Glen David Andrews (A Home Away from Home) Interview By: Rob Smittix

GDA: How you feeling my brother?

RRX: Feeling good, how about yourself?

GDA: Really better since December I had like five procedures and a surgery. I’m so happy to be back out but I’m more excited to get back to Troy and hang out with my friend Susie because that’s the first person that brought me to Albany. 

RRX: I never knew that.

GDA: We played at Susie’s like two or three times then we moved to the Lionheart and then we’ve been with Lost and Found ever since but I never lost my friendship with Susie and her husband. Man, I’ve been coming to Albany for ten years straight. I F*** with Albany.

RRX: I see that and I see the Mardi Gras tour started out in Albany at Lost and Found.

GDA: You better believe it, we did a live record!

RRX: Then you’re coming to Troy at McAddy’s March 4th.

GDA: We’re going to bring that same audience, well hopefully some more people, some different people from Troy. I noticed Troy is growing at a rapid rate. 

RRX: It is. Troy is really up and coming, I think. 

GDA: Somebody put some serious money into Troy.

RRX: They’re on the rise, that’s our Brooklyn.

(Both laugh)

RRX: I’m a big fan of your music, I’ve been listening non-stop. You have a great voice first of all. Are you still carrying around that big trombone everywhere you go?

GDA: Not as much, my cousin Revert Andrews plays for me now, but I would never put the trombone down.

RRX: I play a lot of instruments. You know? Jack of all trades, master of none but I have never been able to pay a horn. You need a lot of breath for that.

GDA: It’s a passion of mine that I’ve had since a child and I’m so grateful that I was able to have a horn take me all over the world. From 1994 to present I’ve been somewhere out of the country every year since because of a trombone. 

RRX: How many people do you generally take on a tour like this?

GDA: It depends. I could have from four to nine. On this trip I only have two trombones, bass, guitar, organ and drum. 

RRX: That’s still a lot.

GDA: Well, believe it or not we’ve had no choice but to cut it down financially. Four members of the band I had to axe for just realistic financial reasons. I came to Albany last year in the height of quarantine and I went to Vermont, and we did some outside shows and made it work. That’s just the love and the passion that the town had, that you would open your club, that’s not doing too well during the pandemic and reach out and help me. That’s been the story for me in Albany for the past ten years. When you look at my record chart, my fourth and fifth biggest market for album sales is Albany.

RRX: Well, I’m glad. 

GDA: There’s a lot of music in Albany. A lot of barrooms and such.

RRX: There really is.

GDA: I’ll be honest with you between Hudson and Albany I’ve met so many major musicians who live in Upstate New York. You’ve got some major players in the game who live there.

RRX: One of the past touring members from Guns and Roses lives in Hudson.

GDA: The bass player (Tommy Stinson), he comes to my shows, the dude cool as F***! He told me he loves Hudson because he can walk around like a nobody. 

RRX: So, you’re originally from New Orleans?

GDA: Born and raised, my whole family plays music. 

RRX: And the roots of American jazz clearly is New Orleans.

GDA: New Orleans gave it to the world. Louis Armstrong and them took it up to Chicago. St Louis to New York, New York to LA and to the world! 

RRX: And now you’re doing that! 

GDA: I just feel humbled that I’m able to walk in the steps of those people who came before me. I’m very grateful to the predecessors. For me to be 41 years old and have been through a lot of different things in my life that I’m very fortunate to be over and getting through. It’s a serious consideration this summer on how I’m actually going to make that move and make it happen. Realistically I think it might be six months there and six months here. 

RRX: We’d be happy to have you up here.

GDA: I won’t be there in the winter, oh my God. Look I watch the weather because I’m coming up there. Oh my God, I just bought some boots from LL Bean, I’ve got battery powered gloves. I’m going to look like a Buffalo, like a woolly mammoth man. 

Glen David Andrews will be at McAddy’s 452 Broadway Troy, NY Friday, March 4, 2022, at 8pm.