Asheville-area music fans were treated to a wonderful evening of live entertainment Saturday, January 29, at The Grey Eagle. Megan McCormick opened the evening and then joined Jill Andrews for most of her set.

Megan, at 23, is veteran musician. Organizing her first band at the age of 12, she came to this region as a student at East Tennessee State University when she was just 16. While in Johnson CIty, Megan met Jill Andrews and played for a while in The Everybodyfields, which saw multiple lineups backing Jill and Sam Quinn.

Playing mostly songs from her debut album Honest Words, Megan ripped through nearly a dozen songs with her band consisting an upright bass player and drummer. For nearly an hour, she led the trio, displaying her talents as an electric guitarist, songwriter, and singer, and offering her brand of rock-blues tunes.

And Megan didn't get much of a rest. After her show finished she was back up on stage playing guitar through most of Jill's set. For those familiar with The Everybodyfields, you know that Jill Andrews can write a sad song as well as anyone. One highlight of the evening was Jill singing her tune from The Everybodyfields, "Lonely Anywhere," which is as heart-wrenching as it gets.

Jill's new tack seems to write the same sort of haunting lyrics but to pair them with more upbeat melodies. The formula seems to work and the audience loved the new songs. Despite they sad songs, Jill expressed several times how happy she was to be playing and her enthusiasm for her new band. She played the song "Blue Eyes" for her "little son Nico," which was a look into Jill's role as mother, a departure from her days with The Everybodyfields.

The performance was originally billed as a CD release show but Jill's first full-length album, The Mirror, got pushed back to a May release. Jill apologized to a crowd of approximately 300 people several times about the CD's delay, but the audience loved the set, no matter if a new disc was available for purchase or not. Jill performed songs from The Mirror as well as from her first EP and Everybodyfields songs over the course of nearly two hours, even throwing in a cover of "Apologize" by One Republic during the encore. Throughout a set list of more than a dozen songs, Jill's voice rang strong and true and her girl-next-door charm sucked the audience in. The night overall proved to be a magical night of live music in Asheville.