That High Lonesome Sound

James Andrews remembers the first time that he came to Fossil. It was nine years ago when he moved to town as an AmeriCorps member with the ETHOS music program. Andrews got a ride from his dad and was dropped off in Fossil – sight unseen.

"I was game for it – I'm used to culture shock," Andrews says. As his dad pulled away, James looked over at his neighbor's house and saw a young boy who was throwing knives at a fence.

"I did wonder for a second what I had gotten myself into," James says with a laugh. But for someone like Andrews, the road has been one with a lot of twists and turns.

James Andrews grew up between Cincinnati, Sacramento, and Singapore. His father was an executive with Proctor & Gamble. Moving around was part of the gig for his family. But it was the move to Singapore that made the biggest impression. "I went kicking and screaming," Andrews recalls.

James grew up with music in the house. His father was an amateur guitar player who played music at church. When James went into fifth grade in Cincinnati, he fought for a saxophone spot in the band class. "The saxophone was a very popular instrument and they already had eight or nine kids in those spots, so they were trying to dissuade me from the sax."

It didn't work. Andrews dug in and said he was playing the sax or nothing at all. He quickly showed an aptitude for the instrument and for learning music in general.

"I remember early on that I could figure out songs pretty quick," Andrews says. "I remember learning the "Titanic" theme – that was big at the time and got a reaction."

The family moved to Singapore when Andrews started high school in 9th grade. His initial anger at his father's decision to move the family halfway around the world quickly faded. "Ex-pat life kinda suited me," he recalls. The school in Singapore had exceptional programs and a multitude of extra-curricular classes. Andrews got into a jazz class and made the top tiered group, equivalent to a varsity squad. The older kids let him know that he needed to practice and keep up or he would be out.

James Andrews says that he was your stereotypical band geek through ninth grade. He practiced on the saxophone daily and was competitive. But he then got into rock-n-roll.

"AC/DC, hair metal – I had to play the guitar," he says with a laugh. "And the guitar was a lot cooler."

Andrews recalls going to the mall with his dad and getting a bright green Yamaha electric guitar and an amplifier. He'd rush home from school each day to play.

"It kind of took my attention away from the saxophone and I did butt heads with my saxophone teacher," Andrews says.

In time, James's taste in music also changed and he gravitated around 1970s singer/songwriter artists. He listened to Elton John and David Bowie. Andrews says that he had a paradigm shift for his musical future.

"I would say that it improved my taste and moved me away from being a rocker to wanting to be a songwriter."

After graduating from school in Singapore, Andrews moved to Canada and attended university in Vancouver, British Columbia. The city and its bohemian culture provided a newfound freedom for Andrews and for his musical direction. He jammed continuously with classmates and friends. After graduating, he got a call from a friend who said that he should move to Portland.

"It was the height of the Portlandia years," says Andrews. "I tried the musician thing for awhile and found that it's a hard path."

James was playing anywhere that he could and found that the saxophone made it easier to sit-in, compared with the guitar. He would go out looking for people to sit-in with all the time and began to create a bond with a few other musicians.

"I met a guy named Robert Castile who used to be teaching with ETHOS in Fossil, his band actually played the Fourth of July Celebration in Condon one year."

Robert Castile told James that he had just finished teaching music in Fossil and that they needed a teacher.

"It was kind of a lifeline and I thought, it sounds like a radical adventure," he recalls.

After teaching for the year in Fossil, James moved to The Dalles and taught music at Dufur. It was also during this time that James realized that he didn't want to be a music teacher, though he did love the profession.

Andrews moved to Condon in 2021 and began teaching Social Studies at Condon High School. Last year, he moved to Fossil and began teaching at the Fossil School. Along with Social Studies, Andrews also teaches a rock-band music class to high school kids. All the while, Andrews has pounded the pavement and continued to gig and network. Andrews says that these past five years have been formative. He credits connections in The Dalles and specifically members of Brewers Grade with his development as a songwriter and performer. It was also during his time that he learned how to merge the two instruments that he loved – the saxophone and the guitar. At The Dalles Ironworks, Andrews brought his saxophone stand and asked for it to be altered so that he could play it while also playing the guitar.

"I've never seen anybody do it," James says. "Is anybody else doing this, where they play guitar and sax at the same time? For me, it came out of necessity because I love to play with other musicians when I can."

Using a loop pedal, he then learned how to loop sounds from the guitar and then play the saxophone over it. He also began writing more music and began recording himself. He released a few songs but wasn't happy with the quality and he dreamed of a day when he could get into a professional studio.

"I've been trying to write songs since I was 16," Andrews says. "I've had aspirations to make an album for so long and there's so many times that I attempted to do it. I learned the hard way that either the songs just weren't at the quality that I wanted, or my abilities weren't where they needed them to be at."

It took years for Andrews to sharpen his skills and to hone his craft. He began sitting in on studio sessions with other musicians, many of whom he met while gigging in The Dalles.

Then, Andrews had a chance encounter. He was introduced to Luke Basile, who grew up in Heppner. Basile is a musician and sound engineer and is close with Zach Grooms and Al Hare, both of whom are in Brewers Grade and both have solo careers.

Luke Basile came to Condon with Zach Grooms and ran sound for the 2021 New Year's Eve party. Andrews and Basile immediately hit it off. They share a love for Theo Katzman and Martin Sexton – two musicians that blend jazz, funk, folk, and rock. Andrews knew that he had found the right guy to help make his first studio album.

James Andrews worked for months writing songs and obsessed over each individual part for Basile and drummer Gary Stivers. Last August, Andrews went to Rainmaker Studios in Tri-Cities where Basile is the lead engineer. In two days, the trio recorded and overdubbed the EP album "Singing to Silos."

"It was just really, really rewarding," Andrews says. "It's the first time I've made something that I really feel good about. That I feel really proud of."

The album, titled "Singing to Silos" is a showcase of Andrew's talents. All six songs on the album have a unique feel.

The opening song on the album, "Fighting the Wave" has folk influences and speaks to mortality, and finding love. The second song is the title track, "Singing to Silos." Stivers drumming and use of the brush wire on the snares, along with Basile's playing of the steel guitar is a perfect fit with Andrew's guitar and voice. It's the one song on the album with a distinct traditional country feel.

Andrews sings: "I sing to silos, and I'm the only. As far as we goes, it's like you told me. It's been so long now, and I can't hold me. So I sing to silos, cause they know lonely."

The following track is "My Lorraine" – which opens with Andrews playing the sax and sounds like something Van Morrison wishes that he would have written. Next is "Come and Gone," and Andrews plays electric guitar on this one. Andrews tries to imagine a bygone era, where people would dance instead of staring blankly into their phones.

"Where Else Should You Be?" could be the winter song for 2024. A warning song about treacherous roads and the little time that we have with that special someone.

The final track on the album is "Skyline," a haunting love song that builds until Andrews proclaims, "I'm going all in!" several times in repetition.

The album "Singing to Silos" is available on most streaming platforms under James Lawrence Andrews.

For Andrews, there is little time to take a victory lap. These days, he is back at school, teaching in Fossil and playing gigs where and when he can. But as a true artist, Andrews is also getting fidgety. He has already spoken with Basile about getting back into the studio and has begun writing new songs. He is also finding new inspiration and has a desire to create new sounds that push him in new directions.

"I'd be a horrible musician if I ever had a manager that was trying to brand me in one particular way," Andrews says. "I just like too many different kinds of music."