Andy Harrell

Andy Harrell was born in Portsmouth, Va. in 1965 but has lived most of his life in Suffolk, Va. He began playing piano at age 6 and guitar at age 11. As a teenager, he formed bands with schoolmates and, later, other musicians in the area. Before graduating as valedictorian of John Yeates High School in 1983, he played with the Bennett's Creek Band, Johnny Smoke and Archangel. In 1983, after completing a year at Old Dominion University, he enrolled at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and formed the band Instinct, playing the local clubs for the four years he was in Blacksburg.

Upon graduation with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1987, Andy took a job at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, where he had worked for several years through Virginia Tech's cooperative education program. Finding the unpredictable overtime incompatible with his musical aspirations, he took a more stable job at the Naval Sea Combat Systems Engineering Station in Norfolk. In 1988, he joined some former band mates from his high school days and formed Pressure Point, playing guitar and singing. The band successfully played local clubs and recorded original music until its breakup in 1991. Toward the end of the band, he formed an acoustic duet called Leisure Time with Pressure Point lead vocalist, Nancy Potts. In 1992, Andy formed another band with Pressure Point keyboardist, Paul Leeman, eventually called Synergy. During the entire period from 1988 through 1995, when Synergy disbanded, Andy had written a considerable body of original material, often collaborating with Potts, Leeman and other members of Synergy, Dave Dail and Mark Dobbins. A visit to a local studio during the Pressure Point days and experimentation with home recording throughout this period yielded two CDs, The Andy Harrell Project (1995) and Chasing Our Dreams (1997).

Around the time his first CD was released, Andy was invited to join the local band, Island Boy, as the keyboard player. The band had great success playing the area and occasionally venturing as far as Ocean City, Md. and playing annually at Jimmy Bufett's Margaritaville in Key West, Fla. The band openned for such international acts as Average White Band and Little River Band and was even joined on stage by Dave Matthews and on several occasions, Fingers Tailor and Michael Utley from Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band. In 2002, after the birth of his first child, increasing demands at work and studying for a Masters in Engineering Management from ODU, Andy left Island Boy. In 2005, he left his engineering management job and began playing music full time, briefly rejoining Island Boy, restarting the acoustic duet and joining former Island Boy bassist and vocalist Dana Silver in his newly formed band, New Direction.

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