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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

arts performances

Bloomington native brings spirituality for album release concert

Photo courtesy of Carrie Newcomer

Instrumental music will meet bluegrass during Carrie Newcomer’s performance at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

The singer-songwriter is a Bloomington native and has published 13 albums. The performance Saturday is part of Newcomer’s release of her new album, “The Beautiful Not Yet,” which has been in distribution for a month.

“She’s incredibly unique, in some ways, in her writing,” Newcomer’s manager and husband Robert Meitus said. “Her real uniqueness comes from her writing and probably stems first and foremost from her lyrics.”

Newcomer’s new album will also include a book full of writings that accompany the album. Similar books have been put together for previous albums and are an artistic extension of the lyrics and sounds within the album, Meitus said.

“She’s a prolific writer,” Meitus said. “She has books, which accompany both of her last two albums, which are books of essays and 
poems.”

Newcomer’s music is marked with spirituality. According to her website, she considers herself a spiritual progressive and writes this concept into her work.

“There’s a spiritual current in my work because there’s a spiritual current in my life,” Newcomer said. “If it didn’t show up in my work, I’d be censoring something really important about how I walk around in the world and how I experience the world.”

Newcomer has performed in the past with a variety of musicians, including Allison Krauss, but her career has also aligned itself with many writers. She collaborates with writers just as often as she does with musicians, Meitus said.

“She does a lot of activities and performances with authors,” Meitus said. She’s probably more collaborative with book authors than she is with other musicians, in fact.”

Both Newcomer and Meitus said they are eager to return to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Meitus said its history and size create a distinct place to perform and Newcomer and Meitus both agreed the energy within the theater is the reason she continues to return.

“I love the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.” Newcomer said. “I travel all over the country and different arts of the world, and it’s, I have to say, my favorite place to perform.”

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