Artist description Postmodern Mythic American Music

Similar Artists Bob Dylan,Lyle Lovett,Townes Van Zandt,Gillian Welch,David Rawlings,Robert Earl Keen,Steve Earle,Joan Baez,Andrew Calhoun,Janis Ian,Gram Parsons,Emmylou Harris.

Artist History Dave Carter, 49, folk artist touted as 'major lyrical talent' - Tuesday, July 23, 2002 By Scott Alarik, Globe Correspondent, 7/23/2002 Dave Carter, who with partner Tracy Grammer was one of the fastest-rising acts in folk music, died Friday in Northampton of a massive heart attack. He was 49. He and Grammer recorded for the Western Massachusetts label Signature Sounds. Their latest compact disc, ''Drum Hat Buddha,'' was seen as a major breakthrough record, prompting the Associated Press to say of Mr. Carter, who wrote the songs for the duo, ''He writes songs that can stand with the best of contemporary singer-songwriters or sound like they were written 100 years ago.'' Many predicted Mr. Carter and Grammer would become major stars. The Los Angeles Times announced Mr. Carter as ''a major lyrical talent,'' and Great Britain's Folk Roots magazine said his songs were ''destined to become the stuff of legend.'' The duo was just becoming known outside the vibrant subculture of modern folk music. Joan Baez had recently embraced Mr. Carter's music in the same fervor with which she famously promoted the songs of Bob Dylan in the 1960s and Dar Williams in the '90s. She planned to record several of Mr. Carter's songs and to use them in a world tour, as she did nationally last spring. In a Globe profile of Mr. Carter and Grammer last fall, Baez praised Mr. Carter's ability to write intimate songs that ''are available to other people.'' ''It's a kind of genius, you know,'' she said, ''and Dylan had the biggest case of it. But I hear it in Dave's songs, too.'' Jim Olsen, president of Signature Sounds, first heard Mr. Carter and Grammer in 1999, and immediately signed them to a long-term contract. They released two CDs for Signature, ''Tanglewood Tree'' in 2000 and ''Drum Hat Buddha'' in 2001. They were scheduled to go into the studio again in December. ''What made Dave such a great songwriter in my mind,'' Olsen said yesterday from his Whately offices, ''was that he had one of the most diverse knowledge bases of any person I've ever known, studied all kinds of music. His songs were very complex and sophisticated, and yet he was also a master storyteller. ''He grew up listening to a lot of country and folk music, and that tradition of accessibility and storytelling worked its way into his music.'' Mr. Carter perfectly fit the old showbiz saw of the overnight sensation who was years in the making. Though he studied classical and world music (he had a master's degree in music theory from the University of Oklahoma), and was an excellent jazz pianist, he did not pick up a guitar to write a song until he was 42. He was born on Aug. 13, 1952, in Oxnard, Calif., and raised in Oklahoma and Texas. He worked as a mathematician and computer programmer until 1994, when he began to pursue songwriting seriously. By that time he had moved to Portland, Ore., where he met Grammer at an open mike event. They quickly became a duo, both professionally and romantically, and her fiddle arrangements and rich vocals greatly enhanced the easy melodicism of his songs. Mr. Carter had the rare ability to pen songs that were at once deeply spiritual, often mystical, and yet universal in their emotional scope and melodic allure. His melodies carried an unmistakable blend of modern pop and what Baez called ''something kind of Southern-rootsy.'' It was that melding of the folksy and the urbane, the ancient and the modern, the dense poet and the welcoming troubadour, that had so many in the folk world deeming Mr. Carter a major new songwriting voice. The future seemed unlimited. ''When we signed Dave and Tracy,'' said Olsen, ''the promise I made them was that they may not make the big time because what they do is so personal and sophisticated, but that they were going to have a lifelong career. That appealed to Dave very much. ''But the truth is,'' Olsen said, ''I always believed it would only take one cover by a major star to unveil his work to the rest of the world; and I was convinced that was going to happen. Somebody was going to open the door for them; and the thing about Dave's music is that once people heard it, they became lifelong fans.'' Mr. Carter leaves Grammer; his father and stepmother, Robert and Charlene Carter of Tulsa, Okla.; and a sister, Elise Fischer. **************************************************Love From Tracy - Sunday, July 21, 2002 Dearest friends and sweet fans, I am with you in tears and bottomless sorrow. This loss is indescribable. He was endless spring to me, he was bountiful joy and gentleness and laughter. He was my soulmate, my partner in everything wordly and otherwise. I visited with him one last time today and he glowed golden and ageless. His sister and I agreed he looked like an angel. He was absolutely beautiful. Yesterday, shortly after he went unconscious, he came back for a lucid minute to two to tell me, "I just died... Baby, I just died..." There was a look of wonder in his eyes, and though I cried and tried to deny it to him, I knew he was right and he was on his way. He stayed with me a minute more but despite my attempts to keep him with me, I could see he was already riding that thin chiffon wave between here and gone. He loved beauty, he was hopelessly drawn to the magic and the light in all things. I figure he saw something he could not resist out of the corner of his eye and flew into it. Despite the fact that every rescue attempt was made by paramedics and hospital staff and the death pronouncement officially came at 12:08 pm Eastern Time, I believe he died in my arms in our favorite hotel, leaving me with those final words. That's the true story I am going to tell. I am so, so very moved by your recollections. I have a thousand hugs and tears and words waiting for whoever wants or needs them. I will meet you at Falcon Ridge on Saturday, if not before. We need to keep this music alive, it was always my mission that the world hear and know the poetry and vision and wonderful mystical magic of David Carter. This path is broad and long; I hope you will stay the course with me. In the center of our hotel window earlier tonight, by lamplight, came the shadow of a bird to my curtain. He held steady for a four flaps of the wing, maybe five, and then he pivoted away. My heart froze for an instant and then I felt some relief. I took this midnight messenger as a sign. You know that I have been desperate for a sign. My love to you, Tracy **************************************************Carter: Duo's performances, albums gained popularity by Marty Hughley - Saturday, July 20, 2002 For the past few years Portland music fans have enjoyed watching the local duo of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer rise from small gigs around town to award-winning performances at prestigious festivals to national tours and rave reviews. That ascent was cut short Friday by Carter's sudden death from a heart attack at a hotel in Massachusetts. Carter, 49, died at about 9 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time after jogging, according to his manager, Biff Kennedy. The duo was preparing to perform today at the Green River Festival in Greenfield, Mass. Kennedy said no memorial arrangements yet been made as yet. Grammer was unavailable late Friday for comment. Kennedy received dozens of phone calls Friday afternoon from all around the United States, from admirers including Joan Baez, the folk music legend who invited the duo to tour with her last spring and had added several of Carter's songs to her repertoire. In a Boston Globe interview last September, Baez lauded Carter's rare ability to write songs that can be readily interpreted by other singers. "It's a kind of genius, you know, and (Bob) Dylan has the biggest case of it," she said. "But I hear it in Dave's songs, too. There's a very sophisticated feel to the songs. Dave is masterful with words, and there's a real spiritual connection in there; nothing direct, it's in the imagery, and that really rings bells with me." "He's probably going to end up becoming one of those legendary guys," said John Malloy, who had booked several Portland shows by the duo. "He died at his most prolific period, when he was being discovered by a lot of people." Carter was a superb musician, with voice, guitar and banjo, but was most praised as a songwriter. Staff writer John Foyston wrote in The Oregonian last year, "Carter skitters across the language like a water bug but can plunge to depths of the heart and soul without so much as a splash." Carter and Grammer, who also brought vocals as well as violin to the duo, recorded their first album, 1998's independently released "When I Go," in Grammer's kitchen. But their career quickly advanced from such modest circumstances. They soon won the New Folk category at the Kerrville Folk Festival, the sort of victory that had helped launch the careers of Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen, and they went on to top honors at the Napa Valley Music Festival and the Wildflower Performing Songwriter Competition. The albums "Tanglewood Tree" in 2000 and last year's "Drum Hat Buddha" were well-reviewed and earned the duo a strong national following. Carter was born Aug. 13, 1952, in Oxnard, Calif., and raised in Oklahoma and Texas. Though he played and studied music since boyhood, he worked as a mathematician and computer programmer, and he studied Jungian psychology until a 1994 epiphany led him to seriously pursue a music career. He and Grammer began performing together in early 1998. Survivors include father Robert Carter of Tulsa, Okla., and sister Elise Fischer of Lawrence, Kan. Local music promoter Lisa Lepine, who formerly managed the duo, recalled hearing Carter speak in a songwriting seminar earlier this month at Lewis & Clark College. He described songwriting as "the tongue of angels" and said that his work was "to learn the song from God, then write it down so everyone can hear it." "It's a huge loss," Lepine said. "Dave had a lot more work to do. But he's with the angels now, though, speaking in their tongue."

Albums When I Go, Tanglewood Tree, Drum Hat Buddha

Press Reviews PUREMUSIC.COM,This very interesting duo based in the Northwest has the biggest buzz in modern folk music at the moment. Their Signature Sounds release Tanglewoood Tree last year drew adulation from the global press. They became rather instantly famous, and continue to rise. Carter's throwing a lot of spiritual imagery around. Shamanism, Buddhism, Castaneda, myth of various kinds: Merlin, the maiden and the stag, and prophets, hometown and otherwise. He is the son of a "music fearing engineer mathematician father and a charismatic Christian mother who was given to visions and states of ecstasy." Carter says: "My whole life has been a process of reconciling these divergent influences." They have that something special that took Lyle Lovett, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings immediately out of the pack and put them on the train to somewhere. The lot of them dress like preacher's kids from another time, and to me all look like aliens in their first week on planet earth trying to act normal. But Tracy Grammer has a beautiful voice, and it sounds hella good on the radio. I don't hear the right tune to pierce the mainstream veil on this record, but it might well be around the corner. The material is superior, in lyric and melody. Dave's a really fine player to boot. I like his guitar work, and he plays some melodious banjo on a few tracks. He's a good singer, and he picked a great one for a partner. Tracy Grammer's voice has that special purity and strength that lends soft authority to the mythical themes of the album. Her fiddle playing is different, very ensemble-wise and lyrical, hangs in tight with the guitar in a way that really works. Some very smart characters here who know what they have, and are really working it. I'm looking forward to seeing them in concert. We strongly endorse the purchase of this fine recording.FG****ALBUM NETWORK, April 2000 In the world of folk music there are a lot of killer players and singers who can reach out to an audience and touch them on a profound level, so it takes something extra special to literally revolutionize the genre. Well, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer have done just that.**** ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 2000 "Tanglewood Tree" is simply brilliant, a skyrocket of an album that should establish this Oregon duo as stars... -Eric Fidler, AP Writer

Location Portland, Oregon - USA

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