“AMERICA” BY CARRIE NEWCOMER
Carrie Newcomer discovers beauty in the midst of the ordinary. Life is experienced in the spaces between darkness and light. Truth is found in the bond between music and word. She says, “Songwriting is not about being clever, flashy or fancy — it is about telling a compelling story in language and music with elegance and clarity.”
Newcomer has worked with many notable artists throughout her career. She toured with Alison Krauss and Union Station in Europe and the U.S. and recorded the title track of her 2002 The Gathering of Spirits album with Krauss. Krauss went on to introduce Nickel Creek to Newcomer’s song “I Should’ve Known Better”, which the band recorded on their Grammy-winning, gold-selling album This Side (produced by Krauss). In 2007, Newcomer recorded a live concert DVD with folk legends Holly Near and Bernice Johnson Reagon, was commissioned to write the YMCA national theme song, composed music for the Indiana Repertory Theater’s production of Bad Dates, and collaborated with author Scott Russell Sanders and fellow songwriters Krista Detor, Tim Grimm, Tom Roznowski and Michael White in the album and theatrical production entitled Wilderness Plots.
Newcomer appears to have no performance and touring boundaries, as she seamlessly moves from performing in concert halls, acoustic clubs, churches, synagogues and convents; to conducting workshops on vocation, arts, creative writing and progressive faith at colleges, universities, seminaries and high schools; to writing and performing in
theatrical productions; to volunteering for environmental and social justice fundraisers.