“Just when you think life can’t get any better, you find yourself in North Manchester, Indiana.”
These words were spoken with a big smile (and not so much as a drop of sarcasm) by singer/songwriter/guitarist Carrie Newcomer at the concert she gave last Thursday in Cordier Auditorium. During her visit, the students, faculty and staff of Manchester College (as well as members of the surrounding community) were gifted with her music, wisdom and guidance.
Carrie Newcomer’s visit to MC occurred on April 1st and 2nd. During this short visit, she led a workshop entitled "The Power of Story: Creative Writing for the Terrified," facilitated a discussion on vocation and faith with students in the Pathways program, gave a workshop for faculty and staff on how to incorporate what you love into what you do, spoke in several classes (including peace studies and literature classes), presented a workshop on vocation that was open to the entire campus community and gave a concert performance.
In the “Power of Story” workshop, Newcomer led writing exercises based on simple prompts that helped participants focus on the details of their memories and the present moment. This is an important practice, even for people who don’t consider themselves to be writers: “A regular practice of writing—and writing honestly and with integrity—well, it’s like a muscle you work,” she said. “And the more you practice it, the more it becomes a part of you, enriching your entire life and your interactions with other people.”
“Writing practice is a spiritual practice, and a practice at being present in our own lives,” she continued. “The worst thing is getting to the end of the day and thinking ‘Darn, I missed it.’”
Newcomer has released a total of 11 albums of intricate melodies with profoundly sincere, engaging lyrics. She self-produced her last three albums (The Geography of Light, Regulars and Refugees, and The Gathering of Spirits) at a small studio right here in Indiana.
Students who were lucky enough to have made it to her concert heard a rich variety of songs from The Geography of Light as well as several of her earlier albums. Her rhythmic plucking at her guitar strings resonated with her bluesy, emotion-rich voice, which sang out her poetic lyrics.
After the show, attendees could be heard discussing their favorite lines: one conversation I overheard centered around the chorus of her song “There is a Tree”: “There is a tree beyond this world/ In its ancient roots a song is curled./ I am the fool whose life's been spent/ Between what's said and what is meant.”
She was accompanied on the piano by the talented Gary Walters, who Newcomer has worked with for the last five years. Walters teaches jazz piano at Butler University, and often plays for the Indianapolis symphony: Newcomer describes him simply as “a fine musician and a lovely person.”
While she was in North Manchester, Newcomer also found time to meet with interested students for conversation and to share her experiences as a writer and musician. For instance, she met with MC students Zach Glenn and Ryan Deeter, the members of the fusion-folk-rock band Smoking Window.
“Meeting with Carrie was an excellent opportunity,” Deeter said. “Being able to talk to an accomplished performer and songwriter helped to provide us with a greater insight into the music world. Carrie also related to us how difficult it is to pursue music, and yet how rewarding and necessary it is to follow one's passion.”
Glenn agrees. “It was greatly empowering to talk with someone who practices my two passions, writing and music,” he said. “It showed me that it was possible to follow my heart and the crafts that I am passionate for, and to do so independently while having come from Indiana.”
Newcomer’s music has been described as folk, Americana, country and rock… and, indeed, it is all of these things and so much more. Although she does not write music specifically for a religious audience, her lyrics are influenced and shaped by the ways in which her experiences as a practicing Quaker have shaped her understanding of spirituality.
“I don't want to put the sacred in such a small box,” she said. “We can develop our appreciation of mystery, and find sacred moments in our day-to-day lives. When I write poems and songs, I look for where we connect. Beauty is discovered in the ordinary stuff, right here where we are.”
Newcomer is a native Hoosier who has developed a national and international following with her sincere, heartfelt, and elegant music. Folkwax magazine, the largest weekly magazine in the singer/songwriter genre, named her as the 2008 Artist of the Year, and awarded her newest album The Geography of Light the 2008 Album of the Year award; in 2002, she made a sweep of the Folkwax awards with her album The Gathering of Spirits.
In addition, she has received laudatory praise from such publications as Rolling Stone, USA Today, Acoustic Guitar, The Village Voice, Performing Songwriter and Bowlers’ Journal. That’s right… Bowlers’ Journal, in response to her lively, foot-stomping, hand-clapping, head-nodding tune “Bowling Baby,” off of her album Betty’s Diner.
“When I receive an award or some incredible praise from someone like [novelist] Barbara Kingsolver, well, there’s something very un-Quakerly in taking too much pride in it,” Newcomer said. “So I just embrace it with gratitude. It’s an affirmation.”
“The most important thing is that I allow my writing and music to keep changing, because I’m not interested in making the same album over and over again,” she continued. “Honest writing doesn’t focus on sticking with an equation that’s worked in the past, and it doesn’t censor either the pain or the beauty—because it's really an overlapping of the two.”
Her visit to Manchester College was much appreciated by the college community. “There are certain people that you meet, and instantly you can tell how awake they are to life around them,” Glenn said. “Carrie is definitely one of those people. She writes and performs powerfully, revealing the wondrous beauty and dark magnificence that is present in the day to day. She is both serious and comical, and always passionate and true.”
Newcomer's visit to MC was made possible through the generosity of MC graduate Sara Edgerton, a member of the college's Board of Trustees.
(This article originally appeared in the April 10, 1009 edition of The Oak Leaves. All photos by Laura McSpadden.)
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