Carter Faith grew up in Davidson, North Carolina, where she first discovered country music through her grandfather’s cassette tapes before teaching herself piano and guitar and chasing her songwriting dreams all the way to Belmont University in Nashville. Since then, she’s signed with MCA and Universal Music Publishing Group, performed on the Grand Ole Opry stage, toured with legends like Willie Nelson, and earned acclaim for her smoky, vulnerable vocals and sharp storytelling.
Now, with the release of her ambitious debut album ‘Cherry Valley'—a 15-track journey weaving together country, folk, rock, and cinematic drama—Faith steps fully into her own as one of the genre’s most exciting new voices, balancing tradition and innovation while telling her own story of heartbreak, growth, and self-discovery. Our review here. We were thrilled to catch up with Carter recently to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time today, Carter, we know how busy you must be in release week!
Thank you for talking to me about it, it's a pleasure! It's coming out so soon , it's crazy! I'm stoked and a little nervous about it but I'm very excited.
Which song are you most excited for people to hear that they haven't heard yet?
I think ‘Six String.' That song is definitely a little ‘left of centre' but it's a real journey in itself. I feel like I could make a whole album based around that song alone! (laughing)
This really is an album in the truest sense of the word. It has a real ebb and flow and takes the listeners on a fascinating journey. Did you put a lot of thought into the sequencing?
Oh my goods, I spent months on the sequencing! I went back and forth thinking about different ways to do it and I eventually just came to the conclusion that it should be a chronological journey as if you were going through ‘Cherry Valley' and emerging out of it at the end.
Starting at the end then – why ‘Still a Lover' as the last song that closes down the album?
I picked that because I originally thought that ‘Changed' would make a great ending song – it's a happy ending, a little sad in a way but still positive. When I was deciding on the sequencing I didn't quite know where to put ‘Still a Lover' and then I got this vision in my head that if ‘Changed' was the last scene in the movie then ‘Still a Lover' would be the song playing over the credits or even a post credit scene all of its own.
I needed a kind of dark-tinged cliffhanger to maybe make you want to start the album all over again or maybe lead into another album.
The album cover is very cinematic itself – as if it were the poster for a movie. It also opens with the title track which is an incredibly bombastic song which reminds us of an Adele-esque James Bond theme tune! Tell me more about ‘Cherry Valley' as an idea and a concept and what it means to you as the title of the album.
I was writing for the album and I actually drove through a place in Tennessee called Cherry Valley. I wrote the name down in my phone and it stuck with me – I started making pretend scenarios in my head about what it would be like to live there! I'm from a small town and I needed a little idyllic place for me and my emotions to live surrounded by the maelstrom of Nashville! That's how it started.
I was in Texas on a call with the label about what I was going to call the album and I told them that I had been in Cherry Valley in my brain and they were, like, ‘what are you talking about, that's crazy?' so I figured I would take the crazy even further and call the album that! (laughing)
Across the album I can hear timeless influences like Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette and even some Dusty Springfield in there but you've got the lyrical sharpness of a young Kacey Musgraves and that knack for evocative wit that Taylor Swift has. Who are your musical heroes and inspirations?
You just nailed it! I love Tammy and Patsy. I love Dusty Springfield and I've never been compared to here before so that's cool. Kacey Musgraves is who I feel really made me want to be a songwriter. I remember hearing ‘Merry Go Round' in a Walmart parking lot as a kid and it stopped me in my tracks. As I got older, ‘Space Cowboy' felt unreal to me.
I also love Fleetwood Mac, Eric Church, Gram Parsons – all those artists that really have an artistry, I'm really drawn to that. Even Lana Del Ray, who isn't necessarily Country, I love her writing.
You pay tribute to Erich Church in ‘So I Sing.' That song stopped in my tracks when I first heard it. Tell me about the inspiration behind writing that song.
I wrote that song by myself. That's how I started writing songs on my bedroom floor and I was working on the album and hadn't written by myself in a long time and I guess somewhere in my soul I was a little desperate for that. This song came out really fast and it's so emotional that I didn't share it with anybody for quite a while.
I played it, one day, for Tofer Brown, my producer and he was, like, ‘That says it all – it has to go on the record.' I could write a whole album based around that one song but all I could handle at that time was a little three minute window look into the ideas behind it.
I haven't played it live yet and I really want to because as a music fan, it's those kind of emotional songs that you want to hear live at concerts……
I guess it would need to be in the right setting, in front of the right people I guess?
Totally, yes. It would need to be people that I know.
Songs like ‘Bar Star,' Sex, Drugs and Country Music' and ‘Grudge' have a lot of sharp humour in them. What makes you laugh because you are great at writing it!
Thank you! I don't really get along with people who take themselves too seriously and I feel like I don't really have any filter either! I say it how it is, which didn't always fare me well growing in the south as a woman! I love dark humour – a show like ‘Twin Peaks,' for example, is such a weird show but it is full of amazingly dark humour. Weird shows like ‘Nathan For You' also intrigue me – it's so dry and smart, that's the best kind of humour.
You mentioned growing up in the south. When did you first know you wanted to be a songwriter and what was your family's reaction to that?
I didn't know I wanted to be a writer until I was about 17. I wrote my first song when I was 16 and it was more of a therapeutic thing for myself. I started learning guitar chords with a guy in my town who had been to Belmont University in Nashville and I was, like, ‘Oh my god, you can go to school to do this?' (laughing) I had no clue.
I took a risk and I look back and I'm shocked at how supportive my family were! There were times where I was crying and saying that I didn't want to go and my mom was, like, ‘You're fucking going!' (laughing)
You moved to Nashville just before the pandemic, that was great timing, right?
Absolutely, that was well timed, for sure! (laughing) I lived in a little studio apartment by myself so that whole period was very interesting!
Did you suffer from imposter syndrome when you first got there?
For sure! People say they were the best singer in their hometown and then they moved to Nashville! I was the ONLY singer in my town! I had no-one to compare myself to and when I got to Nashville it was like Disney World for musicians! I was so scared. I think that's what forced me to hone in on who I am as a writer – I do think when you here a song from me you can tell it's me and that I wrote it.
What reaction have you had from the person that ‘Grudge' is about?
(laughing) I don't know if she knows it's about her? She might, I guess. Sometimes when I'm a little drunk I'll tell people who it is about and then sometimes I will be, like, ‘It's not about anyone!' (laughing)
I think my favourite song on the album is ‘Burn My Memory.' I'm an absolute sucker for a time change. Tell me about the writers and inspiration behind that song.
I wrote that song with Jessie Jo Dillon, Jessi Alexander and Brock Berryhill. Honestly, it was one of the first writes that Jessie and I ever did together and now she's like one of my closest collaborators and friends. We were going through annoying ass break ups – I sent the song to my dad and he loved it so I had to put it on the album.
It took a little massaging because of the time change in it. We recorded it live and trying to do that in the studio is pretty difficult but it turned out so well. My band begged me to put it into the live set because they love playing it as well.
Then there's songs like ‘Arrows,' ‘Drink Up, Baby' and ‘Six String' which are dark looks at love, lust and obsession. When you wrote those songs were you pulling from personal experience or using the experience of the writers around you?
Oh, I was pulling from my own experiences there! (laughing) I am an obsessive person and I get obsessed with things and people and I feel like that that is something that I'm working through on this album. I love that you used the word ‘obsession.' I think that a lot of young love is obsession-based – before you really understand who you are and what love means. A lot of my songs are about being obsessed and then having it ripped away from you – they are very intense! Youthful heartbreak is so much more painful, at least in my own experience! (laughing)
So many of the songs are these big, cinematic beasts with sweeping strings in. Will you be able to carry them off live? Will you have tracks? How will you approach the transition from album to live setting?
I will not use tracks in my show. I can see how it works for some people but for my show I want it to be super live. Sometimes my piano player can make a sound that sounds like strings on his keys but honestly, the live show is different for us, which is kinda cool. A lot of the times right now I have to go out on the road as just a trio – me and a couple of the guys – and that's a good exercise for me as an artist to be able to translate the songs over to people in that more stripped back environment.
There are lots of sharp lines, phrases, bridges and choruses on ‘Cherry Valley.' Do you have a favourite lyric that sits with you that you're so proud of having written?
I love the lyrics to ‘Misery Loves Company.' As a writer, lyrics are everything to me. That first verse of ‘Misery Loves Company' I love so much. ‘You've been staring out the window for three days now but you won't even try to go outside, I feel like a widow walking round this house, birds are circling and something must have died.' I love that!!
I brought that lyric to so many people and no-one would write it with me because it was so dark! (laughing) I was, like, ‘That's the point!'
You wrote with some terrific writers on ‘Cherry Valley.' If you could sit down and write the first song for your next album with someone you haven't written with before, who would you choose and why?
I think it would be Kacey Musgraves. I feel connected to her as an artist who has always pushed boundaries but stayed true to herself, which is always an interesting tightrope to walk. That's what I do and I'd love to learn from her in the writing room. I feel like I would learn so much in just 10 minutes from her.
Tell me about Tofer Brown's influence on this album.
Tofer's influence is everything! He's my best friend and I even lived with him for a little bit when I had nowhere else to live for a while. The first write we ever had connected us so much to the point where we were, like, ‘We're we brother and sister in a past life?' (laughing)
He's my friend, family and we put together a list of influences on us before we went into the studio and it turned out that the year 1966 was such a pivotal year for us, musically. I grew up listening to older music but Tofer showed me a lot of deeper cuts and genres from those times – he's a massive fan of the Beatles, who I obviously knew, but he showed me the deeper, better parts of that band. He cares so much about my songs and music, I'm so grateful for him.
Selfishly, we can't wait to hear you back in the UK again. Do you have fond memories from your previous trips over here?
Oh my god, I do. I can't wait to be back. I will definitely be back in the new year – I can't say when right now but I am coming back – that I know for sure.
Check out Carter Faith's fabulous debut album, ‘Cherry Valley' – out in all the usual places today!
