SCENE SCRIBE
By Michael Swanger scenescribe@mchsi.com
Experience teaches Newcomer to slow down, live spiritual life
Experience has taught Carrie Newcomer, a singer-songwriter with more seasoning than her last name suggests, several things judging by the depth, humor and clarity of her 12th album for Rounder Records, “Before & After,” to be released Feb. 23.
It has helped hone her keen observations of the world through poetic lyricism and deceptively simple arrangements steeped in folk, Appalachian and classical influences.
It has taught her not to ignore her midwestern voice.
It has helped her successfully walk a professional line between the secular and sacred worlds.
And it has taught her how to slow down and to live her life.
“We live such busy lives,” said the 51-year-old musician from Bloomington, Ind. “We have a lot of information coming at us from so many sources. It is easy not to be present in our own lives.”
Songs like “If Not Now” and “I Meant To Do My Work Today” on “Before & After” address the issue of living in the moment.
“We don’t remember days, we remember moments,” Newcomer said. “The saddest days are the ones when we get to the end and say, ‘Dang, I missed it.’”
Not much escapes Newcomer, whose songs are multi-layered works rich with emotion, thoughtfulness and quietude. “Ghost Train,” with spacious instrumentation that includes all the usual musical devices in addition to strings and a plaintive banjo, is one example. Add to that captivating lyrics and it is easy to see why Newcomer connects with listeners:
“There are stories that we were told just to keep us in our place/There are stories that we made up ourselves to save a little face/There are the ones that made us crazy and the ones that kept us sane/Keep on walking if the stories all start to sound the same.”
Such a song wasn’t possible, Newcomer admits, until she realized her voice.
“Something good happened to my writing when I gave myself permission to sound like a Hoosier,” she said. “My most powerful voice will always come from my most authentic voice, and that’s always grounded here in the Midwest.”
Newcomer’s characteristic alto singing voice is a great match, whether she is singing duets with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Krista Detor on “Before & After,” or whether she is singing songs with universal themes to a village in India like she did last year for one month as a cultural ambassador for the American Center. There she performed concerts, taught workshops on songwriting and community involvement and assisted with community service projects.
“What was so powerfully moving about India was what’s recognized across cultures,” Newcomer said. “If I sing about love, family, grief, struggle or hope, there’s an immediate recognition… that’s a thread that pulls through.”
Spirituality, in spite of peoples’ religious differences, is another common thread in Newcomer’s music and life. Whether she is performing a concert in a theater or a church, or leading a workshop at a theological conference, Newcomer is that rare secular artist who embodies a spiritual quality about her work, without having to water it down.
“There is a spiritual current running through my work and the reason is because there is a spiritual current running through my life,” said Newcomer, who as an adult has become a Quaker and sometimes collaborates with theologians and authors like Parker Palmer, Phillip Gulley and Scott Russell Sanders. “I write in a way to be inclusive, not exclusive. There is a wonderful community of secular artists who have deep spiritual currents running through their work, and there’s something very exciting about that because there are a lot of people who seek authentic forms of music.”
Experience has also taught Newcomer that everybody has an interesting story to tell and that it is as equally important to ask good questions as it is to find answers.
“I’m an artist that likes to walk with people with their questions. That’s how I approach music,” she said. “Maybe it’s a human companion thing. I really love people.” CV
