Carsie Blanton and her Handsome Band. Courtesy photo
“It’s been a long, weird couple of years,” says songwriter Carsie Blanton, “between the pandemic and other disasters, every day brings a new kind of anxiety. We need to find ways to remember who we are.
After keeping her band afloat throughout lockdown with live-streamed ‘rent parties,’ going viral with a song memorializing John Prine (“Fishin’ with You”) and releasing a critically acclaimed mid-pandemic album (2021’s “Love and Rage”), Blanton may be the person to help us do that.
“When you spend your time watching the news or social media, people seem cruel and stupid. But I think that by a wide margin, people are good, and want to take care of each other.”
Blanton’s songs are far from saccharine. She doesn’t shy from vulgarity or politics. Songs like “S— List” and “Dealin’ with the Devil” lampooned neo-Nazis and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, respectively, while others bordered on the burlesque.
Blanton and her impeccably dressed Handsome Band demonstrated musical acumen betraying a long tenure as live performers. Accompanied by Joe Plowman on upright bass and Patrick Firth on Wurlitzer, her songs meandered from Americana and rock to cocktail jazz, Motown, and Elvis-Costello-esque pop punk. Three-part harmonies thickened the sound of the trio, while kazoos leavened it. Blanton’s years in New Orleans could be heard not just musically, but in her flair for the macabre.
Mid-show, Blanton performed several songs solo, showcasing the stripped-down arrangements featured on her forthcoming album “Body of Work,” produced by Grammy-nominee Tyler Chester.
Her opening song, “Be Good,” invites listeners to be more like Christ and Martin Luther King Jr., while her encore, “All My Love,” is dedicated to the health care workers, social workers and teachers who pulled the rest of us through the pandemic.
“We make music because it makes us feel better”, she says. “We share it because we want to make you feel better, too.”
Carsie and her band will appear on stage at the Opera House in Boothbay Harbor at 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 5. Advance discounted tickets on sale at the box office at 86 Townsend Ave., or by calling (207) 633-5159. Advance tickets are $20. Regular tickets are $25, available day of show and online at boothbayoperahouse.com. Doors for seating open at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be available.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
