Aug. 7, 2002
All publications Front Page Nightspots Blacklines En La Vida Out! Resource Guide Current WCT Issue	Carey'd Away: Singer/Songwriter Edie Carey
	By Gregg Shapiro After making a smashing impression on Chicago street festival-goers in 2001, as a performer at Edgewater Days, Edie Carey is coming back to town to perform on the Windy City Radio Stage (Belmont and Halsted) Aug. 11, as part of Northalsted Market Days. If you like what you hear, Live From New York, the vocal group with which Carey performs (also performing on the Windy City Radio Stage Aug. 11) will be returning to Chicago in February of 2003 to perform at Schuba's. Gregg Shapiro: For those who are unfamiliar with you, let's begin with a little bit of personal history. Edie Carey: I grew up in Boston. I went to college in New York City, starting in '92. I've always been interested in music, but that's kind of where I got my main interest. I used to go to a venue on campus (at Columbia) called Postcrypt, and I saw Ani DiFranco and Ellis Paul and Dar Williams, and I was like, "Oh, my God! I want to do that." That's what got me started, or at least interested, and then I started writing songs my sophomore year in college. I wrote (songs) and attempted to perform towards the end of my college career and then started playing out slowly after college, and kept going ever since. GS: It's interesting that you are from Boston, where there is such a fertile live music scene, that you had to go all the way to New York to become a singer and songwriter. EC: (laughs) I know! People say that all the time. It seems like when you are from somewhere, all you want to do is get away from there when you're 18 years old. I had no idea about the music scene at all when I was in high school. I lived in the suburbs and didn't have my (driver's) license until after everybody else did. By the time I got my license, it was time for me to go live in New York and ride subways. I was completely clueless about what there was in the Boston music scene, which makes me sad. I wish I had known a lot earlier because I would have been hanging out in Harvard Square, listening to people play on the street and going to Club Passim, but I had just had no idea. Sometimes you have to leave to rediscover your own city. I love Boston. My father and my family are still there. I do play there all the time. I do consider myself from both places, even though my apartment is officially here (in NYC). I don't know how much you have to live in an apartment to actually feel like you live somewhere (laughs). These days I'm only here two or three days a month. It's a great music scene up there (in Boston). It's really nice down here, too. You have a lot more freedom to experiment musically. Boston is such a small scene, everybody knows everybody else. I like the anonymity of New York. There are little pockets of different scenes where you don't have to know absolutely everybody, which is nice. You can try new things out, and still feel safe doing so. GS: The Falling Places, your debut album, was a folk-oriented disc, while the follow-up, Call Me Home, had more of a pop vibe. You are scheduled to begin recording a new disc in September, and I was wondering in which musical direction that disc will take you. EC: That's a good question. I'm using a producer who I've never worked with before. I think every producer brings a different vibe. My first producer, on The Falling Place, was my drummer Chris Benelli who came from a folkier singer/songwriter vibe, whereas Tom Cangemi, my second producer, is now writing songs for Mandy Moore and Britney Spears. Faced with a producer like that, I tended to be much more folky, so we'd meet in the middle. Evan Brubaker, a singer/songwriter turned producer from Seattle, is producing the next record. He's a really neat mix of the singer/songwriter tradition, but also loves a good pop song. That's where I come from, so I think we might find a little more a middle ground. Maybe some songs not quite as big, but a cleaner more organic sound with some good hooks and a nice medium in there. It's hard to tell until you get into the studio. I just went to Salt Lake City and worked on some stuff with him and I think it's going to be a new and interesting different sound, so I'm excited. GS: So are we. You had a wonderful assortment of guest musicians on Call Me Home, including Cliff Eberhardt, Trina Hamlin, T-Bone Wolk and Shawn Pelton. Are you planning to have guest artists on your disc from Seattle, where there is also an active music scene? EC: Yes, I think so. Two of my favorite songwriters in the world are Holly Figueroa, who started the Indiegrrl organization, and her friend Kym Tuvim, I think I'll definitely have them both be on the record if they are willing to come in and sit in. Kim is a really great pianist, and I'd like to have a lot more piano and strings on this record. There are so many good songwriters out there. Also, Jonathan Kingham, whose an incredible writer. Evan knows a host of people, so I'll probably discover a lot of new people that I don't even know are out there. I've toured out there a fair amount, by myself or with friends from the East Coast, so I'm psyched to mine the area and see what's lying in between the cracks out there. I think there's a lot of good stuff to find. GS: I read on your Web site that you are also preparing to release a live album. EC: We don't have an exact release date. We just sent it in to be duplicated. It's a little love letter to my fans who have been so supportive (of me), over the past couple of years doing this weird job. People who listen to this kind of music either love records that are produced and have lots of instrumentation on them or they love albums that are just vocal and guitar, and that's why they love live music. I wanted to do something like that without sitting in the studio by myself with my guitar. I thought it would be a lot more exciting if there was the implied energy of an audience in the background. We aren't doing a huge release for it. My guess is that it will be available by the end of August. Hopefully, it will hold people over, not that they're chomping at the bit or anything, but I haven't put out a record in two years and I was really excited to put something out that was different from what I'd been doing. GS: Where was it recorded? EC: It was recorded in eight or nine different venues in New England. A couple are from Club Passim (Cambridge, Mass.) and the Iron Horse (Northampton, Mass.). One is from the Burlington (Vt.) Coffeehouse and Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Really random spots where we happened to capture good moments. We even put some of my stupid banter in there because it wouldn't be a live show without me having verbal diarrhea. GS: I'm glad that you mentioned your stage patter. You are almost as renowned for the humor in your live sets as you are for your wonderful singing and songwriting. EC: I think it's incredibly important (to have the humor). I think when I first started talking to my audiences, it was a way to calm myself down on stage, when I was nervous when I was first doing it. I've been singing in front of people since I was pretty small, but there was always a safety net, like a band behind me or people singing with me. Then, to all of a sudden be up there playing my guitar … I was literally afraid that I wouldn't remember how to play certain chords. Because I started playing (guitar) so late, I didn't feel like a guitar player. When I started playing out, it had only been about two and a half years since I picked up the guitar. I was so nervous and I think I started talking (during the set) because I felt that if I could make them (the audience) laugh and put them at ease, then maybe I could turn around and pretend that I'm actually at ease when I was really freaking out. It became something that I did on a regular basis. I'm sure that there are people who are like, "Shut up and play a song." It's kind of what seems to work. There are so many reasons why I love this kind of work, but I think that the main reason is that when you go to see a singer/ songwriter, there's not a big façade. You get not only the stories from the songs, but you also get the stupid little anecdotes that make them human beings. GS: I think people appreciate that connection. EC: I think there are some shows where I think, "Oh God, I talked too much." So then I won't talk that much at the next show. People are like, "What's wrong with you? We came to hear you talk. We don't want to hear your songs." It's definitely an important part of the show for me. Also, I love being able to connect with people. That's why I love this job. It means so much when people are yelling things out or responding to some story or joke. I think that's a special way to make people want to come back. Yes, they're coming to hear the songs, but the songs don't change that much. If you make the show different every time, then they'll come to hear new stories or new things that are going on. GS: It doesn't feel scripted. EC: Yeah, yeah. If I'm on my way to a show, and I'm like, "Oh, I've got to tell this story," and I try to tell it, it's never funny and it never comes across. If I try to plan it in any way, it comes out sounding totally wrong. I just try to be as natural as possible, which can mean embarrassing moments, but they're worth it, I think. GS: You provide background vocals on the songs "Fighting Chance" and "Selfish Side" on Melissa Ferrick's latest album Listen Hard. How did you come to work with her? EC: About two years ago, she was testing out the CD Baby (Web) site, to see how well it worked and how fast their service was, because she wanted to potentially put her records for sale up there. She typed in something like, "sounds like Patty Griffin," and I came up. She bought my CD and Sam Shaber's CD. I saw that she bought my record...CD Baby lets you know. I was like, "Why did Melissa Ferrick buy my CD?" Normally, I e-mail a thank you to people, but I was on tour and didn't have a chance to. She called me about a month later and said, "This is Melissa Ferrick. I don't know if you're familiar with my work, you're probably not. I bought your CD and I really like it, and maybe you want to come play some shows with me." I was like, "Oh, my God." Freaking out. I didn't know her music that well. I'd seen her live a couple of times. I really admired and what she had done. She seemed like such a cool person. We became good friends through that and then I started singing back-up with her when she was on tour if I was nearby. We started doing shows together and have become really good friends. It was so random, the way that we met, but I guess some things happen for a reason. She's been so supportive and awesome. Her fans are pretty extraordinary and I feel lucky that any of them come to see me (laughs), because they are so loyal. GS: Speaking of performing, you performed in Chicago last summer at Edgewater Days...was that your first time performing in Chicago? EC: I had probably done two or three shows at Uncommon Ground. Chicago has been a really nice city. Some cities, you go and plant seeds and you come back and the same 15 people come to see you. You never know who's going to show up. Chicago's been really amazing in that people keep coming back and multiplying. It seems to be a fertile ground for music. Now, I'm so psyched to come back and do more. GS: There are poet references in your work...your song "Accidental Poet," your music publishing company is "Accidental Poet Productions" and there are "Be a poet" T-shirts available on your Web site. EC: (laughs) It's really funny, because I so don't consider myself a poet. In fact, "Accidental Poet" was written about somebody else who is poetic, not me. People ask, "Are you the Accidental Poet?" I say, "No, I'm not (laughs). Her name's Alexa." When we were submitting names for my publishing company, it was the only one that hadn't been taken yet. I like it. I like the idea of an "accidental poet," because I think the best creative things happen when you make mistakes. Half of my favorite parts of songs that I've written, the parts that make me feel something, some weird chord change or strange word, that ignite something in me, usually happened completely by accident. Not that I'm accidentally a genius, what I mean is that I make a lot of mistakes, but sometimes those mistakes, in context, lead you to a place you'd never expect to go, creatively or otherwise. Also, "be a poet" comes from a new song called "Compromise," which is about putting yourself out there and sucking it up and not worrying about what people think. Just live your life the way you want to live it. It ties into a lot of things. It's funny because I don't know anything about poetry. My stepmom is a poet, she's amazing. I couldn't write a poem to save my life if it wasn't set to music. I like the idea of poets, I wish that I were one.
		Edie Carey with Gregg Shapiro.
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