Carrie Carter

“As a child I was surrounded by music,” says Carrie Carter (she/they). “My earliest memories are of my father and his brothers playing music with my brother, sister, and cousins. Every gathering has a soundtrack because we can't keep our instruments out of our hands, and we can't keep tunes to ourselves.” Carrie’s family’s tradition of playing the fiddle goes back generations, and she learned much of her repertoire of Kentucky bluegrass fiddle tunes from her father and her uncle, Robbie Wells.

“Though we have a long family history of fiddle and traditional music, there was never a limitation on sticking to one style, genre, or instrument,” Carrie explains. She is also active in the vibrant Eastern Kentucky punk scene, where she plays electric bass in the feminist punk rock group Slut Pill. “Music gives a community a voice,” Carrie says, “to claim its traditions, to share its concerns, to demand action, and to bring people together. I love the parallels between the political nature of a lot of old-time music surrounding the coal industry and the political statements made in the punk music scene. Music and art have always been a powerful way to communicate the issues we face socially and politically and how we wish to enact positive change in our communities, regardless of genre or style. And when you live in an area such as rural Appalachia, there is a lot to sing about, positive and negative.”

Carrie hopes to use her Emerging Traditional Artists Program award to attend old-time music workshops, such as the Augusta Heritage Center music weeks in Elkins, West Virginia, and the Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, North Carolina. She also plans to invest in tools to help build her online and social media presence.