With a voice that’s somehow both gritty and pristine, Carrie Elkin has spent the last decade developing her presence into a force of nature. Elkin can turn a delicate trickle of a note into a tidal wave of ten emotions at once. Her long-awaited solo album, The Penny Collector, is due out on March 10, 2017. The Penny Collector will be supported with a headlining tour featuring special guest Danny Schmidt.
For a press-only preview of the album click HERE.
Titled in honor of the late Richard Elkin (1942-2015), a lifelong penny collector, the album lives in a similar musical realm as Patty Griffin and Brandi Carlile, straddling the Americana/roots, folk, and indie rock worlds where meaningful songs meet the fierce-yet-fragile voices of powerful women. Producer Neilson Hubbard (Garrison Star, Glen Phillips, Ben Glover, Ryan Culwell) beautifully captured that power without losing the delicacy and nuance, draping Elkin’s vocal performances in swathes of expressionistic electric guitars, velvety strings, and primal percussive heart beats, always leaving the focus on the story and the storyteller.
Written in a year that was bookended by the birth of Elkin’s first child and the process of caretaking her father through the dying process, The Penny Collector is a poet’s momentous stroll full circle around the human lifecycle in one single year. It’s a journey that is beautifully told, fragile and heartbreaking at times, joyous and raucous in others.
Following her Red House Records release of Call It My Garden, Elkin was celebrated byTexas Music Magazine as one of their artists of the year. The Austin Chronicle called it an “earthy combination of strength and compassion . . . reminiscent of the winsome beauty created by a young Nanci Griffith” while Bob Harris of BBC threw in comparisons to Patty Griffin and Iris DeMent, calling her voice “spellbinding from the opening track.”
The Penny Collector is Elkin’s sixth solo album, and the first she’s released independently since her two critically acclaimed Red House Records releases. Originally from Cleveland, OH, Elkin’s career has taken her near and far, from sharing the court with Michael Jordan for the national anthem, to the Ryman Auditorium stage with Emmylou Harris, to taking on two tours with the hit podcast Welcome To Night Vale as their special musical guest. Now Elkin is settled down in Austin, TX with her husband, fellow songwriter Danny Schmidt, and their beautiful newborn daughter, Maizy Rae Schmidt.
With her latest work, Carrie Elkin once again delivers the powerhouse vocal performance that people have come to expect, with delicate waves of intimacy that build to astonishing crashes of intensity.
On tour:
Jan. 19 – The Front Porch present an American’s United Benefit Concert – Austin, TX +#*
Feb. 3 – Uncle Calvins – Dallas, TX +
Feb. 11 – Lydia Street Concerts – Austin, TX
Feb. 15-19 – Folk Alliance International – Kansas City, MO
Mar. 8 – Landhaven Concerts – Barto, PA +
Mar. 11 – Houston Folklore & Music Society – Houston, TX +
Mar. 24 – Memphis House Concert – Memphis, TN +
Mar. 29 – Hendershots – Athens, GA +
Mar. 31 – Isis Music Hall – Asheville, NC +
Apr. 1 – Muddy Creek Music Hall – Winston-Salem, NC +
Apr. 7 – Burlap & Bean – Newtown Square, PA +
Apr. 11 – Rockwood Music Hall – New York, NY ^
Apr. 15 – Flying Cat’s Music’s Railway Museum Concert – Phoenicia, NY +
Apr. 16 – River Spirit Music – Hastings-on-Hudson, NY +
Apr. 17 – Club Cafe – Pittsburgh, PA +
Sep. 16 – SXSW Music Festival – Austin, TX
+ with Danny Schmidt
# with Eliza Gilkyson
- * with Catie Curtis
^ with John Platt
