Pauline Andrès - Fearless Heart (2018)

Born in France a coal miner's daughter, Pauline Andres made a name for herself with a sweet and smoky voice that “perfectly conveys the thoughts and observations of an old soul walking home at closing time.” She’s lived in Paris, London, Berlin and now Nashville. She travelled the world, survived life threatening diseases, late night fights and all kinds of heartbreaks. Her nonchalant style tastefully serves an inclination for ordinary suffering and every day disappointments combined with subtle literary references.

The songstress recently settled in Music City after spending 5 years in Berlin, where she recorded the accidental EP Fuck You French Girl and 2 LPs: All Them Ghosts and The Heart Breaks. Both records helped her build a reputation as a skilled lyricist and unique vocalist but all the while she knew, she had the wrong town. Too country for the local indie fans, too rock & roll for the old school country aficionados around. After the positive reception of The Heart Breaks in the US, she decided to join “her” people, in the American South.

This decision gave birth to her 3rd opus, originally named “Loneliest Girl in Nashville”, which then turned into “Fearless Heart”, “Can’t Keep A Town” and back to “Fearless Heart”. The reason for those changes lie in the nature of the process that made this record what it is: a “stray dog record”. It’s an eclectic mix of tunes that cover heavy rock songs carried by victorious guitars and booming drums (Fearless Heart, Good Grace), pure Americana (Loneliest Girl in Nashville, Let’s Be Outlaws), more intimate, heavy hearted ballads (October 29, Can’t Keep a Town, WWIII With You) and even a big pop Christmas song (Christmas in Paris, TN). But there’s a continuity in the track listing: in the signature songwriting of Andres, her distinct vocal style and the running theme of geographical instability. The heartache of the search for a place where she’d fit, a place called home. Always moving, always changing, the record is a true reflection of Andres’ way of working and living: on the move and on the run. Full of contradictions.

She’s written, composed, played and produced all the songs on the new record, faithful to her independent nature and work process. But for this new record, she wanted a bigger, better sound. And so she’s had help. First and foremost from long time friend and co-producer Jack Davis (Bear Witness Production) a US native, Berlin based producer and multi-instrumentalist. But also from musicians she’s worked with before including Thomas Guiducci, Stefano Chiappo and Nashville based pedal steel champion Andy Ellison. The record was mixed by grammy nominated engineer Ross Petersen, who’s worked with some of the biggest names in the industry including Andres’ hero Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow or Shania Twain.