★★★★☆
Seattle’s Courtney Marie Andrews has been searching for the sweet spot between blue-collar country and singer-songwriter confessional for the best part of a decade, but Honest Life has the freshness and vitality of a debut. With a strong but subtle voice recalling the straightforward approach of Emmylou Harris and Carole King, Andrews sings in lilting tones on familiar subjects: searching for home, getting over love affairs, how to be a decent person without giving up on your dreams.
None of this is exactly groundbreaking, but Andrews has a mastery of the form and a quietly confident way of expressing feelings that are familiar to all of us. There’s reassuring charm in the simple poetry with which she captures the appeal of the domestic life on Put the Fire Out — “There’s a place for everything and I think I know mine now” — although this is very much an album from a woman trying to work it out as she goes along. As she sings on Honest Life against simple, church-like piano and guitar: “When you have it all figured out, life comes to throw you another doubt.” (Loose)