Carrie Newcomer

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of hearing Quaker singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer in concert at the Tin Angel in Old City Philadelphia. She’s just released her 11th album, called The Geography of Light. I was blown away by her rich contralto voice, her deep, full throated laugh and her spiritually dense, distinctively Quaker songs. She sings about finding great wonder in plain gray and brown rocks in “Geodes,” about God’s presence as close as the front porch and a song in the center of it all in “There is a Tree,” and about the edge of transformation after a hard time in “The Clean Edge of Change,” inspired by Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak. I expected her to be pretty serious, but she’s got a sharp wit and wonderfully easy presence on stage. Carrie’s depth and awareness is balanced with her lighthearted nature as heard in the bonus track “Don't Push Send,” a warning about the perils of email.

She has released eleven albums since 1991, so there is a lot to catch up on if you haven't heard her before. Betty's Diner is an eighteen track "best of" with liner notes by Parker Palmer, and Wilderness Plots is a compilation with other artists of songs inspired by Quaker Scott Russell Sander’s short stories. If you haven’t heard her before, I commend her work and words to you – hers is a uniquely Quaker message sung with a pure and penetrating voice.

Posted by QuakerBooks on March 25, 2008 10:54 AM | Permalink