Hello my newest friend...

Carsie Blanton here...

I’m an independent songwriter, and I love everybody except billionaires and fascists. 

You heard that correctly...

I want to send you a copy of my 2021 protest album, Love & Rage...

for just the cost of shipping ($5)...

A Revolutionary Album!

This album was mentioned in the New York Times and Rolling Stone, and reviewed gushingly on NPR’s Fresh Air. It careens through genres, from Americana and western swing to pop-punk rock anthems, all the time embracing the people and scolding the rich. American Songwriter called it “revolutionary”, and said it was “fighting fascism with big hooks and an even bigger heart”.

I am very good at making music, but...

I’ve been touring for fifteen years and have made eight albums. I’ve opened for legends, played Red Rocks, and sold out plenty of my own shows. But touring just ain’t what it used to be, and neither is streaming. I wrote a whole article about it for The Nation! So, I’ve decided to try a new way to reach fans:

And that's not even the whole story...

Over the years, I’ve figured out how to reach fans on the internet. I’ve made a small menagerie of viral hits (Rich People, Shit List, Fishin’ With You) and gained a whole lot of followers. But you know what? Followers don’t equal money. Even ticket sales don’t equal money, because touring is so expensive! The only way I really get paid is Patreon, and selling stuff online.

Politics and nina simone...

So where did I come from? These days I live outside of Philadelphia, but I grew up in rural Virginia, and have lived in New Orleans, Eugene, and San Francisco. I’ve been obsessed with songs and songwriting since I was a pup, but when Trump got elected, I also got obsessed with politics. I started reading theory and going to meetings. I became an organizer (though, not a very good one, because I’m usually out of town) and started writing protest songs.

When I found out the GOAT Nina Simone was a socialist, too??!? It all started to come together.

Enough about me and Nina Simone...check out this album...

This album was written largely during the 2020 lockdown. The album art features a beautiful series of photos from the Philadelphia protests inspired by George Floyd, taken by artist/activist Isaac Scott.

I wrote Down in the Streets after one of those protests, on the way to pick up my brother from a downtown Philly jail. I wrote Be Good at my bass player Joe’s house in Germantown, a few days after all our gigs got canceled. 

I started writing Shit List back in 2017, just after the Unite the Right Rally. As a Jewish southerner who grew up about an hour from Charlottesville, when I saw those little shits on the news, walking down our cobblestones chanting “Jews will not replace us”, I felt this song scratching at the door. Nowadays, me and the band get the whole crowd to shout down Nazis with us at every single show (even Red Rocks).

My artistic and political inspiration...

Some people say that artists like me should “stay out of politics”. I think that’s both harebrained and misinformed. Culture is politics, and art is culture. Art makes the world better; and in my opinion, engaging with the world makes art better, too. Just listen to Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke, John Prine, and my idol, Nina Simone. 

Personally, I don’t want to sing about some fantasy world; I want to sing about the real world. The one that’s rapidly heating, ruled by grifters, and divided by profiteers. Can we find hope and humanity, there?