Carrie Newcomer

Carrie Newcomer is an American singer, songwriter and author.

She has produced 19 solo CDs and has received numerous awards for her music and related charitable activities.

She has collaborated with numerous authors, academics, philosophers and musicians.

Between 1993 and 2010, she released twelve additional albums and two "best of" compilations on Philo/Rounder.

Her range of causes, activities, collaborations and philosophies significantly influences her music.

She released four solo albums and one live album on Available Light Records.

Her album Betty's Diner: The Best of Carrie Newcomer was released in 2004.

It contained three new songs, plus, "what's held up for me what songs have become old friends, and what songs are requested often".

The title track started out as a short story which Newcomer wrote while on the road, she then decided to incorporate the story into a song.

In 2009 and 2011 she traveled to India as a cultural ambassador, including musical performances organized by the US State Department.

In 2009 Newcomer traveled to India as a cultural ambassador for The American Center and worked with students of the American Embassy School in New Delhi.

While in India, Newcomer performed concerts organized by the U.S. State Department including those in the cities of Chennai & Trivandrum.

After the first week in Delhi, she embarked on a tour schedule that included concerts and performance in the evenings and working with community service groups during the days.

In 2011 Newcomer returned to India as a cultural ambassador for The American Center and worked with students of the American Embassy School in New Delhi, the American School Bombay, and The International School Chennai.

While in India, Newcomer performed concerts organized by the U.S. State Department and visited community service projects and facilitated workshops.

In 2011, following her 2011 trip to India, she released the album, Everything is Everywhere, on Available Light Records which featured Amjad Ali Khan and his sons, Amaan and Ayaan on traditional Indian instruments.

The profits of "Everything is Everywhere" benefit Interfaith Hunger Initiative In the article "Carrie Newcomer’s cool fusion of East and West hooks listeners" Firstpost (Mumbai, India) identified Amjad Ali Khan and his sons, Amaan and Ayaan as "three of the best sarod players in the world".

With the music in this collaboration album, Newcomer said that her objective was "to create songs that were based in western song form, but would integrate and preserve the power, depth and energy of Indian music. I did not want to create western songs, add a tabla and call it fusion."

In 2012 she made a similar trip to Kenya on behalf of the Interfaith Hunger Initiative.

Her range of causes, activities, collaborations and philosophies significantly influences her music.

Newcomer was called "a prairie mystic" by the Boston Globe.

Her first solo album was Visions and Dreams.

Visions and Dreams was originally released on Windchime records and then later re-released with two additional tracks by Rounder records.

Kindred Spirits: A collection was released in November 2012.

It includes two previously unreleased songs, two songs from her hunger benefit project (Everything is Everywhere) featuring Indian classical sarod performers Amjad Ali Khan, Ayaan and Amaan Ali Khan, two previously unreleased live recordings, and a compilation of other songs.

In 2012 Newcomer performed at various locations in rural Chulaimbo Kenya as a part of the Interfaith Hunger Initiative and at the AMPATH HIV center in Eldoret.

Her CD A Permeable life was released in April 2014, as was her book of the same title.

They do not have material in common, but Newcomer has indicated that the book shows some of the process and themes of her songwriting.

The theme of the CD has been characterized as: "Newcomer explores familiar themes of being present, moving through thresholds in life and embracing each experience that comes your way".

2014 A Permeable Life: Poems & Essays, in 2016 The Beautiful Not Yet: Poems & Lyrics, and in 2021 Until Now: New Poems.

Newcomer's poem Three Gratitudes was featured on the On Being PBS radio program first aired on November 26, 2014, along with an interview of Newcomer by Krista Tippett.

Her Beautiful Not Yet album was released in 2016,with a companion book by the same name.

Accorfing to Newcomer, this book and CD explore the themes of mystery and miracle in the everyday and the album is described by FolkWorks as "profound and poetic."

Newcomer’s album Until Now was released in Sept 2021, with a companion book of the same title.

This collection refers to the Covid pandemic as "the great unraveling" and addresses big questions for society's work in process, and that healing after the crisis is not enough.

"We can’t just be healed, we must be transformed."

In more recent years her broadening into authoring books including poetry and philosophical works, and similar collaborations have represented a transformation into what sources have termed a "prairie mystic".

With the release of her latest album and companion book, one review summarized it as "Newcomer’s lyrics address the themes of living in challenging and changing times and finding hope in the patterns of nature and each other’s company. The lyrics are informed by Newcomer’s wider philosophical and spiritual thinking as well as her environmentalism and concerns for social justice."

Newcomer has released three books of poetry, essays & short stories.

Since 2017 Newcomer has co-hosted The Growing Edge podcast with author Parker J. Palmer described as "exploring the themes of life on the growing edge personally, vocationally and politically".