Karen Lee Andrews

Powerhouse, Karen Lee Andrews celebrates the release of her new EP EDIN. EDIN is powerful, entertaining and vulnerable – a journey where Karen shares her artistry and her story with her audience. Karen is in possession of a unique sense of artistic purpose. Surrounded by music her entire life, Karen’s career to date has largely revolved around classic soul and rhythm and blues sounds. But in recent years, as her musicality has evolved, she’s been leaning more towards blues with a nod to dirty rock and power ballads. The influence of soul, gospel and Karen’s Polynesian background continues to inform what she does, but the blues has come to feel more like home. The beginnings of this shift were apparent on Karen’s 2018 EP, Far From Paradise, which served as a declaration of independence following several years appeasing the expectations of a major label. Karen wrote every song on Far From Paradise and in the process she found not just a distinct songwriting voice, but also a vindicating artistic practice. The EP was led by the Sharon Jones-esque single, ‘Higher’, which sees Karen toting a guitar in a manner akin to the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, supported by a muscular rhythm section. The four-song sequence also features the soul-baring spiritual, ‘Troubled Mind’, replete with evangelic organ, and the mud-stained rocker, ‘Going Down’. Karen’s also one of the country’s hardest working live performers. From the release of Far From Paradise up until now, Karen and her band spent nearly every weekend travelling the east coast of Australia, appearing at Woodford Folk Festival, Queenscliff Music Festival and Bello Winter Music and supporting icons such as Jimmy Barnes and Gregory Porter as well as hher own sold out shows. 2023 has been another epic festival year for Karen – performing at WOMAD and Blues on Broadbeach.