Theresa Andersson

She put out one of the best albums of the year in 2006, but most people have never heard of her. Outside New Orleans she is hardly known, if at all, by most listeners. Her name is Theresa Andersson and she is another transplanted native to the crescent city. Originally from Sweden Theresa moved to New Orleans with her boyfriend at the time Anders Osborne. Anders is another local singer/songerwriter. After living together the two broke up and Theresa went her own way, first moving to Nashville than Austin until she finally found her way back home to New Orleans.

Theresa is a singer and multi-instrumentalist, playing everything from guitar to the banjo to her preferred choice the violin. But don’t expect sweet classical sounds to come from her violin. She makes her violin wail like a heavy metal guitarist does his guitar. Her singing style is reminiscent of Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams. She can sing anything from a sweet ballad to a more rocking tune.

To date she’s released four albums, from the debut titled Vibe to the now out of print No Regrets to Shine and her latest the self titled ep. Her most recent was supposed to be a full length but a little something called Katrina interrupted the recording process. Afterwards she decided to release what she had finished as a five song ep. This small album was one of the best pieces of music that was put out in the year 2006. Every song on it was a gem, from the Lucinda Williams cover of “Jackson” to the surprise cover of the Madonna song “Boderline”. If you’re not a fan of Madonna, don’t worry, this song does not sound anything like the Material Girl. I listened to it twice before I realized where I had heard the original song.

Theresa is not a writer of her own material, but she has a great ear for picking wonderful tunes to record. I think this is important. Too many singers want to write their own material, even if they’re not capable of it. I think it shows great wisdom for a singer nowdays to chose other writer’s material and not think they have to write all their own material.

In concert Theresa shows a lot harder rocking side than she has so far on disc. She makes her violin wail like a banashee in concert. Her version of Gillian Welch’s “I Want to Sing Rock and Roll” is a classic that deserves to be recorded.

She is currently working on a new record that should be out by the end of summer. This is a release you should mark down and make a point of getting when it comes out. If it’s half as good as her last one it will be great.

"Borderline"