Texas-born vocalist and songwriter Abby Anderson is an artist who has grown up in public, with her music steadily evolving and maturing since she began performing in her teens. Anderson's voice is strong and clear, with an impressive emotional range and a Southern inflection that makes her a natural fit for country while also suiting her pop influences. As a songwriter, her best-known early work saw her embracing patriotism ("Let Freedom Ring") and old-fashioned values ("Let Him Wait"), but a few years later, she was exploring more personal themes (often dealing with self-image and complex relationships) on tunes like "Insecure," "Bad Posture," and "Be That Girl," as her music added stronger pop and R&B accents.

A native of Southlake, Texas, Anderson grew up with five sisters and one brother. Her parents encouraged the children to get involved in music, and she started piano lessons at the age of five. She was something of a tomboy growing up, doing many of the household chores usually reserved for boys, and in middle school, she was the first female in the school's history to play on the football team. She broke into performing when she was in her early teens, and appeared at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium (the one-time home of the Grand Ole Opry) when she was 15. Before long, she was appearing on bills with such stars as Charley Pride, Lee Greenwood, Peter Cetera, and Peter Frampton. Anderson first received national attention for her work in 2014, when the 17-year-old wrote an adaptation of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" titled "Let Freedom Ring." A recording of her performing the song was posted online, and it came to the attention of conservative radio host Glenn Beck, who played the track on his show and brought Anderson in for a live appearance on the broadcast.

That same year, Anderson left school and relocated to Nashville, eager to move her career to the next level. June 2014 saw the release of a six-song EP, He Loves Me, and Anderson began making the rounds of Music City night spots, performing wherever she could and supporting herself by working as a nanny. In 2017, she landed a recording and publishing deal with Black River Entertainment, with the label surprising her with the contracts while she was performing as part of a charity event at the Ryman. In September 2017, she dropped her first song for Black River, "This Feeling," which she co-wrote with Jesse Frasure and Jimmy Robbins. The song clicked with listeners, and was played more than 980,000 times on major streaming services. Her second Black River release fared even better; "Make Him Wait," which Anderson wrote with Tom Douglas and Josh Kerr, made an impact at country radio and racked up over 1,100,000 streams. Anderson issued the EP I'm Good in 2018, which included the hit title cut. 2019 saw a handful of singles including "Good Lord," "Guy Like You," and "We Go Together Like."

When Anderson's touring schedule was put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she used the time off as an opportunity to rethink her creative direction. She decided she wanted to write and record music that more closely reflected her thoughts and feelings rather than the demands of the Nashville music industry. The 2021 single "Bad Posture" was an introspective number with a confessional lyric and a dynamic, piano-driven arrangement that showed Anderson exploring new directions. It was followed by two more fresh, thoughtful songs, "Insecure" and "Be That Girl," that were previews of Anderson's first full-length album. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi