Singer, songwriter and banjo player Maggie Carson was born and raised in New York City. Carson toured for a decade with her band, Spirit Family Reunion, and shared stages with Pete Seeger, Levon Helm, Sharon Jones, toured with Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dr. Dog, The Felice Brothers, Alabama Shakes, The Deslondes, and Trampled By Turtles. Spirit Family Reunion has appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, Central Park SummerStage, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Austin City Limits, Celebrate Brooklyn!, Tønder Festival, and Winnipeg Folk Festival, and was featured on Tiny Desk, and NPR Weekend Edition.
While on tour, Carson began to develop her solo voice: throaty, unadorned, and more rock-n-roll. Combined with unorthodox banjo playing, her own blend of clawhammer and fingerpicking, her musical persona evolved into what one reviewer referred to as “its own center of gravity.” As a solo artist, Carson has shared stages with Nana Grizol and Wild Yaks. The Dark Was Aglow, her first solo album, is produced by Matt Walsh (The Forms) and drops on Open Ocean on June 24, 2022.
Carson’s latest single, “From Here to Anywhere” is a tour de force of energy with Carson fully committed to a raw, expansive style of singing. Using her banjo in lieu of a lead guitar, the song rocks hard. The effect is a bit unearthly, as if Carson is summoning the ghosts of troubadours past. In our interview, Carson reflects on the touring lifestyle.
Does your album have an overarching theme?
The experience of time is a major theme of the record. Circuitous. Swirly. Collapsed. Drawn out. The feeling that the past is in the present. Perhaps in the form of a person, a place, a city, a structure, an event.
What have you missed about touring?
There is an excitement to touring – new places, people, scenery. Hearing live music from other bands. A camaraderie between other touring musicians, knowing that you’ve all chosen to do this insane thing.
What have you not missed about touring?
Sleeping on floors, eating at gas stations.
How do you kill the long hours in the van?
I’ve found reading to be the best way to pass long drives. Some good fiction that can really pull you in and just make the surroundings completely drop away.
What’s the best way a fan can support you?
I always felt the best thing I could hear from a fan was to keep going.
The Dark Was Aglow will be released on June 24th via Open Ocean Records.
Maggie Carson — Pre-Order on Open Ocean, Instagram