Grows up in the Southern California culture of cars, surfing and music.
Summer school session at Parsons Art Institute, Los Angeles.
Studies art at Cal-State Fullerton and Fullerton Junior College.
Spends summers on original family farm in South Dakota, getting the benefit of both rural and
urban upbringing.
Family is rich with poets, painters, piano players, thus, a sense of inspiration and permission to
create is all around his early life.
He grows up in L.A. as the music scene grows up around him.
Performs early shows with music legends Jackson Browne, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen at the Troubadour Club in Hollywood.
Pursues a recording songwriting career, Criterion Music Pub., Ranwood Records. Records at top studios in town. Elektra, A&M studios, Capitol Studios, etc.
Andersen also pursues his craft as a visual artist showing his photo-realist pieces sporadically on the West Coast.
1990, moves to Nashville, meets guitar hero, Chet Atkins, who encourages Andersen to pursue a career as a guitar soloist. Atkins gives him introduction to other greats like Jerry Reed, James Taylor and Tal Farlow.
Working extensively, Andersen develops a deep harmonic range and a velvet touch. With his huge repertoire of Jazz, pop and classical music, he gains local fame as a self-contained guitar virtuoso.
Voted a top jazz guitarist in early internet polls, Andersen is busy on the stellar Nashville jazz scene of the time. He performs at the Nashville Jazz Festival in 1999, Franklin Jazz Festival 2002.
Board member of the Nashville Jazz & Blues Society 2005-6.
In 2001, Andersen becomes house guitarist at the new Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum downtown. Granted the title of Ambassador of Music City in 2004, Andersen begins performing for onstage events featuring hundreds of music legends and award ceremonies.
He is profiled extensively on TV, in magazines, and newspaper articles such as, USA Today, The Tennessean, the Wall Street Journal, etc.
Continuing to create visual art during these years, Andersen has developed a technique combining painting and sculpture in 2-D relief.
Maintaining his Nashville music/art career, Andersen continues to operate the family farm in South Dakota, growing corn and soybeans for the world market.