Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

Saturday, April 17, 2010
7 p.m. in our worship hall
This is both a CD release concert and a benefit for Habitat for Humanity Dane County

Tickets are available by clicking here

To see her website go to Carrie’s own website

To my mind – a writer’s mind- Carrie Newcomer is much more than a musician. She’s a poet, storyteller, snake-charmer, good neighbor, friend and lover, minister of the wide-eyed gospel of hope and grace. All this, and she comes with a voice that declares, ‘Sit down here a minute and listen.’ Who could ask for more?”
— Barbara Kingsolver (Author, The Poisonwood Bible)

Describing Carrie Newcomer as a singer-songwriter is a little like saying Noah was a boat-builder. So much goes unsaid when we fall to easy labels. One of the definitive voices of the Heartland, the Indiana native sings of the small joys and pains in life, emphasizing the little moments that are often taken for granted. Overall, she is not afraid to take on serious subjects, and does so with a healthy measure of good humor and self-awareness. For her, “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’s music has been praised in Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Acoustic Guitar, Performing Songwriter, Paste Magazine and several other outlets. She 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.

“Carrie is a touchstone of authenticity in an image-driven, media-defined musical world. She is a beautiful singer and songwriter, and deeply refreshing.”
— Rosanne Cash

“It is a mark of spiritual virtuosity when a singer-songwriter can make you dance one moment, laugh the next, and then take you to a deeply moving, even prayerful place . . . Carrie’s music does all of this for me, and more.”
— Parker J. Palmer, author, Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teach

For singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer, beauty is discovered 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. Newcomer’s new Rounder release, The Geography of Light, is about navigating and exploring the appearance of light and shadow in our lives. It is a layered work. On one level, the listener experiences these types of connections through Newcomer’s lyrics, which explore life with a progressive spiritual sensibility. In a world that encourages us to move faster and think bigger, Newcomer invites the listener to slow down and reflect on the small things that make life worthwhile. As Rolling Stone wrote, “Newcomer asks all the right questions and refuses to settle for easy answers.” On another level, the listener hears a skillfully arranged and performed collection of folk roots tracks, with Appalachian and classical influences. Newcomer’s style is straightforward and accessible. Overall, she is not afraid to take on serious subjects, but Newcomer does so with a healthy measure of good humor and self-awareness. For her, “songwriting is not about being clever, flashy or fancy—it is about telling a compelling story in language and music with elegance and clarity.” The result is a resonant soundtrack for a world that is both sacred and ordinary.

Newcomer, a Quaker, cuts across secular and spiritual boundaries and is one of a relatively few well-known singer/songwriters working within the progressive spiritual continuum. The Geography of Light was in part influenced by Newcomer’s friendships and recent collaborations with influential authors and theologians, including Parker J. Palmer, Phillip Gulley, Jim Wallis, Scott Russell Sanders and Barbara Kingsolver. Many of the album’s tracks examine compelling ideas and questions arising out of her relationships within this community—the idea that things are not always as they appear; that good exists at the center of things; that life is a process of transformation; that there is value in simple things; that wholeness is not beyond our reach. Through her songs, she asks: What is the nature of justice? When is it finally time to forgive or let go? Where do we turn for strength? Newcomer’s is one of a growing number of voices inquiring about these age-old issues from a new perspective—speaking about a shift in our culture, insisting that the religious right holds no monopoly on faith.