Andrew Ripp is a singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 from Palatine, Illinois

Palatine, Illinois

Palatine is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a northwestern residential suburb of Chicago. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 65,479, making it the sixth-largest community in Cook County and the 16th-largest in the state of Illinois at that time...

. Before releasing his debut album, Fifty Miles to Chicago, in 2008, Andrew first broke into the national music scene as a songwriter; his contributions, such as Ryan Cabrera

Ryan Cabrera

Ryan Frank Cabrera is an American pop rock musician. In 2004, Cabrera debuted with his single "On the Way Down", a top ten hit in the U.S., and album Take It All Away...

's album, You Stand Watching

You Stand Watching

You Stand Watching #"I Know What It Feels Like"#"All Night Train"#"Take It All Away" #"Exit To Exit" #"Shame On Me" Japan & iTunes Bonus Track...

, have charted on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, Top 40 Mainstream, Pop 100 Airplay

Pop 100 Airplay

The Pop 100 Airplay was a chart created in 2005 and released weekly by Billboard in the United States. It measured mainstream radio airplay, and was one of the three component charts, along with the Hot 100 Singles Sales and Hot Digital Songs charts, that determined the chart positions of singles...

, Pop 100

Pop 100

The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009...

, and Hot Digital Songs

Hot Digital Songs

The Hot Digital Songs chart ranks the best-selling digital singles in the United States, according to Billboard.Beginning in February 2005, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboards music single charts. It was decided to do so mainly because of the dramatic rise in popularity of...

 charts. Ripp's second album, She Remains the Same, was released on September 21, 2010, debuting at number one on the iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 Singer/Songwriter chart and breaking the top 100 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

new artists chart.

Music career

Ripp released his debut album, Fifty Miles to Chicago, in January 2008. Musicians Pete Maloney (Dishwalla

Dishwalla

Dishwalla is an American alternative rock band based out of Santa Barbara, CA. The band's name comes from a Hindi term for a person providing cable television to a neighborhood...

, Tonic

Tonic (band)

Tonic is an American rock band that has earned two Grammy nominations to date. The band was formed in 1993 by Emerson Hart and Jeff Russo. Later members have included Dan Lavery, Kevin Shepard, and Dan Rothchild. Signed to a recording contract in 1995, the band released its debut album Lemon Parade...

), keyboard player Will Hollis (Eagles), and steel guitar player Eric Heywood (Ray LaMontagne

Ray LaMontagne

Raymond "Ray" Charles Jack LaMontagne is a Grammy-award winning American singer-songwriter. LaMontagne has released four studio albums, Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black, Gossip in the Grain and God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise. He was born in New Hampshire and was inspired to create music after...

) were brought in to accompany Ripp's vocals and guitar.

Ripp co-wrote and co-produced Fifty Miles to Chicago with songwriter, Randy Coleman and brought on Dan Lavery

Dan Lavery

Dan Lavery is a professional musician who has been nominated for two Grammy-awards as part of the band Tonic. Lavery joined Tonic after the band had recorded Lemon Parade, and has been a part of Tonic ever since. When Tonic went on hiatus in the 2004, Lavery embarked on songwriting for motion...

, former bass player of the rock band Tonic, as producer. Funded by Andrew himself, the majority of the album was recorded in Lavery’s back-house studio in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.

In early 2008, Andrew was invited to attend the annual "Fool's Banquet" songwriters gathering in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

. This event was hosted by the Hanson

Hanson (band)

Hanson are an American pop rock band formed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by brothers Isaac , Taylor , and Zac Hanson . They are best known for the 1997 hit song "MMMBop" from their major label debut album Middle of Nowhere, which earned three Grammy nominations...

 brothers. Also in attendance that year were Pat McGee

Pat McGee (musician)

Pat McGee is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Annandale, Virginia, and is a founding member and frontman of the Pat McGee Band.-Biography:...

, Keaton Simons, Jesse Laz-Hirsch, Kai Kennedy, Stephen Kellogg, Chris Sligh

Chris Sligh

Charles Christopher Sligh is an American singer; songwriter and producer who was a finalist on the sixth season of American Idol, finishing in tenth place.-Early years:...

, and Jason Mraz

Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...

.

Operating independently of a label, Ripp tours regularly and has shared the stage with Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Fiction Family

Fiction Family

Fiction Family is a musical collaboration between Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman and Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins. The duo's self-titled, full-length album was released on January 20, 2009....

 (Jon Foreman

Jon Foreman

Jonathan Mark Foreman is the lead singer, lead guitarist, main songwriter and co-founder of the alternative rock band Switchfoot. He started Switchfoot in 1996 with drummer Chad Butler and bassist Tim Foreman ....

 of Switchfoot

Switchfoot

Switchfoot is an American rock band from San Diego, California. The band's members are Jon Foreman , Tim Foreman , Chad Butler , Jerome Fontamillas , and Drew Shirley .After early successes in the Christian rock scene, Switchfoot first gained mainstream...

 and Sean Watkins

Sean Watkins

Sean Charles Watkins is a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is a member of the contemporary folk band Nickel Creek, the duo Fiction Family and the supergroup Works Progress Administration.-Nickel Creek:...

 of Nickel Creek

Nickel Creek

Nickel Creek was an American progressive acoustic music trio consisting of Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins . The band was founded in 1989 and released 6 albums between 1993 and 2006...

) and Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers, among others. In the spring of 2009, Ripp and his band toured Europe and the Middle East to play for the U.S. troops stationed abroad in a tour sponsored by Armed Forces Entertainment

Armed Forces Entertainment

Armed Forces Entertainment is the official United States Department of Defense agency for providing entertainment to U.S. military personnel overseas. Armed Forces Entertainment hosts over 1,200 shows around the world each year, reaching over 500,000 personnel at 355 military installations...

.

Andrew's highly acclaimed second album, She Remains the Same was released in September 2010. The album was produced by Dave Barnes

Dave Barnes

Dave Barnes is an American rock-R&B-contemporary Christian singer-songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee.-Early life:...

, with whom Andrew toured in the fall of 2010.

On November 22, 2011, Ripp released the Christmas EP Light of Mine, which reached number 23 on the iTunes Holiday chart.

Albums

• She Remains the Same (2010), Get Ripp'd Music
• Fifty Miles to Chicago (2008), Get Ripp'd Music