MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Brynn Andre started making music in third grade at the farm where she grew up in rural North Dakota.

“The piano that I play at home was this old upright that my mom got from a rummage sale,” said Andre. “I still really miss it. There were a few keys broken.

Nearly two decades later, she recorded an album in Nashville on the same piano Neil Young and Norah Jones used to make their very own music.

“That whole 10 days is probably the closest to heaven I’ll ever experience,” she said.

But just a few years ago, Andre wasn’t singing. She wasn’t playing the piano. She was pushing herself into a life she thought she wanted.

“You know, get a job after you get your major done and find that relationship that you’re going to marry that person, form your life and live in the suburbs,” she explained. “And then everything fell apart.”

She let go of the love of her life and the path she thought she should take. All of that raw emotion came out in her new self-titled album that she wrote here in Minneapolis, the city she now calls home.

“I’m just going to continue to write and continue to play and just not be afraid anymore,” she said.

If you want to hear Brynn Andre live, she’s having a free show in support of her new album this Saturday night at Honey Lounge in Northeast Minneapolis.