Courtney Fairchild

Eighteen-year-old, Courtney Fairchild has only been playing guitar for five years and writing her own songs for two, but she already comes off like a pro...her solo singing and acoustic guitar playing were more what you'd expec at an open mic - only good.

-Matt Weitz - The Dallas Morning News - Overnight Section - July 25, 2000 - Dallas Morning News

"All the beauty and trappings mainstream pop/country has to offer."

They're playing Feist in supermarkets now. "Mushaboom" and "1234" have finally replaced the endless Michael Bolton selections as the soundtrack to your food shopping. I enjoy it, but I don't understand it. They don't play good music in supermarkets, dentist offices, and everywhere else Musak pumps through. So is Feist not good music? Or has she just managed to reconcile the two alien words of making art and mass consumption?

I honestly think it's the latter. And I think Courtney Fairchild, with her deep, sultry voice, thinks so, too. With her latest, 11 Chances, Fairchild has attempted to make good, commercially-viable music. With few exceptions, the two never quite blend together, but I commend the effort.

"Nowhere In Texas" crawls with a smokey, Southern ballad. "My Eyes Adjust" is a pretty little thing that only falters when it gets a little too sing-songy in the verse. "Banjo Shaker" is as Neko Case as you can get without being Neko Case, and I can totally see this working as New Pornographers b-side. "Money Don't Matter" manages to be upbeat and peppy while still maintaining a melodic Texas drawl. The titular track is the real standout it's got this lite-FM meets Rilo Kiley feel that truly accomplishes the goal of making good songs accessible to everyone. The problems only com out when the record gets too dry and predictable, teetering on the edge of pap. But thankfully, it never gets that bad, and such instances are rare, but noticeable.

This is a record with mainstream appeal, for better or worse. My mom would like this record, and I like this record, too. But I love my mom, and I love Feist.

-Matt Cohen

- Matt Cohen

...especially on Friday and Saturday nights, Deep Ellum really comes alive. Streets are full of reverlers and there are a dozen clubs where live bands play until very late. Styles run the gamut...For a change of pace I retreated to Club DaDa, where I was able to sit at a table and listen to a sweet-voiced singer named Courtney Fairchild whose torch songs were a lovely antidote to the blasting rock music at nearby clubs.

-Stephen Kinzer - New York Times - Travel Section - April 8, 2001 - The New York Times

It’s the voice. It’s the voice that will ultimately stop you dead in your tracks as you saunter drunk from the bar to the foul one-stall bathroom of a smoky club. It’s the kind of voice that evokes a sincerity and grit you feel deep inside, allowing you to almost telepathically envision the tortured life-story of an artist in one 4 minute song. If I heard singer-songwriter Courtney Fairchild in a bar, I’d stop too. Her 4th full length release, 11 Chances, recorded at a friend’s guesthouse in the summer of ’08 and with the help of “copious amounts of bourbon”, showcases a voice incredibly forlorn and original, yet a tad reminiscent of Tracy Chapman as she channels her soothing, warm alto register.
Slick production works in tandem with a grassroots indie-folk sensibility peppered with organic banjos, upright pianos, mandolins and tambourines. Electro inspired keyboards occasionally tie it all together keeping the sound current and on point. Each track is painted with intellectual, thought provoking lyrics as candid as diary entries. Lost and unrequited love are just some of the enduring themes that ebb and flow throughout the 11 track record. “Sex drugs and Catholic guilt” eventually round it all out.
In a particularly strong track, ‘Banjo Shaker’ she laments: “I’m in love with what really hurts,” a line and hook that will be keep most humming it in their heads for days upon first listen. Her lyrics continue with honest complexity: “every now and then I think that she’s in love with me, it’s usually when she’s drunk and she can barely stand to see.” Each love-lorn song feels like stops on an emotional road trip, with stories that guide the listener to the next roadside diner.
On ‘Nowhere in Texas’ her voice takes a wonderfully unexpected baritone dive, as she playfully toys with the listeners ears. At times you wonder if it’s the same voice from the earlier title track. Slow and melodic, the slide guitar grooves to illustrate her innate Texas roots.
Fairchild’s yearning continues as she contends: “they say don’t ask these questions the edge is too close, but they never held you so how would they know.” Fairchild closes the record with a final word on the state of the new music industry, putting it all into perspective with ‘Money Don’t Matter.’ She preaches: “when you’re praying for your biggest break to finding out there’s just no way, but the money don’t matter if the hope is gone.” With the help of an achingly beautiful voice and her veracious lyrics, 11 Chances defines her indifference and her pain, as well as an irrefutable sense of hope that sees her through an occasionally dispiriting landscape.
- Cat Veit

Courtney Fairchild is a young, first year college student who sings like she's got the weight of the world on her shoulders. She's got a serious, killer voice that is easy to get lost in. Fairchild also writes and delivers solid songs - not solid songs for and eighteen year old, but mature lyrics beyond expectation. On this deut, six-original-song acoustic CD, tastefully produced by Sally Semrad, Fairchild introduces herself to the larger world with a small, strong, introspective collection that should leave listeners wanting more. She has enough potential that the EP might become a collecters item. Her songs ache with one side of the human condition - absence, loss, longing, and moving on - and with the quest for acceptance and identity. They are best at their simplest.

-Tom Geddie - Buddy Magazine - October, 2000 - Buddy Magazine

It’s just inevitable, and so Courtney Fairchild gives ample warning: “If you’re going to be my friend or somehow a part of my life, you’re going to make an appearance someday.”
And by that she means in one of her songs.
Consider that her new album, “11 Chances,” is peopled with the familiar: the ex-wife who didn’t follow her from her native Texas to Philadelphia, where she’s lived for almost three years now; the ex-best friend and songwriting partner who couldn’t cope with her divorce and relocation; a dear friend who lost her husband to tragically unforeseen circumstances; even a casual acquaintance who mentioned her desire to get a tattoo of the bleeding heart of Jesus Christ on her thigh …
The references are occasionally specific, but most of the time, unrelated incidents and individuals are woven together, the distinct serving as arresting detail in an otherwise ambiguous narrative.
“I try not to do anything out of malice or spite,” says Fairchild, who performs Saturday at The Fire in Philadelphia with her band The Stone Hand Tortillas. “It’s like a puzzle. You get an idea and start a song, and then start pulling things together, which is why a lot of times they end up being two or three stories rolled into one.”
Whatever the subject, she has only this requisite: that each song heft as much weight intellectually as emotionally. And so “11 Chances,” her fourth full-length album for Stanley Recordings, is a sophisticated collection that ponders fractured relationships and the pain of separation, delusions of arrogance and the hypocrisy of faith. Even her adopted hometown of Philadelphia gets its own ode with the vibrantly limned “My Eyes Adjust,” while the fickle music industry takes its fair share of hits. The anchor throughout is Fairchild’s voice, a thick, smoky instrument glinting — at times plaintively, at others sardonically — from a warm, smooth synthesis of country-tinged rock and folk-pop.
The singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist doesn’t write with an agenda, but she does want audiences to know how seriously she takes her craft.
“I can’t stand lyrics that are so dumbed down and spoon fed, which is what a lot of music today is about,” she says. “I think that’s my job as a songwriter, to put something out there that might inspire somebody in some way or make them feel connected or like someone understands what they’re going through.”
It’s the kind of refuge she’s found in the artists who’ve influenced her, people like Rickie Lee Jones, Joe Henry, Mark Eitzel of the American Music Club and Kathleen Edwards. But her appreciation for strong lyrics doesn’t necessarily translate to prolific creativity. Never mind that Fairchild independently released her first EP at 18 and was signed to Stanley Recordings, then based solely in California, shortly after. A creative writing major at the University of Texas-Dallas, she actually recorded her second CD, “Long Way,” during breaks from college. Her writing over the course of her career has continued to come in spurts.
“11 Chances,” in fact, represents the first batch of songs specifically written for one record.
“When I was younger, I would freak out if a year went by and I didn’t write a song. I would think my career was over, but now I can go for long stretches without writing anything and then in a week, four or five songs come out,” she says. “I’m no Leonard Cohen. I write very sporadically unless a record is happening.”
If the songs spill from a darker vein, it isn’t because she hasn’t tried her hand at more cheerful fare.
“Every time I try to write a happy song, it ends up sounding like ‘The Brady Bunch’ song so we don’t record those,” says Fairchild. “It’s not that I have anything against uplifting or even spiritual music; it’s just not what comes out of me.”
She has been writing songs since she was 17, a natural progression stemming from an early affinity for music and poetry — and the salvaging of an old Yamaha guitar from the bottom of a hall closet. Fairchild also grew up in a musical family. Although they weren’t professionals, her mother and great-grandmother both played piano, and mom also sang with a Sweet Adelines barbershop chorus in Dallas. Fairchild’s own piano lessons were short-lived — she quit at 5 after about just two years of taking them — but she always loved to sing, performing at church functions and in the school choir.
Still, she was set on being a professional athlete until a high school injury sidelined her and looking for something else to fill her time, she became serious about the guitar. Though she never learned to read music, she became proficient with the help of a patient instructor and by 18 was already a fixture among the clubs and bars in Dallas.
“At the time, there was a surge in women-fronted bands and there was a group of women who’d taken me under their wing and they would sneak me into the bars,” says Fairchild.
Partially on the advice of John Would, who co-founded Stanley Recordings and has p - Naila Francis

Comparisons are pointless - Courtney is peerless among young singer/songwriters - her voice is stronger than most - thick and emotive in a way that Michelle Branch or Vanessa Carlton would starve for - and her lyrics are wiser. They don't beg you to love them, they don't care if you really do, but ultimately, they know you will. Her life is in her music and there's not a single wrong note among the twelve tracks - from the opening Not Ready to the closing No Answer all you hear is a woman, becoming.

-anonymous - Digital City Los Angeles: user review - Digital City Los Angeles

The Search for the Great Unknown #9
-Johan Schoenmakers
http://www.altcountryforum.nl/2009/04/01/op-zoek-naar-het-grote-onbekende-9/


For my search we put ourselves in Texas, with Courtney Fairchild who was born in 1981. Born in Texas and raised in Dallas, Courtney Fairchild started singing the moment she could open her mouth. At fourteen, she made her first steps into the world of writing. Because of her patient guitar teacher, who gave her lessons, by seventeen, she started writing songs, followed by performances. With the help and encouragement of friendly local musicians from Dallas, and bar and club owners who allowed her to perform, she started to become a steady, regular artist in Dallas. At eighteen Courtney Fairchild released her first CD. It was the first contact she had with Stanley Recordings, which has been her label ever since. In 2002, she signed a contract with Stanley Recordings’ distribution company and recorded for them her second CD “Long Way”. By working with producer John Would she was exposed to new music, like Joe Henry, Rickie Lee Jones, and American Music Club. “Quit”, her third CD which came out in September 2007, was an innovative result. Longtime Dallas based drummer, Gabriel Martinez made the move with Courtney to Philadelphia to be closer to Stanley Recordings east coast operations. Together with bass guitarist Jeff Silberman, keyboardist Ami Verrill and producer John Would, they flew to Los Angeles to play everywhere and nowhere. Her third CD “Quit” was played on commercial radio stations. During the summer of 2008, Fairchild wrote the greater part of the recently issued disc “11 Chances”. Spread out over a few months, this new CD was recorded with her steady crew of musicians. An extremely pleasant sounding alternative rock record in the genre of Wilco and in some moments Bonnie Raitt. A CD that’s kept beautifully bare and not stuffed with as many instruments as possible. The lyrics in “11 Chances” are about Courtney’s own experiences and experiences with other people whom she knows very well. Opening with the semi-ballad “London”, “11 Chances” contains a number of extremely pleasant alternative rock numbers, like the title track, “Circles”, Hard Time Believing” and “Banjo Shaker” which was written by Courtney’s longtime producer John Would (“I’m in love what really hurts”). “Banjo Shaker” sounds wonderfully supple [and] with Courtney on acoustic guitar and a guitar solo by John Would this would be a good number for radio-airplay.

In the beautiful ballad “Nowhere in Texas” Courtney thinks back to her place of birth. “Everyone calls me, but there’s nothing to say, so I just let the phone ring”. On the beautifully scaled back acoustic track “Constellate”, which Courtney Fairchild wrote especially for a friend who was getting married, her voice sounds warm, bluesy and, to make a comparison, reminiscent stylistically of Bonnie Raitt.

“11 Chances” closes bluesy with “Gold Rush State”, telling the story about her own personal experiences. The question does arise who Mary, Ann and June, who appear in “Gold Rush State”, are. The Blues-rocking “Money Don’t Matter” really concludes Courtney’s “11 Chances” “Money don’t matter if the hope is gone”.
“11 Chances” by Courtney Fairchild is a CD with a number of beautiful ballads and alt rock numbers that lies midway between Wilco and Bonnie Raitt.

Courtney, I will not let you go until you answer my key question!
What is your search for the Great Unknown in music:

“Creating music that is true to who I am as an artist and a songwriter while reaching a wide-ranging audience. I find that it can be hard to meld the two and that it’s a delicate balance between creativity and business (i.e. making a living through music). My label is small and independent and we come from a place of friends helping friends to navigate the crumbling music industry and to create something new that will endure whatever the future holds for the business side of making music. I do what I do because I have always had a passion for it and I feel like I have something worthwhile to share through my music and my goal has always been to continue my career and to make a living doing what I do. That can be tricky these days because there is no “right” way to go about it, but my label and I are searching to find what works for us…so in a way, to me, it’s the great unknown”.

Really nice, such a bluesy and rocking record from the Texas born Courtney Fairchild. You can find more information about Courtney and her music via:

www.myspace.com/courtneyfairchild
- Altcountryforum.nl Review

The Search for the Great Unknown #9
-Johan Schoenmakers
http://www.altcountryforum.nl/2009/04/01/op-zoek-naar-het-grote-onbekende-9/


For my search we put ourselves in Texas, with Courtney Fairchild who was born in 1981. Born in Texas and raised in Dallas, Courtney Fairchild started singing the moment she could open her mouth. At fourteen, she made her first steps into the world of writing. Because of her patient guitar teacher, who gave her lessons, by seventeen, she started writing songs, followed by performances. With the help and encouragement of friendly local musicians from Dallas, and bar and club owners who allowed her to perform, she started to become a steady, regular artist in Dallas. At eighteen Courtney Fairchild released her first CD. It was the first contact she had with Stanley Recordings, which has been her label ever since. In 2002, she signed a contract with Stanley Recordings’ distribution company and recorded for them her second CD “Long Way”. By working with producer John Would she was exposed to new music, like Joe Henry, Rickie Lee Jones, and American Music Club. “Quit”, her third CD which came out in September 2007, was an innovative result. Longtime Dallas based drummer, Gabriel Martinez made the move with Courtney to Philadelphia to be closer to Stanley Recordings east coast operations. Together with bass guitarist Jeff Silberman, keyboardist Ami Verrill and producer John Would, they flew to Los Angeles to play everywhere and nowhere. Her third CD “Quit” was played on commercial radio stations. During the summer of 2008, Fairchild wrote the greater part of the recently issued disc “11 Chances”. Spread out over a few months, this new CD was recorded with her steady crew of musicians. An extremely pleasant sounding alternative rock record in the genre of Wilco and in some moments Bonnie Raitt. A CD that’s kept beautifully bare and not stuffed with as many instruments as possible. The lyrics in “11 Chances” are about Courtney’s own experiences and experiences with other people whom she knows very well. Opening with the semi-ballad “London”, “11 Chances” contains a number of extremely pleasant alternative rock numbers, like the title track, “Circles”, Hard Time Believing” and “Banjo Shaker” which was written by Courtney’s longtime producer John Would (“I’m in love what really hurts”). “Banjo Shaker” sounds wonderfully supple [and] with Courtney on acoustic guitar and a guitar solo by John Would this would be a good number for radio-airplay.

In the beautiful ballad “Nowhere in Texas” Courtney thinks back to her place of birth. “Everyone calls me, but there’s nothing to say, so I just let the phone ring”. On the beautifully scaled back acoustic track “Constellate”, which Courtney Fairchild wrote especially for a friend who was getting married, her voice sounds warm, bluesy and, to make a comparison, reminiscent stylistically of Bonnie Raitt.

“11 Chances” closes bluesy with “Gold Rush State”, telling the story about her own personal experiences. The question does arise who Mary, Ann and June, who appear in “Gold Rush State”, are. The Blues-rocking “Money Don’t Matter” really concludes Courtney’s “11 Chances” “Money don’t matter if the hope is gone”.
“11 Chances” by Courtney Fairchild is a CD with a number of beautiful ballads and alt rock numbers that lies midway between Wilco and Bonnie Raitt.

Courtney, I will not let you go until you answer my key question!
What is your search for the Great Unknown in music:

“Creating music that is true to who I am as an artist and a songwriter while reaching a wide-ranging audience. I find that it can be hard to meld the two and that it’s a delicate balance between creativity and business (i.e. making a living through music). My label is small and independent and we come from a place of friends helping friends to navigate the crumbling music industry and to create something new that will endure whatever the future holds for the business side of making music. I do what I do because I have always had a passion for it and I feel like I have something worthwhile to share through my music and my goal has always been to continue my career and to make a living doing what I do. That can be tricky these days because there is no “right” way to go about it, but my label and I are searching to find what works for us…so in a way, to me, it’s the great unknown”.

Really nice, such a bluesy and rocking record from the Texas born Courtney Fairchild. You can find more information about Courtney and her music via:

www.myspace.com/courtneyfairchild
- Altcountryforum.nl Review

As a teenager, Courtney Fairchild wasn’t old enough to get into the places where she sang her songs, but her mature, soothing voice and intelligent, wistful songs made her seem five to ten years older. Now she’s grow up, if the late 20’s is grown up, and has been to college and seen some of the world and tested herself a bit and released some CDs.

Her fifth (by my count) CD, 11 Chances, has basically that same voice, the same wistful-sounding songs, the same intelligence wrapped around a bit more experience. Dissatisfied with “bits and bytes of saccharine-soaked information” in so many pop songs that leaves listeners hungry, she set out to satisfy the intellect as well as the heart.

Her songs are rooted in reality, but closer to the edges than to the pop culture mirror. On the title song, for example, a “pretty boy” who claims to know everything and to be important wonders why he’s alone.

The alt-pop sound is full enough for radio, which means that Fairchild’s still-mesmerizing voice is sometimes more than an additional instrument in the well played mix. When her voice dominates, as it does on, for example, “Constellate,” the songs take on extra strength. John Would produced and played electric, acoustic, and slide guitars, piano, keyboards, banjo, mandolin, tambourine, and various noises. The rest of the Stone Hand Tortillas are Jeff Silberman (bass and backing vocals), Ami Verrill (piano and backing vocals), and Gabriel Martinez (drums and percussion).

Fairchild accomplished her goal, at least with this listener; I don’t feel hungry after listening to 11 Chances.


-Tom Geddie
- Buddy Magazine April 2009

As a teenager, Courtney Fairchild wasn’t old enough to get into the places where she sang her songs, but her mature, soothing voice and intelligent, wistful songs made her seem five to ten years older. Now she’s grow up, if the late 20’s is grown up, and has been to college and seen some of the world and tested herself a bit and released some CDs.

Her fifth (by my count) CD, 11 Chances, has basically that same voice, the same wistful-sounding songs, the same intelligence wrapped around a bit more experience. Dissatisfied with “bits and bytes of saccharine-soaked information” in so many pop songs that leaves listeners hungry, she set out to satisfy the intellect as well as the heart.

Her songs are rooted in reality, but closer to the edges than to the pop culture mirror. On the title song, for example, a “pretty boy” who claims to know everything and to be important wonders why he’s alone.

The alt-pop sound is full enough for radio, which means that Fairchild’s still-mesmerizing voice is sometimes more than an additional instrument in the well played mix. When her voice dominates, as it does on, for example, “Constellate,” the songs take on extra strength. John Would produced and played electric, acoustic, and slide guitars, piano, keyboards, banjo, mandolin, tambourine, and various noises. The rest of the Stone Hand Tortillas are Jeff Silberman (bass and backing vocals), Ami Verrill (piano and backing vocals), and Gabriel Martinez (drums and percussion).

Fairchild accomplished her goal, at least with this listener; I don’t feel hungry after listening to 11 Chances.


-Tom Geddie
- Buddy Magazine April 2009

Courtney Fairchild has been moving around for a few years, and this collection of poetic and personal songs centers on journeys, physical and emotional. Fairchild's songs concern her own travels, but the feelings they describe are universal enough to provoke a flash of recognition.

Beginning with sketch details of scenes out of her past, she hints at tales surrounding various relocations. These include her recent flight from life and love in Dallas, explored in "Circles," written in a car in trasit, and settling down in Philadelphia ("My Eyes Adjust"). The atmospheric songs sound like letters to someone important from her past, and she uses her lovely smoky voice and a top-notch band to do them justice. Fairchild unwinds her stories in a strong, wise voice, her range sometimes making her sound like an entirely different person.

In the opener, "London" she exudes tough girl vulnerability and her sweet sultry voice invites comparisons with Feist and Ani DiFranco. A few songs later, she drops into a baritone range for the moodier "Nowhere in Texas," which made me check to make sure it was not someone else on the vocals. There's a cleer song referencing Allen Ginsburg and a litany of writers' curses. In the rueful "Banjo Shaker," she admits, "This has been a test/well you've failed it miserably/I'm in love with what really hurts." Fairchild is backed by some great musicians, including Warren Zevon Guitarist John Would (who also produced the record) and drummer Gabriel Martinez, who know when to step back and let her singing say it all. One nagging question: what is happening on the CD cover? Is she in a train station signaling to planes passing overhead? Just asking. -Kay Cordtz - Elmore Magazine July/August 2009 Issue - Elmore Magazine

Courtney Fairchild has been moving around for a few years, and this collection of poetic and personal songs centers on journeys, physical and emotional. Fairchild's songs concern her own travels, but the feelings they describe are universal enough to provoke a flash of recognition.

Beginning with sketch details of scenes out of her past, she hints at tales surrounding various relocations. These include her recent flight from life and love in Dallas, explored in "Circles," written in a car in trasit, and settling down in Philadelphia ("My Eyes Adjust"). The atmospheric songs sound like letters to someone important from her past, and she uses her lovely smoky voice and a top-notch band to do them justice. Fairchild unwinds her stories in a strong, wise voice, her range sometimes making her sound like an entirely different person.

In the opener, "London" she exudes tough girl vulnerability and her sweet sultry voice invites comparisons with Feist and Ani DiFranco. A few songs later, she drops into a baritone range for the moodier "Nowhere in Texas," which made me check to make sure it was not someone else on the vocals. There's a cleer song referencing Allen Ginsburg and a litany of writers' curses. In the rueful "Banjo Shaker," she admits, "This has been a test/well you've failed it miserably/I'm in love with what really hurts." Fairchild is backed by some great musicians, including Warren Zevon Guitarist John Would (who also produced the record) and drummer Gabriel Martinez, who know when to step back and let her singing say it all. One nagging question: what is happening on the CD cover? Is she in a train station signaling to planes passing overhead? Just asking. -Kay Cordtz - Elmore Magazine July/August 2009 Issue - Elmore Magazine