Belle performs new music

Andrew Belle delivers original songs and shares stories during concert

Liberty University students finally heard Andrew Belle perform in a free Student Activities (SA) event Monday, Oct. 20 after the concert originally scheduled for Sept. 26 was postponed.

“We want students to get away for a night and be able to enjoy their friends without the worry of paying high costs for these concerts,” Associate Director of Programing and Promotions for SA Stephanie Ward said. “We’re thankful that even if we can’t provide all our shows for free, we’re able to bring them at a low cost.”

Belle, a Chicago-based songwriter, spent the night playing unplugged versions of his songs from his new Extended Play (EP) album “Black Bear Hushed,” which was released Oct. 7.

“I’ve been playing these versions for about a year now,” Belle said at the concert. “But we just put out the EP last week, so you guys are the first people to hear it after the fact and aren’t sitting there scratching your heads and giving me funny looks.”

The concert opened with an acoustic set by Glass Oaks front man and Liberty University graduate Joel Kaiser, which included a cover of Bill Wither’s classic “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Between songs, Belle told the audience stories about how he began in the music industry and how his music has changed over the years. He also shared a humorous story behind his music video “Sister.”

“I made a music video for (‘Sister’) a few months ago,” Belle said. “If you haven’t seen it, it has a quirky plot line to it. There’s these werewolf characters and then there’s this prodigal son character represented by this wonderful actress we worked with outside of Nashville.”

The werewolves represent the ungodly world. Throughout the video, the actress portraying the “prodigal son” begins behaving more and more like them, and she starts transforming into a werewolf herself. But she decides to break away and come back home, where her mother accepts her with open arms.

Belle went on to talk about how he never planned to be in the music video, but at the last minute, he made a cameo at the end of the video and ends up getting murdered. The musician said that led to an interesting conversation between him and his grandparents when he went home to visit.

“They’re very candid,” Belle said. “They were like, ‘Yeah, we just don’t like that video. Are they supposed to be vampires?’ I just thought that was really funny because you could obviously tell that they were (werewolves).”

Belle not only played “Sister,” but performed many of his other tracks as well, including “Pieces,” “Black Bear” and “Make it
Without You.”

Belle invited students to talk to him after the concert and was happy to sign autographs and pose for pictures.

Liberty junior Kaitlynn Jenkins said she was so excited to hear that Belle was coming to perform at Liberty.

“I’ve been listening to (Belle) for a couple years now,” Jenkins said. “The concert was amazing, and I was really happy that I got to meet him.”

Jenkins said that when she met him, Belle remembered a letter she sent him a few months earlier.

“It’s so cool to know that he cares about his fans,” Jenkins said.

Liberty student Shiloh Reeves went to the concert on a whim.

“I heard about the concert through (the) Student Activities website,” Reeves said. “They had a video of the song ‘Pieces,’ and I thought it was great.”

Reeves said he really enjoyed Belle’s music and even bought a CD.

“His music is so soulful and straight from the heart,” Reeves said. “You can tell that he puts so much effort into the lyrics that he writes. When you hear it, you know it’s his soul coming through.”

To learn more about Andrew Belle and his music, visit his website at AndrewBelle.com.

WALSH is a feature reporter.