IT WAS a huge insult for a young singer-songwriter to get.

Rising star Courtney Marie Andrews was furious after she arrived in Los Angeles to work with a producer – only to be told they’d already hired other writers to pen her songs.

But the songstress has had the last laugh, after her album Honest Life, featuring her own songs, was heavily praised when it was released earlier this year.

“It was a huge slap in the face to be told they’d brought other writers in,” says the 26-year-old.

“My ego was hurt a lot but those are the sort of things that make you better. I had got to the studio in LA and had this idea in my head that we’d record all these songs I’d written, then when I got there I found he’d booked all these co-writers in for sessions without saying anything to me.

“He said I needed other writers to work with, and he didn’t believe in my own songs. But he gave me a day to write some new songs myself, and I wrote Honest Life, Keep The Fire Out and Dreaming, all in one day. It didn’t persuade him so we didn’t work together, but they were the first batch for Honest Life when I started working on that.”

Honest Life is, remarkably, Courtney’s sixth album, having started releasing music in her teens. It’s a journey that has involved busking, bartending to pay the bills and a night crashing at the home of a Hollywood mega star.

Now Courtney’s talent is finally being recognised. Honest Life is inspired by travelling, by heartbreak and by growing up, with a mixture of delicate acoustic guitar and sharp-edged lyrics bringing her stories to life.

For proof of her rise, earlier this year she supported the Handsome Family at Saint Luke’s. Tomorrow she will headline there herself.

“I have worked for a long time just to get to this place,” she says.

“I think that’s better though, because things happen when you’re ready and I feel that musically it’s like I’ve been to college for two years. I’ve been writing poetry and singing since I was very young, and it was when I was about 14 that I picked up a guitar and realised all of those things could come together. As soon as I wrote my first song I realised this was what I wanted to do.”

Cue a trio of albums in her teens, long since discontinued. The modern Courtney then arrived with work of her own, like 2013’s On My Page, and a spell working with other bands, including singing backing vocals with alt rock band Jimmy Eat World.

She also landed some A-list support, after she and her friends ending up staying at Chris Pratt’s house while busking. This was long before he was starring in Hollywood blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World.

“There were a few of us going around busking,” she laughs.

“The night before we’d all slept upright in our car, and then a friend of us said ‘hey, I’ve got a friend nearby who says we could stay at his house in the Hollywood Hills’. And it was Chris Pratt!

“We drank some whiskey with him and then crashed on his couch. He was just doing Parks and Recreation then, he wasn’t the huge movie star he is now. But he’s a big fan of country music and has been supportive of me since then.”

Honest Life is her biggest step forward, even if some of the songs came about through a difficult time for Courtney personally.

“I was staying in Leuven near Brussels,” she says.

“It was a very bleak time in my life because I had been on the road for about three years without spending any time at home, I was going through a break-up and it was sort of a turning point. I think one of your big growing periods is around 25, as you’re going from a young adult to an adult, and there were a lot of growing pains for me.

“I feel like I’m much older and wiser as a person now though.”

All that experience suggests Courtney is ready for whatever the music business throws at her next.

“I’m a lifer for music,” she says.

“It’s all I know how to do and all I plan on doing. I’ll ride the wave of whatever comes next.”

Courtney Marie Andrews, Saint Luke’s, tomorrow, £12.50, 7pm