10 December 2009:

You know what they say: There’s no place more intimate than the back of a tour bus.  So no better a place for us to get in from the cold and up close with Andrew Belle and two of his songs.

Andrew had recently joined Ten out of Tenn on a short Christmas tour.  Ten out of Tenn is a wonderful group of songwriters that rotate during their show performing a couple of their own songs while the others help with accompaniment.  This results is an entire set of smart, beautifully written songs.  If you like indie songwriters, it’s like getting a taste test of 10 brand new ice cream flavors (and then you go out and get 10 new albums after you end up loving them all).  Anyway, I highly suggest checking out each and every musician in Ten out of Tenn.

Alright, back to Andrew.  So we had planned on having Andrew perform under a street light near the Bluebird Theater.  It was in the 30s though, and low-light shooting isn’t always as wonderful as you think it will be in your mind, so I was happy when Andrew invited us to do it on the Ten out of Tenn tour bus.  We shrugged off generator noise and fairly low lighting in the back of the bus as a trade off for an intimate performance most fans only dream of.

On “Static Waves” Andrew is joined by Katie Herzig, Matthew Perryman Jones, and Andy Davis. “Ladder” features Jeremy Lister, Matthew Perryman Jones, and Andy Davis.  Click on the pictures to launch the streaming HD player for each song.

By the way, if you’re ever asked onto a band’s tour bus as a guest, don’t accidentally steal one of their coats when packing up your equipment.  Now I have to reset the “__ days without stealing a coat” counter on my wall.

Photos from the Ten out of Tenn show that evening can be seen here.

If you like what you hear, make sure to check out 10outoftenn.com and andrewbelle.com!