When I Was Made by Edie Carey

Economic instrumentation forces all your attention toward the gentle story-telling, rich with humanity and insight... Vulnerable and pleasing, Carey draws us into her world, where we find we have a lot in common."

HARP MAGAZINE, March 2004

"Bare of self-pity and full of down-to-earth revelation, 'When I Was Made' is a little country, a little adult-contemporary, and a lot of fine music."

COUNTRY MUSIC WEEKLY, June 2004

"****(four stars)"

THE ONION, July 2004

"What sets [Carey] apart...is her effortless ability to be gentle: The songs on last year's 'When I Was Made' don't need to get loud to be effective. Listen closely, and expect to be impressed."

GRITZ: MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN CULTURE & MUSIC, Spring 2004

"Once in a while, while plowing through the piles of CD's we get here at Gritz, I happen across a real diamond in the rough. Such was the case with this album from Edie Carey. This girl has one of the most pleasing voices I have heard in a while, and her songwriting only serves to enhance the whole package. Moody, beautiful tunes like 'Open Wide' mix with up tempo acoustic romps like 'With Our Hands' and 'Chemistry.' A beautiful, beautiful album."

BOSTON HERALD, October 2004

"You know the Americana trend has taken hold when one of New York City's slickest acoustic-popsters, Edie Carey, adds banjo and dobro to her indie album 'When I Was Made.' The sound suits her, too. It's a tuneful, lightly plaintive folk-pop winner..."

NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE, September 2003

"'When I Was Made'...is filled with tuneful contemplative, gentle folk tunes with a full complement of twangy banjo-dobro-pedal steel backing. Carey's got a rich, breathy voice, and breaks the mold enough to keep it interesting."

ALBUM DESCRIPTION...

The title of Edie Carey's third studio release, "When I Was Made," is a helpful key when listening to this lush and intimate new collection of songs. Creation is a theme that reappears throughout the album, most notably in the rolling, mesmerizing "Chemistry," inspired by Shelley's Frankenstein, and in "If I Start to Cry," in which Carey asks some of the hardest questions a child can ask of a father: I'm just like my mother / And if you don't love her / What does that mean about me? But the album title also seems to point to her own re-making of herself as an artist. From the first vibrant moments of "With Our Hands," it is clear that Carey has taken a mindful step in a rather different musical direction. This is by far her most countrified recording to date, with its liberal sprinklings of banjo, pedal and lap steel, and dobro throughout. Yet, it's not so much the instrumentation that's changed, but her tone. There is an almost palpable maturity and depth in her voice that can only come from three years of rigorous touring and simply growing up. She sounds so at home on this record, so laid back, and yet fierce at the same time. Carey is more confident than ever, and she is not afraid to take her sweet time carving out her stories right before your eyes.

Produced by Evan Brubaker and Troy Glessner, "When I Was Made" features a bevy of singer-songwriters moonlighting as session players: Jonathan Kingham, Skip Peri, as well as Julie Wolf (Ani Difranco band).

MORE ABOUT EDIE...

* Finalist for Album of the Year, Independent Music Awards, 2004

* Grand Prize, Guitar Center's "The Producer Project" Contest, 2004

* Finalist, Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour Competition, 2004

* Finalist, Rocky Mountain Folks Songwriter Showcase, 2003-4

* Honorable Mention, Billboard & USA Songwriting Contests, 2003-4

* Songs featured on The WB's "Charmed" & MTV's "Road Rules" 2002

* Performer, Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, UT, 2002

* Opener, Melissa Ferrick Spring Tour 2004 & Fall Tour 2002

With her warm, graceful voice and her knack for cutting "into a subject...with a diamond-edged blade**," Edie Carey grabs hold of her audiences and doesn't let go until she steps off the stage. While her songs are what first draw listeners in, it's what she says in between that keeps them coming back. Carey's wry and self-mocking humor, coupled with her ability to tell a great story, makes audiences feel as though they have just spent the evening with a very close friend. Given the triple threat of her magnetic stage presence, heart-grabbing songs, and almost unearthly voice, it's no wonder that the word about Carey is traveling fast. Performing Songwriter called her last release, When I Was Made, "a lovely, shimmering, heart-felt record"; Harp Magazine proclaimed it "bare of self-pity and full of down-to-earth revelation"; Paste declared it "vulnerable and pleasing...rich with humanity and insight," and Country Music Weekly gave it "****."

Since beginning her rigorous touring schedule in 1999, Carey has performed in rooms such as The Bottom Line and Bowery Ballroom in New York City, The Fillmore in San Francisco, Boston's Somerville Theatre and Club Passim, The Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Nashville's Bluebird Cafe, Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles, The Opera House in Toronto, and The Borderline in London. She has also played repeat performances at The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, The Southern Womyn's Festival, The Houston Women's Festival, and Chicago's Edgewater Days and Market Days. She has shared the stage with artists as varied as Leo Kottke, Ani DiFranco, Jonatha Brooke, Lucy Kaplansky, Patty Larkin, and Sandra Bernhard, and has toured extensively with Melissa Ferrick.

When I Was Made was produced by Evan Brubaker (Holly Figueroa, David LaMotte) and Troy Glessner at Spectre Studios in Tacoma, WA. Featuring acclaimed Seattle-based musicians Jonathan Kingham, Skip Peri, Dan Tyack, and Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco), When I Was Made was released in January 2004. Edie's previous albums, Come Close, Call Me Home, and The Falling Places were released to critical acclaim in 2002, 2000, and 1998, respectively.

*WUMB-FM, Boston

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