Hello friends! New friends, old friends, friends who haven't heard from me for the past 6 weeks (apologies!). I was touring like a madwoman, and now I'm back in the Watermelon and just goldang delighted to share some of the stuff I've been ruminating on.

This song is about 12 hours old - I wrote it on the loooong drive back to New Orleans from Charlotte, North Carolina (where we just completed a tour opening for The Weepies, who are excellent in every imaginable way). 

It was inspired by the kind of observation that can only come from the mouth of a friend who has spent every waking hour with you for the past six weeks (and plenty more over the past six years). Mr. Joe Plowman (longtime bassist and collaborator) provided this comment, as I simmered in the heady funk of another fresh crush on another roguish gentleman: "He's exactly your type. A scoundrel with a heart of gold. Like Han Solo."

The simple truth of this statement hit me with a smack, rattled around in my noggin, and spewed forth yesterday in a starry geyser of song. 

So here it is, an anthem for the hopeless rogue-chaser. If anybody sympathizes, god help us.

Carsie

PS. Download directly from soundcloud by clicking the down-arrow at the top right of the patreon post.

Good day, sweet patrons. 

Here's the second installation in our "I'M GONNA MAKE ANOTHER FREAKIN ALBUM!@%#&" series. Joe and I went to Philly in May to make demos, as some of you know. These demos are the intermediary steps between home demos (which I sing into my crappy mic, with roosters on background vocals) and the final album versions (which take months of sweat and heartache and many thousands of dollars and very fancy studio equipment). 

I released To Be Known (my crappy-mic version) on this site just over a year ago. Holla to those of you who were with me back then! Songs take such a long, weird, crazy journey from our heads into the real world. Thanks for joining me.

This is a sweet, sad, ghosty one. Pete Donnelly produced this demo, and Joe Plowman played all four string parts on his big ol' bass. I played the weird organ and the angel choir. Please enjoy! You can download directly from Soundcloud.

Love and angel choirs,

Carsie

Hey hey patrons! Here's another new song for your consideration. A few fun facts:

1) I keep a list of my favorite words in the back of my notebook, for future usage in songs. This one contains five: vim, vigor, vinegar, doxy and moxie.  

2) I started working on this song in reaction to the soft-serve feminism that has been trending in pop culture for the past year or two. I love Beyonce, Meghan Trainor and the others; this isn't to speak ill of them (wouldn't dream of it!), but of the surrounding culture that deems them feminist revolutionaries. Most of these so-called feminist pop songs suffer from the same few fatal flaws: they are still pandering to the male gaze, obsessively commenting on how attractive their bodies look, and fixated on "catching a man". 

This song is an experiment in actual feminist pop. 

3) I finished it the other night, inspired by the movie Magic Mike XXL. Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are. 

Turns out I totally loved it: it's a shiny, feverish, alternate-universe sex fantasy, like a lot of movies, but this one is a female sex fantasy. All the men are hard-bodied and muffin-hearted, and live to serve all the women (who come in a variety of body types and personalities). 

I left the theater feeling giddy, and thinking, "why does it feel so revolutionary to see a female sex fantasy enacted on screen? Have I actually never seen that before?" That thought prompted me to write the second verse of this song (which had been languishing in the back of my head, half-finished, for months).

Just wait for the music video.

Love and moxie,

Carsie

I turn thirty tomorrow! Here are six things I thought about a lot in my twenties, and which I hope I can now put to bed:

http://blog.carsieblanton.com/post/124664474789/six-things-i-hope-i-learned-in-my-twenties

If you'd like to get me a birthday present, please consider donating $30 to one of the below organizations:

Race Forward​ (advancing racial justice through research, media and practice since 1981): https://www.raceforward.org/

Kiva​ (sustainably alleviating poverty through international micro-lending): http://www.kiva.org/about

The Roots of Music​ (empowering the youth of New Orleans through music education, academic support, and mentorship): http://therootsofmusic.org/

I'm wrapping up this decade feeling grateful and blessed. Thank you infinitely for your love and support!

Giddily yours,

Carsie

I'm posting this now cus I want it to be the theme song for my thirties. My teens were full of heartache and drama, my twenties were good hard struggle and work. I'm ready to live the good life.

This is another studio demo, put together with the help and talent of Pete Donnelly and Joe Plowman, as a study for the upcoming album. Stay tuned for more album-related news in the coming weeks!

Love from my internet-free birthday party in the woods of northern Vermont,

Carsie

You may ask yourself, 'Gee, when will Carsie get over the songwriting genius of Nick Lowe, and start listening to someone else?' The answer is: not yet. 

The dude is a heavyweight, that rare lyricist with guts and an ear for melody, of Paul Simon or Carole King caliber, but weirdly unsung here in the states. I feel it is my civic duty to study and share his work with the utmost dedication.

Also, I only got turned on to Nick a couple years ago (thanks to Milton, who I may never be able to repay), and he has a huge catalog. It's taking me a while to catch up.

This song is from Nick's 1982 album 'Nick the Knife', which I recommend HIGHLY. Here are a few of the things that make it perfect, in my humble opinion:

1) Catchy and somehow fresh-sounding earworm of a chord progression, made of the most oft-used chords known to man (1, 4, and 5 (in this case, C, F and G)).

2) Heartbreaking lyrics paired with uptempo, poptastic melody; leaving the listener feeling giddy but full of a strange and incongruous sorrow.

3) Weird time signature that you wouldn't even notice if I hadn't just told you about it.

4) Lyrics that give you the one-two punch of being adorable and fun to hear, while tackling a confusing and emotionally complex topic. 

The topic, in this case (according to me): what it's like to be a sensitive, marshmallow-hearted person who can't help but fall in love (and/or in lust) constantly, heartbreak be damned. 

I have no idea what that's like, of course, but here's my take on it anyway.

Yours in heartbreak,

Carsie

As I might've mentioned, I made some demos in May with the inimitable Pete Donnelly (who produced Buoy), the infamous Joe Plowman (bassist extraordinaire), and the irrepressible Fred Berman (drummer from Amos Lee etc). I've been doling them out once a month, secretly and with a sense of mischief, here on Patreon and nowheres else. This is the fourth (of six), and I'm aiming to release the final one next month, soon afterwhich I'll be dug deep into the making of the actual album.

This song, Ravenous, is an anthem for the libertines, adventurers, and thoughtful hedonists. Please enjoy it in its raw basementy rock and roll glory.

I'm posting from Homer, Alaska, where I'm visiting with far-flung family. I've seen orca whales, sea otters, bald eagles and puffins - not to mention the glaciers and the bay, which are turquoise and purple and vast and gorgeous. The beauty is mindboggling. I'll send y'all a postcard.

Hedonistically yours,

Carsie

Greetings from New Orleans, where the city is at once mourning and celebrating the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I wasn't here for the storm, but I'm joining my neighbors in quiet reflection today. I'm sitting in the Watermelon, listening to WWNO's beautiful musical tribute to the millions affected by the storm (listen at http://wwno.org/).

This week, I've been digging through my past 3-4 years of demos, looking for "orphans and extras" that we might want to have in our back pockets as we enter the studio in January. I stumbled across a song I wrote back in 2011 and promptly forgot existed. I wrote this as I was falling hard for New Orleans, flushed with the fever of new love. This demo's a bit rough, but it's got that feverish feeling that you just can't fake.

New Orleans has a three-hundred year history of corruption, calamity, poverty, wickedness, decadence, kindness, collaboration, musical verve, loss and redemption. You can feel and smell and see it all, throughout the city, plain as day. I feel honored to live among these spirits, and humbled by the sheer overwhelming vibrance and strangeness and funk of the damn place. 

I'll be donating the proceeds from this post to Roots of Music, one of my favorite New Orleans nonprofits. Roots of Music provides free musical and cultural education to local kids from low-income households (a service that was once provided by city schools, but discontinued for a great number of kids as schools closed in the wake of the storm).

Roots of Music is doing a lot to keep the musical and cultural traditions of New Orleans alive and well, which makes us all richer. If you'd like to send them a few extra bucks, go to http://therootsofmusic.org/.

New Orleans, I love you. Here's to another three hundred years.

Carsie

Greetings from beautiful Wilmington, NC, where I'm taking a little beachside work-cation in the middle of my tour!

Besides touring, I've been getting my ducks in a row for the new album. We will be in the studio in January, which means I need to come up with a pile of money to fund the dang thing. Thus, I'm about to start running another Kickstarter, starting on October 6th!

I have a special request for you, my darling patrons. I've decided I won't be posting any "paid" work here on Patreon for the month of October; instead, I'll ask you to pledge your monthly patronage to my Kickstarter project. I'll send a reminder on the day the Kickstarter begins (October 6th). 

I'm also looking for HELP DESIGNING, PROMOTING, AND RUNNING my Kickstarter. If you'd be willing to help (with reward ideas, promoting the project online, or by becoming a major donor), SEND ME AN EMAIL at [email protected] Put "hell yes I'll help!" in the subject line, and INCLUDE YOUR PHONE NUMBER. 

I will personally call you next week to discuss!!

Attached, you'll find the last of the 'studio demos' we made back in May, 'Hot Night'. Very excited about this song! Remember, studio demos are but a step on the long road from song-conception to album-birth; a guiding light to shine into our brains when the hours get long and confusing.

Thanks, as always, for everything.

Playfully yours,

Carsie

PS. The image you see in the magic window is MY NEW TATTOO! And you are the first, in all of internet-land, to see it. The work is By David Hale (as always). It's a river otter named Puck, who will be accompanying me into the studio (and everywhere, til I get dead or armless) to remind me to stay playful. Ain't nobody gonna live it for ya, he says.

Ok guys, just ONE MORE Nick Lowe cover, for this rainy afternoon in New Orleans.

This will be my last paid post for a while! Next month I won't be posting anything paid here on Patreon, I'll be asking you to pledge to my Kickstarter campaign instead (starts October 6th!).

THANK YOU for all of your love and support, by the way. I'm reading Elizabeth Gilbert's new book, BIG MAGIC: Creative Living Beyond Fear. It's excellent, and it's reminding me what an absolutely blessed and magical life I'm leading, here in the watermelon, surrounded by guitars, making whatever I fancy to make, on this sweet rainy day.

Rainy, watermelony love to you and all your people.

Carsie