Colorado-based singer-songwriter Edie Carey will play at Heartwood Soundstage on Friday alongside Amanda Garrigues, who will be opening for Carey.
While it’s been a few years since Carey has played in Gainesville, her relatable, conversational lyrics will make devoted fans feel as though no time has passed. Carey has the ability to paint accurate portrayals of relationships and love in a sincere, dreamlike quality. She makes you laugh, cry, scream and perhaps even feel things you didn’t want to feel, but you love her anyway, and that’s what makes her work so inimitable.
Q: You have this enticing voice that really pulled me in when I was listening. It’s so warm and conversational. Have you taken singing lessons before?
Edie: That makes me really happy. I love vocals that draw me in, and it’s precisely what I hope to create when I’m recording a song. I did take voice lessons starting as a kid… I also sang in a cappella groups and a variety of bands and musicals starting in fifth grade and all the way through high school and college. I took voice lessons all the way through. I was a terribly undisciplined student; I never practice, I’m afraid to admit, but I did love it, and it helped me enormously to gain confidence and to learn how to breathe properly as a singer.
Q: When did you know you wanted to do music?
E: I think I felt it deep down pretty young, but I felt really embarrassed to even say that out loud… I taught myself guitar at the end of my freshman year in college. I was a nanny of a newborn baby girl who slept a whole lot, so I had lots of extra time to learn the instrument. Once I started to create my own songs in the year or two after that, I really started to believe that it might be possible to make music my job.
Q: Any moment or concert in your musical journey that has given you the most pride?
E: I got to open for Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin this past May. She was the folk-pop artist who I first heard when I was 15 who totally changed my taste in music. I’d only ever listened to whatever pop songs that had come on the radio. Her music was intelligent, heartfelt, moving, melodic and just totally changed my musical life. Once I heard her, I knew that that was the kind of music I wanted to create. To open for her last year, even though it was many years later, really just was so meaningful for me.
Q: You’ve been performing and touring since 1999. What’s the most difficult part about touring now versus then?
E: Well, now I’m a mom of a 1-year-old and a 5-year-old, so just the logistics of being a mom make it so much harder to get to all the places I’d like to go. I so love being home with them, though, and then once a month I get the chance to go away for 4 to 5 days to go play music. So while it’s hard in some ways that I don’t get to tour as much as before, playing far less often means I also only play shows I really want to. That really heightens the experience emotionally, financially, career-wise. It feels like a really great balance. I’m grateful to have a really supportive husband and mother who help make my touring possible.
Q: Have you been to Gainesville before? Is there anything you’re hoping to see or do in town while you’re here?
E: I have been to Gainesville before. I played the university once or twice, I think, when I was doing tons of college gigs in the early 2000s. I think my special guest Amanda Garrigues and I did a show together in Gainesville around 2000, but I can’t recall the venue. I am so looking forward to reconnecting with her. We toured together many years ago, and I’m so excited to share the stage and a lot of the stupid jokes we both love with her again.
Q: Are there any songs you’re most excited to play for fans on Friday? What are you hoping fans take away from your concert?
E: I have recently started playing piano, and while it terrifies me to play it live, I also love to inject that vulnerability in a live show. I am excited to share a few of my piano songs and my hope is to inspire some ugly crying in my audience members. Think a cathartic cry — not a sad cry!
Q: You have some highly devoted fans. In your opinion, what do you think it is about your music that resonates with fans so much? How has the reaction from your fans been like so far on this tour?
E: I certainly don’t have a big name in music, but I am so grateful to have the very dedicated and generous fans that I do... I love connecting and talking and laughing with folks onstage and off equally. It’s my favorite part of performing. I love the humanity and realness that’s intrinsic in this genre of music. It’s what drew me to it, but then that juxtaposed with the magic of a transcendently beautiful and moving song, it’s a combination that I was so moved by, and that’s what I aspire to always. I can only hope that it’s part of what has kept my supporters with me over these last 20 years.
Q: Is there a song you’ve written that’s your favorite? Why does it mean so much to you?
E: I think my song “These Things” is probably my current favorite. I wrote it for my lullabies album with Sarah Sample (“‘Til the Morning: Lullabies and Songs of Comfort”). I went through six years of fertility treatments to have both my kids, not an enjoyable experience by any means, but worth every second. I know that one in seven couples who want kids go through what we did, and I wanted to have a song on that record that made those parents feel just as welcome in the parenting “club.”
The Edie Carey concert at Heartwood, which will run from 7 to 10 p.m., will be catered by Radha’s Kitchen at 6 p.m. including a bar that will serve beer, wine and water.
Tickets are available at heartwoodsoundstage.com.
With a relaxing sound and an ethereal voice to match, Edie Carey will bring her talents to Heartwood Soundstage this week.
