Abby Anderson is one of the most-buzzedabout new singer-songwriters in Nashville
WASHINGTON: An hour before she was scheduled to take a tour of the White House, country singer Abby Anderson sat in a hotel lobby and tried to remember whether she had been to Washington before. She was home- schooled growing up in Dallas, so she never took a school field trip to the District of Columbia — and if she did visit, she was too young to appreciate the significance.
“This is the fi rst time I’ve actually been able to take it all in,” said Anderson, 21, a performer at the 96th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting, which was taped on Wednesday and airs Sunday at 10 pm ET on Ovation and Reelz. Other performers included “American Idol” finalist Gabby Barrett, “The Voice” fi nalist Spensha Baker, country acts Locash, Thompson Square and more. “Regardless of your political affi liation, it is so cool to just see the history of our nation ... it’s a very patriotic feeling.”
Plus, she was psyched to chronicle her trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: “The Instagram story will be fi re today!”
After she signed on for the Christmas Tree Lighting, an
As an artiste, I want to stay away — as much as possible — from political parties I’m affiliated with or whatever. I’m a musician, and my job is to bring people together, not tear them apart.
event President Donald Trump and the fi rst family attended, Anderson braced herself for negative comments on social media — but didn’t receive any. Country artistes are routinely advised to not share their political beliefs, and Anderson is a believer in that strategy.
“As an artiste, I want to stay away — as much as possible — from political parties I’m affi liated with or whatever. I’m a musician, and my job is to bring people together, not tear them apart,” Anderson said. “I’m thankful to be an American. ... I’m thankful to write music I want to, to say the things I want to and to be a free 21-year- old young woman.”
Anderson is one of the mostbuzzed-about new singersongwriters in Nashville, where she moved when she was 17. Almost exactly two years later, she signed a record deal with Black River Entertainment, the independent label whose flagship artiste is Kelsea Ballerini. Anderson’s soulful vocals and sharp songwriting caught the attention of other tastemakers in town; she was named one of CMT’s “Next Women of Country” last year, and landed on Pandora’s “2018 Country Artistes to Watch.”
She released her debut EP, “I’m Good,” this autumn. Her fi rst single was “Make Him Wait,” a piano- driven ballad that urges girls not to feel pressured while dating: “When his Pontiac’s in the driveway/ and his eyes are midnight blue/ Take a deep breath, do the opposite/ of what you wanna do/ ... A boy’s gonna run, but a real man’s gonna stay/ Girl, make him wait.”
Written with hit songwriters Tom Douglas and Josh Kerr, it has been streamed more than four million times on Spotify. Anderson was surprised the ballad connected so much with listeners, who have shared countless personal stories about what the song means to them.
“That just goes to show how privileged I was growing up to write a song like that and not think anything of it: Like, ‘Yeah, every girl knows this,’” Anderson said. “But most girls don’t know that or understand their worth or understand their value as a young woman. ... I’m really happy with the message that song brought.”
Anderson’ s bubbly, stream-of-consciousness Ins tag ram presence has brought her thousands more followers as she heads into 2019 with many tour dates and plans to release new music. And in a genre that suffers from a serious gender imbalance on the radio, Anderson is poised to become a breakout artiste: During CMT’s artiste of the year ceremony last month, Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild listed her as one of the singers that radio should be playing. For Anderson, it was an extremely significant moment.
“Very rarely am I quiet, but I was bawling and just taking a moment to tell myself, ‘One day, hopefully when I’m standing where Miss Karen Fairchild is, I’ll remember that girl sitting side stage bawling her eyes out,’” Anderson said. “I’ll always remember that feeling, and that moment.” — WP-Bloomberg
Abby Anderson, country singer-songwriter