Caroline Herring

About

Caroline Herring has built her reputation on something most folk singers don't attempt: historical story songs that put forgotten or overlooked figures at the center. Her characters range from a 19th century enslaved woman named Rachel to a Freedom Rider named Mae Frances Moultrie to a child killed in an Appalachian mountaintop removal mining incident. That specificity and moral seriousness runs through her whole catalog, and Mary Chapin Carpenter, who sings on Herring's 2012 album Camilla, described her as "fearless and uncompromising." Her 2008 album Lantana landed on NPR's list of the top ten folk albums of that year, and Golden Apples of the Sun followed in 2009 to similar praise from The Boston Globe. She was also the only American invited into The Cecil Sharp Project, an eight artist collaboration honoring the English folk song collector Cecil Sharp. Beyond recording, Herring has performed at Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, and folk festivals across Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK.