Ingrid Andress: Tiny Desk Concert

Stephen Thompson | March 22, 2023
Ingrid Andress performs and speaks with a humility that feels inversely proportional to the scale of her success. Given that she's already received four Grammy nominations, and that her team had to navigate NPR's busy and construction-forward D.C. neighborhood in a tour bus only slightly smaller than an aircraft carrier, that adds up to a fair bit of humility.

For Andress, writing songs often means having to explain yourself. Between songs at the Tiny Desk, she wrangled with her place in country music — as a Colorado-bred singer-songwriter who sings and speaks without a twang — and with the truths she's capturing and conjuring in her songs. "Yearbook," about a curdled high-school romance, appears to be about her parents, but that required an explanation, too: "I always have to say, it's not about my parents. Because they really want everyone to know that. So, it sounds like it's about them. But when I write songs, sometimes I take from things that I have observed — like, other people's stories."

All three of the songs she played at the Tiny Desk — "Yearbook," her 2020 breakthrough ballad "More Hearts Than Mine" and her current country hit "Feel Like This" — have ways of digging up clear-headed truths, no matter how she came about locating them. "Feel Like This" captures what Andress describes as an uncharacteristic sense of optimism, while returning to one of her favorite themes: the radical change that comes with shedding the toxicity of bad relationships.

SET LIST
"More Hearts Than Mine"
"Feel Like This"
"Yearbook"

MUSICIANS
Ingrid Andress: vocals, piano
Alex Edwards: guitar
Harrison Moore-Kondo: guitar, steel guitar

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Bob Boilen
Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin
Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Sofia Seidel
Audio Assistant: Neil Tevault
Production Assistant: Jill Britton
Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Marissa Lorusso, Hazel Cills, Ashley Pointer, Pilar Galván, Maia Stern
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#tinydesk #nprmusic #ingridandress

[dopagony]

who else came here after watching the National Anthem?

[TheChunjun]

Who's here after the National Anthem to see who she is and if she could actually sing. Man, my ears are still bleeding.

[blissbrad]

At this point I have to wonder why the audio engineer has not been nominated for Grammy not to mention the whole production even if they have to invent a new category

[crystalriley]

Now, it all makes sense. She sounds😮 good if she stays in her very small pocket. Once she tries to go up a note, you can hear she starts screeching.

[laurenblainebamartistmgt]

My first producer told me, “Find the kinds of songs you sound great singing and just do those. If someone begs you to sing Happy Birthday and you don’t sound good doing it, don’t do it.” Best advice I ever got. Her voice just may not be suited to The National Anthem.

[buddahflower]

From a singer:
1) she strains a lot, I noticed this throughout. No wonder it was hard to reach the higher notes on the anthem. Primarily singing in her chest voice, and doesn’t seem to have proficiency in her upper registers to properly belt the higher notes.
2) doesn’t have a lot of control over her voice and seems to have difficulty with runs, which shows she is way too tight with her voice/neck/jaw muscles and doesn’t place her voice properly — causing her not to have control, and causes a lot of STRAINING ugh - can’t imagine how raw her voice gets.

She has a lot of potential in her voice. She is a good lyricist, and her voice is great for folk/country songs. She has a great storytelling voice. However, to do a more demanding song, like the anthem, it’s so hard with throaty chest voice singing lacking proper placing and super strainy. And she doesn’t use proper diaphragm breathing which makes belting and control so hard…But she is good at what she does in her career, let’s get that straight.

[lljaesungll]

If this is what it takes to be a Grammy Award winner than I will continue to pursue my dreams.

[incompetentlogistics]

I came here for the same reason as many others recently did, but I'm seeing a lot of negative comments and wonder if it really would be the case without the context of her national anthem performance.

I am enjoying listening to this concert. She sounds great and seems like a down-to-earth person.

[Essex]

I'm always stoked to see a steel guitar on Tiny Desk.

[Ben_Yeboah]

0:00 - More Hearts Than Mine
5:39 - Feel Like This
11:15 - Yearbook

[geanpierrepereyra]

To be honest she really excels as a lyricist! The story telling is beautiful and to be honest I don’t mind her range. Yes the National Anthem may have not been her best suite but this type of folk/country really is up her alley. :)

[farmasinema]

I want her to come to my country to sing our national anthem.
She will united my country like she did in the US !

[kvpilots]

she turned off her comments so im here lol

[ToRFlow]

All you people saying this video proves she can actually sing. If you listen closely, when she's doing runs, she's all over the place. She drops out of key a LOT during this song. She doesn't have a good ear for tone and pitch.

[daniella]

She can’t sing good but if it’s her writing these songs then she is a great song writer! Another artist needs these songs!!

[aarond]

I had to click on it just to make sure she could sing under different circumstances

[shardanette]

Thanks Tiny Desk for introducing me to Ingrid. She's very good. It's nice to see a little modern country on here. Please introduce your viewers to Sierra Ferrell soon.
She's wonderful.

[Mike-xtpr]

She’s a great storyteller…and I agree with her we need more of that in music.

[ThomasLiljeruhm]

I've been a huge fan of her ever since I first heard "More Hearts Than Mine" 4 years ago.

[rayhachey]

I love Tiny Desk for these discoveries, just yesterday I was watching Bono and Edge (my age) and today I discover a talented songwriter with a beautiful voice and great stories!