Andrew Bailie first picked up a guitar at age 8. However, it wasn’t until later when his brother traded in a saxophone for a 12-string acoustic that his real practice began. Andrew grew up in Southern Illinois, in a sea of cornfields and coal mines. Constantly looking for new excitement he began borrowing his brother’s guitar any chance he could get. At this point, he had already been singing for 10 years. Playing guitar seemed like the next step.
Andrew joined his first band in high school with several friends. He recorded his first album and then started playing in bars way before he was even old enough to get in. Years later, in 2000, he started gathering songs in support of his first solo album. Recorded under the name Solartree, the album From The Ground Up was released in May of 2002. At that same time he had started a new project, Madison , with his brother. They started developing material and by May of 2003 they moved to Los Angeles to continue playing. After a year in LA Andrew needed to come back to familiar territory, so he settled in Chicago and has been there ever since. He started playing guitar with Track A Tiger (Deep Elm/Future Appletree) in 2005.
Whenever Andrew is not playing with other projects he uses his time to write new solo acoustic material. Having a solo career is a very important part of his growth, as it offers him total creative control. Patiently progressing, new recordings have come while in his home studio. He has plans to mix the album this spring and release it by early summer.