Joyce Andersen built her career singing and playing violin across an array of settings, moving from bluegrass and country ensembles in her native New England through New York jazz venues and onto the Nashville tour-bus circuit for more than ten years. By 2000 she had begun presenting herself as a singer-songwriter, bringing a distinctive new presence to acoustic music. Her voice can project with power or shift into a sultry register, whether delivering bluegrass, old-time, or blues numbers with full force or delivering ballads and Celtic pieces with quiet intensity, and she also draws audiences in with her own memorable pop and rock compositions. Andersen trained on violin at Berklee College of Music and has supported a wide range of folk and country performers throughout her professional life. She has performed on the Conan O'Brien show as well as on stages including the Winterhawk Bluegrass Festival and Carnegie Hall. Following several years based in New York, the New Hampshire native returned to Southern Maine, where she turned her attention to completing her first solo recording, The Girl I Left Behind, issued in September 2000. The album showcases Andersen's vocals, guitar, and violin across a mix of original, traditional, and contemporary acoustic material, with some tracks presented alone and others featuring contributions from Jon Ross, Harvey Reid, David Surette, and Lex Romane. Her trajectory continues forward, as the debut receives favorable notice across the country.
