Self-released

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Bristol-based, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Holly Carter’s music merges a cathartic and a soothing element, with shuffley rhythms on her first full-length album. Named AMA (UK) instrumentalist of the Year in 2023 and 2024, she shares her lyrical and guitar-picking talents while teaching a very broad and detailed survey course in musical storytelling. In the process, she introduces listeners to a broader palette of sounds with the intention, hopefully, to inspire new thought patterns and emotional vantage points. These are songs that are meant to encourage reflection and a conscientious shift of one’s perspective, as they probe the permeable boundaries between desolation and exhilaration, isolation and community, failure and hope, loss and love, that we constantly navigate in search of, at least, a momentary sense of what life could and should be. Introspectively reflecting on questions such as self-doubt, depression, family dysfunction and even anti-capitalism, Holly processes realities, emotions, and questions that have fomented over the last few years via interconnected narratives across the songs. Although none of these topics are new to our society or its folk songs, each seems amplified in 2025 by a 24-hour news cycle and an endless stream of social media untruths. It’s almost as if the more the album is played, the more a new perspective can shine through.

Holly possesses a voice that’s at once young and old, tender and tough, warm and inviting as a caress, yet sturdy as a firm handshake. The leisurely What You See offers a catchy guitar refrain, while the band forges a chorus-y, mid-tempo rhythm, as the song swoops down into the ways that we so often fail to see what others see, leaving little but mistrust in our wake. A tribute to the Newcastle-born photographer Tish Murth, who tirelessly documented the lives of working-class people, Holly’s vocals and the structure of the song stay grounded, yet resolute, lending it a timelessness. Though Out To Sea appears cloaked in a negative haze, the intention stands strong. It is otherworldly and, at times, a serene ride on a lush blanket of haunting pedal steel, played superbly by Holly, as she lyrically explores the emptiness of our lives and the ways we often fail to connect with those around us.

There’s a focus that foregrounds her lightness of touch and canny blend of electric and acoustic instrumentation on Follow Your Lead, as self-doubt creeps into her life. He's A Man is a scrappy pop song that explores identity. Holly’s voice is powerful and exquisite, each musician adding painterly, cinematic elements to create a blend of swirling musicianship, as the lead guitar pops like falling stars, yet it is her voice that keeps you mesmerised. There’s just one outside song, Where The Fraser Rivers Flows, written by Swedish-American activist Joe Hill more than a hundred years ago. Its rally call for workers’ rights is as relevant today as a century ago, and Holly’s sublime vocal is just about perfect. She closes with the enchanting Morewen, a delicate instrumental piece, that turns the spotlight on her intricate fingerpicking, with elements of Doc Watson and John Fahey clearly noticeable. Holly Carter is more than just another singer-songwriter. She delves boldly into folk music’s conscience to uphold traditional standards while pushing the envelope of the future. This is a record, that I think will go on to have much success, a story that had to be told through the music of this talented musician.

https://www.hollycartermusic.com

September 2025