort to remind us we are all in this together, even if it doesn’t feel like it, and that we all impact the trajectory of each others’ lives. Her music embraces our role in our destiny, and she wears her battle scars like trophies of lessons learned.

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On Thursday, March 23, Andress made her first headlining appearance at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of the Good Person tour. Named after the album of the same name, the highly-anticipated show packed roughly 650 midwesterners into a crowded all-ages club show brimming with flannels and hard seltzer. Children, though few and far between, were hoisted on their parents’ shoulders or peering between the bars of the elevated levels while finicking with their oversized hearing protectors.

Newcomer Madeline Edwards kicked off the night with a stripped-down set that found the Texas native performing with just an electric guitar or piano for accompaniment. That was a stark departure from her rock-friendly 2022 debut album, Crashlanded, but you wouldn’t know it from watching Edwards perform. With a voice powerful enough to chase the darkness out of the day, Edwards commanded the stage as she tore through a condensed version of thoroughly engaging material.

The highlight of Edward’s set was the instantly infectious “Mama, Dolly, Jesus,” which feels destined for crossover success.

A brief intermission between sets gave way to a darkened room and the moody synthesizer of “Good Person” as Andress took the stage. After leading the crowd through her aspiration title track, the Michigan native briefly greeted her home state followers before kicking things into high gear with the fan-favorite cut, “Seeing Someone Else.”

As Ingrid Andress and her followers sang louder still with each passing song, I couldn’t help noticing the crowd bathed under the bright venue lights. People of all ages could be seen in the flashes of the strobe. Some were wearing smiles or screaming with joy, but others were far more emotional. Clearly, the same raw nerve that led Andress to write this material was struck in these individuals, and this music had gotten them through something the rest of us would never understand. That’s the beauty of music. It does that for each of us in its way. But to see it so clearly present in such a small space reinforced what makes this art form so important.

With so much material from her recent record focusing on endings and beginnings, it only felt right that Andress performed those songs in the state where it all began on her biggest tour. The girl who left Michigan before she could walk has returned a successful woman fully aware of who she is, what she wants, and how to get there. She’s far from perfect, but she’ll be the first to tell you that, and she’s detailing her path to personal growth through songs that echo in your chest cavity long after they’ve ended.

Here are some photos from the show taken by the incredible Benjamin Howell Photography:

When Alan Jackson fought the CMAs (Again)

Perhaps my favorite part of getting older is learning to appreciate artists I've loved throughout my life for new and exciting reasons. Case in point: Alan Jackson. The man behind "Chattahoochee" has nothing to prove to anyone, but I recently learned of his effort to stand up for George Jones, which has caused my love for him to grow.

In 1999, George Jones and Alan Jackson were asked to perform at the CMA awards. After learning the show's producers wanted him to perform a shortened version of his hit song "Choices," which was up for an award, George Jones bowed out of the production.

Alan Jackson, meanwhile, made his displeasure with the efforts to minimize Jones known while pushing ahead with his set. Then, on the night of the show, Jackson stopped halfway through his live television performance to switch songs and perform "Choices" unannounced. The crowd went wild. The producers went into a panic. It was everything authentic country music should be about, and I made a TikTok about it last week.

@countryminute Do you remember when #AlanJackson stood up to the country music Association on behalf of #GeorgeJones? Here’s the story of how one #countrymusic icon supported another. #countrymusicfans #countrymusictiktok #countryradio #countrymusicnews #countryhistory #countrymusichistory

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The one song you need to hear this week

My friend Eric Michael Taylor is an incredibly gifted singer-songwriter from the South. Eric found success at the top of the year with his song “Never Said,” which I wrote about at length, but his latest, “Midnight Lullaby,” is on another level altogether.