Carrie Lennard

Native to Dorset, Carrie started writing at an early age and a little later taught herself to play guitar, evolving her unique style. In 1974 at the age of 19, she organised and hosted the songwriter club FolkMoot. This was held in Exeter, Devon with many well-known artists appearing regularly.

Early influences were Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Whilst at Hull University studying music, Carrie performed in music venues all over the north and across to Germany both solo and with a band - "New Southern Comfort" . Carrie was a regular contributor on BBC Radio Humberside, performing her own songs. In 1979, she supported Maddy Prior at the New Theatre, Hull.

Later in the year, Carrie moved to London and has since been performing solo and in bands, all over London and the provinces. She has co-written with Michael Williams, Claus Regli, Patti Layne, Lee Lindsay and Mandy Mayhew. In 2003, she became one of the original cast members of Girls with Guitars (UK), a consortium of established songwriters, running showcases each month in Covent Garden and Barnes www.girlswithguitars.co.uk .

Her latest CD "Kayla" is available via info@carrielennard.com. Carrie is currently putting together new material for her next album. She's getting ready to take "Kayla" over to Nashville at the end of July. More details of this will be available nearer the date.

I'm quite new to the CD reviewing business but have already decided that the best way to listen is on the car stereo first then on headphones on the PC. Follow this with a quick Internet search on the artist and away we go!

This is a recent review from Acoustic magazine

Country-folk singer and guitarist Carrie Lennard was brought up on a farm in Dorset, and it was in this most rural of settings that she learned how to play guitar and write songs. The smell of the cowsheds and the sound of the combine harvesters has done her no harm at all either because her album is something of a treat. Along with co-guitarist Julz Parker, Lennard is part of the Girls with Guitars movement that came across the Atlantic from Nashville, having been set up by Cindy Kalmenson. However, Lennard’s politics are kept well clear of her lyrics, with the majority of her subject matter concentrating on relationships and general life experiences. Songs such as “Wow me” and “You make me sing” are direct messages to somebody close to Lennard’s heart, while “Poisoned words” gives her a chance to get something off her chest that was obviously bothering her terribly, giving the album a wonderfully personal feel.

It is an honest and genuine album from a talented singer and guitarist, and sometimes that’s enough.

Brett Callwood ACOUSTIC guitar magazine Oct/Nov 2005

This is David Taylor's review from Music Maker Magazine

First impressions are what a good sound Carrie Lennard makes on the car stereo -she is a seasoned performer who started off in the mid seventies as part of the West Country folk scene -early influences were all the great names of that era:
Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Paul Simon. Along the way she has absorbed a lot of more modern artists - she has accumulated a catholic musical taste ranging from Beethoven to Nora Jones. This has made for an eclectic mix which has gone into the melting pot to produce her own singing and writing style showcased on "Kayla". Carrie sings like someone who finds it (in her own words) "just like breathing".

She is based mainly in the London area and has a full gigging schedule -and a trip to Nashville later in the year. She performs solo or with a band and has for the past few years been involved with the UK branch of the "Girls with Guitars" project. Carrie's mid-Atlantic tones span the full emotional and tonal range from sensitive to powerful, sensuous to sensual, from "folkie" to almost Gloria Gaynor soul power on "Frontiers".

The headphones test reveals she is a wordsmith of no mean talent. Many of her lyrics are impressionistic, pictures in the clouds poems, but she can also write in a more direct style She writes totally devoid of clichés and takes obvious delight in the sound of the words. Topics covered include joy in relationships, friendship, broken dreams - inevitably reflective considering Carrie's seventies origins. "Letter from a Fish and Chip Shop" gives the impression of the mind wandering, "I want" is a pop song just about fancying someone (perhaps a cheeky hint of the Spice Girls -l can just imagine the choreography for this one) - "You Make Me Sing" and "I Can Fly" are beautiful unpretentious love songs.

Carrie is more than ably assisted by a group of backing musicians who she is used to playing alongside and who know how to empathise with and augment the songs without intruding on them. I think a brief explanatory note on the songs in the cover notes might have helped those like myself not familiar with her work. My overall impression is one of total genuineness of someone who enjoys what they are doing and of someone who should perhaps be a more well known name than they are -perhaps "Kayla" might benefit from taking a tour of the provinces!

www.carrielennard.com

David Taylor