It is crucial to preface this article with a warning. Without fail, every single set that I saw during ICSF left me in tears.
Art and writing are very important to the culture in Iowa City. You can see both downtown, painted on the side of a building, pasted to a window, or stapled to a telephone pole. I first found out about the Songwriters Festival while passing the Englert on my way to work. Now, roughly three weeks later, I found myself with a press pass and a journal.
Courtney Marie Andrews
The festival started for me on September 5th, sitting in the way back on a plastic chair in Prairie Lights. At roughly 6 pm, Courtney Marie Andrews made her appearance. Andrews, as an acclaimed singer, songwriter, and author from Arizona, most known for her album May Your Kindness Remain. I was personally incredibly unfamiliar with her work. Despite this, after sitting through her performance, I wanted nothing more than to become familiarized with her work. She opened her set by sharing that her new book, Love Is a Dog That Bites When It’s Scared, had been recently published. She described the collection of poems as a story told in three parts. Part one, falling in love, part two, the fall out, and part three, the love around you.
It’s both impressive and gut-wrenching to see how well she was able to capture the feelings of puppy love. Progressing through the section, the sprinkles of doubt started to make a subtle appearance. I knew I was going to be a mess the moment I saw her pick up the guitar. Each chapter ended with a song, and all three blew me out of the water.
Hearing an artist perform in a large venue is always impressive. The venerable and intimate feeling of hearing Courtney Andrews in the middle of Prairie Lights is completely unmatched.
Overall, having the experience of loving and losing someone and then finding yourself condensed down into a single hour left me amazed.
Sunny War
After a text from my roommate who was working an event and a quick sprint across downtown to make it to The James Theater, I found myself listening in the middle of Sunny War’s set. Coming from Nashville, Sunny War’s sound is an incredible mix of rock, folk, and gospel. There is no amount of or arrangement of words that could describe her wonderful performance.
From her set, Have Another Pill, from her Red White and Blue album, stood strong during her performance. Mental health is a concept that has been explored in art for some time. “Have Another Pill” is a key example of this concept. The song details the singer’s first trip to the psych ward, creating a deeply emotional work of art. Watching an artist perform something so intensely personal in a live setting is key to ICSF.
On top of her set, Sunny War kept the crowd entertained with her jokes. Between her ‘you can always just make a face and nod’ and the newly learned knowledge of her dog’s namesake, actor and former firefighter Steve Buscemi, I found it hard to take notes, because every single sentence felt like it the funniest thing in the world.
Sunny War was the final performance of my evening and was a wonderful note to end my night on.
Overall, both Sunny War and Courtney Andrews’ ability to be completely and wholly open in their art showed in every single second of their performances. Both sets worked as perfect tone setters for what would end up being the rest of ICSF.