Nels Andrews

“Where has this guy been hiding? In the library maybe.” - NPR'S Folk Alley

Nels Andrews is a songwriter who loves stories, and the craft of spinning them into campfire hymns . He’s toured The U.S. and internationally since 2002 and has won prestigious songwriting awards from Kerrville, Telluride, and Mountain Stage.His international travels include sessions with the BBC’s Bob Harris, who named Nels’ debut album one of the best of that year. One of Nels’ heroes, Anais Mitchell says of his work, “Nels is a master carver, an artist patient and obsessed enough to turn a whale of an idea into something delicate and beautiful from any angle.”
Folk Radio UK says: “(Nels) combines deft storytelling with a warmth of tone and gentleness of pace .. awash with layers, metaphors and echoes woven into subtle, contemplative contemporary song. Like finding a seashell at the back of a dusty cupboard, putting it to your ear and hearing the ocean.”

In between tours, he spends time in his hometown of Santa Cruz, California teaching, looking after his son, and surfing in the chilly Pacific Ocean. His fourth studio Album "Pigeon & The Crow" was produced by tradional Irish flautist Nuala Kennedy, and includes a companion graphic novella, a collaboration with illustrator Mike Bencze, https://nelsandrews.bandcamp.com/album/pigeon-and-the-crow-2

praise for Pigeon & the Crow:

“Nels Andrews’ lyrics take us from the West Coast to the East, into desert-scapes, sea-scapes and beyond. He skillfully combines the supernatural, the natural, the beautiful, the wistful, with a subtle sense of magic and mystery. It has a slightly psychedelic lingering nod to the sixties and the era of alternative, artistic living; a kind of ‘On The Road’ Nels Andrews style” Julie Williams-Nash, Folk & Tumble , IRL


“California dreamin' - but not as you know it, a mystical trip through Steinbeck country
This is the perfect album for these dark and dislocating times, beautifully crafted songs that envelop you in the gentle winds and fogs of California’s Monterey peninsula, and the waves on its flotsam-dotted sands.” Liz Thomson, The Arts Desk , UK

“Wistful and evocative, quietly melancholic and veined with a sense of the natural world, it's a hushed meditation of the heart.”
Mike Davies Fatea Magazine , UK