"He has the rare ability to conjure entire vistas and characters in no more than a couple of lines. His songs are music as landscape, timeless tales that instantly take root in your mind as though they've been there forever. In fact, if Annie Proulx wrote songs she would sound like Nels Andrews." Americana UK Nels Andrews' debut, full-length album springs from years of crossing our large country and following the stories of her marginal inhabitants. His songs are a testament to the hobos and the shadowy places in every heart. The raggle-taggle El Paso Eyepatch sprang nearly full-formed from a route 66 railroad brothel, converted to muscian space. Late sunday mornings at the Red Door led to recording in a small adobe in a forgotten section of Albuquerque. "Sunday Shoes" features Jeffrey Richards (Hazeldine, Vic Chestnut) on guitar and electric banjo, Chris Kitchen on bass, Heath Dauberman on drums and harmony vocals by Michelle Collins (ShineCherries), all of whom make up the El Paso Eyepatch. Nels was also joined by Brett Sparks (Handsome Family) on accordian, Jason Daniello on mandolin and lap steel, Dave Guiterrez on pedal steel and Sarah Kramer on muted trumpet. Nels and was surprised and honored to join the ranks of Lucinda Williams, Slaid Cleaves, Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett as a "NewFolk" winner at the 2002 Kerrville Folk Festival, running as the 'dark horse contender' according to judge David Massengill. In Fall 2004 nels was introduced to the world at the Americana Music Association Convention in Nashville, where Andrews was chosen as one of ten emerging artists to showcase alongside legends in the genre. The debut album Sunday Shoes was released nationally in Jan 05, and in the EU in Spring of that same year. Sunday Shoes was deemed by BBC 2's legendary DJ Bob Harris as "the album of the year", and went on to be listed in the top 5 of the year end Americana UK charts, as well as KRO Dutch National Radio, Altcountry NL, Ctrl Alt Country (Belgium), and the European Radio Americana Chart . Sunday Shoes continues to find itself in Top Ten albums of the year lists, almost always as the only independent release. Nels has since shared stages across Europe with the likes of Slaid Cleaves, Kevin Kinney, The Handsome Family, and John Dee Graham, and 2005 found him headlining at Holland's TakeRoot festival, the Big Big Country festival in Glasgow, Scotland, The Orange/Vodaphone Evolution festival in Newcastle, England, and the Thirsty Ear Festival in his home state of New Mexico. While beginning work on his second album, Nels continues to play in his current hometown of Albuquerque, and tours steadily throughout the US. Sunday Shoes is years' worth of songs and work, making it's way out to the world with a quiet first breath and stories to tell, becoming richer with each listen. "Elegantly sparse, subtlely ethereal and ferociously intelligent songs......reaffirms your faith in music and threatens to wear out from repeated plays..... (Sunday Shoes is) word perfect from endless listens to what is a strong contender for album of the year." - Jeremy Seale, Americana UK FOUR STARS Sparsly arranged, slyly intelligent country-folk stuffed with juniper winds, Juarez jails and long women in short dresses, delivered with all the gruff urgency of Tom Waits over lap steel and ruptured guitar. -UNCUT Spotlight Album On "Sunday Shoes" , Nels Andrews proves that he deserves a spot in the ranks of today's Americana heroes -American Songwriter "I was warned that this was a good album, what I wasn't told was just how good. Quite simply Sunday Shoes is the meanest, moodiest and darkest album you're likely to come across this year. It's also a dead cert for the top ten album list for 2004 of anyone lucky enough to hear it......Andrews lifts up the rock on which Ryan Adams and Jesse Malin are sitting and has a look at what's crawling underneath." -Michael Mee, Net Rhythms UK "Despite possessing a deep and affecting voice, Andrews is confident enough to let the power of these compositions evolve out their subtleties - imparting tasteful banjo and steel-based melodies with stinging impressions of fractured relationships, long drives and decaying towns." -Miles of Music "There are talented artists who succeed to express in their music the deepest part of their homeland, as if landscape around them and songs were strictly connected. Nels Andrews is one of those: in his beautiful, desolate folk-rock songs, sometimes infected by ghostly country feeling, you can imagine Albuquerque's deserted horizon [...] Sunday Shoes shows definitely one of the most promising new voice of alt-country ." -Fabio Cerbone - www.rootshighway.it "The album is a quiet gem, full of oblique story songs that seep slowly into your conciousness... I could compare the overall sound to a lot of other people, but I don't think it would be fair because the've come up with something a bit special here, a benchmark of their own." -John Davey Flying Shoes U.K. "The Literate Songwriter's Review" "I'd be surprised if "Sunday Shoes" isn't the sleeper Americana CD of the year for me, and for a lot of other listeners too, especially those who love a good story, superbly sung, a strong melody, a lovely taste of melancholy, and a true sense of musical and intellectual integrity." - Bonny Holder, Rockzilla.net " Like Crazy Horse, (they) can be incendiary and legendarily powerful when it comes to solo sections that swell and recede in ocean-like waves of sonic resolve. But the 'Patch's work on this batch of Andrews' songs is more restrained for the most part, showing yet another side of this fine collective of talent and passion..........Nice!" - Michael Henningson ,Weekly Alibi, Albuquerque