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A Conversation with Carrie Newcomer (continued)
PM: Now, I always inquire in interviews about spiritual matters or the spiritual life. And I'm surprised how short and how amorphous the responses to that frequently are. But in your life and work, this certainly seems to be a more up front and pivotal aspect. Can you give us anything on your spiritual life or your orientation, or how it may show up?
CN: My spiritual life is really a very important part of my life, so of course it gets into my work. I don't censor what I'm going to write about in terms of relationships. I write about romantic relationships, and those are important, but I also write about family relationships and spiritual relationships, political relationships. I really like to look at life as a whole. I think it's easier to reach those universal ideas that we both recognize. They may be my details that I use in my songs, but what I'm really trying to get at is something that we both recognize. And I think there is a basic human recognition with the idea of something greater than ourselves.
When I do write about it, I try to write in a very inclusive way and not exclusively. Most of us have had some kind of an experience with that something greater, whether it's walking in the woods or the first time you hold your baby in your arms, or whether it's something more formal in a traditional church setting. Most of us have had some experience somehow with this idea. And think that's a human thing, so it gets into my writing. Like I said, though, I do try to be very inclusive about it.
PM: Yeah, because what's spiritual about being exclusive, after all?
CN: Well, I feel that way. But I've had people tell me that it's dangerous to write with a spiritual context, because it may put you in a category you may not want to be in.
PM: Oh, you mean people may label you, they might say, "Well, she's kind of a New Age folkie."
CN: Yeah. Or they might say, "She's Contemporary Christian."
PM: Ah, for instance.
CN: Or they might say, "She's Radical This-or-that Folkie," or whatever. It just may put you in a box somewhere.
PM: Right. Which people are quick to do.
CN: And I use a lot of western spiritual language. But I just feel like that really powerful language resonates with us. You say the word "home," and it does something to a person. You talk about the concepts of spirit or soul, and it touches people. I don't feel I should censor myself from talking about those things and using those words. They don't belong to any one group or another.
And I've actually really appreciated the feedback I've gotten on that, too. People have been very generous with their feedback and letting me know that, "You know, this is important to me, too, and I'm glad you talk about it and include me." So my background--personally, I'm a Quaker, so--
PM: Raised a Quaker or became one in your adult years?
CN: I wasn't raised a Quaker. My dad came from this kind of West German Amish Mennonite background, my mom was Italian Catholic. So I'm the only Italian Amish person I know--
[laughter]
CN: --which explains all kinds of things.
PM: That's very cute.
CN: I started attending kind of silent Quaker meetings about 25 years ago. And there's an old Quaker saying that I have really loved, and it's: "Let your life speak." Who you are and what you believe should be really evident in how you live and how you work. And it sounds so simple, "Let your life speak. It shows in your life." But it's actually a really hard thing to do.
I take that saying to heart in how I write and the music I create, but I also take it to heart in how I operate in the business of music. When I go on tour, every album tour I choose a charitable organization and I give a percentage of my CD sales to that organization. I work with a lot of really amazing human service and charitable groups that--well, it's not necessarily altruistic. It keeps my hope alive that there are so many people out there really trying to make the world a little better place for all of us.
PM: And isn't the group you've chosen to support with this record the Friends?
CN: Yeah, AFFC, which is American Friends Service Committee.
PM: Right.
CN: And there's a little blurb about them on my website, it explains them a little bit. They have a project right now called E-maps. And it's sending material assistance and food to Iraq and to Afghanistan. And then there's a particular section of the project that's working with orphans of AIDS in parts of Africa. I generally choose an organization that has a real immediate need that they're working on. And this seems like a very immediate need right now. And they're good folks and I've worked with them before.
PM: AFFC seems like the kind of group that doesn't get bogged down in bureaucracy and actually gets the money where it's supposed to be going.
CN: Yeah. And it's a bunch of Quakers. They're pretty frugal.
PM: Yeah, right. [laughs]
CN: You know it's not going to get spent on expense accounts and fancy offices. It's going to really go there.
I've worked with other great organizations. On one of my tours I worked with the Literacy Volunteers of America. One tour I worked with, Nature Conservancy and Habitat for Humanity. I've worked with Planned Parenthood, and just a whole slew of different health and hunger organizations. Like I said, it's not totally altruistic. It definitely keeps my hope alive, because it's so easy right now to despair. There are a lot of sorrows out there in this world. And it would be easy to be overwhelmed by it.
But I get to see people really close up who--and you may not see it on the front page, it's not sensational as some of the difficult things happening out there--and those things are important to know about--but there are a lot of people working out there who aren't going to get on the front page. But they are there, and they're doing incredible things. And I feel lucky that in some of my work with them I've gotten to see it close up. But yeah--
PM: It's a remarkable example you set there. And I know that it's your work with some of these organizations that was behind you being chosen Woman of the Year in your town. How did that touch you?
CN: It did. Boy, did I cry when I found that out.
PM: I'll bet.
CN: And it was completely unexpected. And I was the first artist, I guess. When I started looking at the list of some of the women who had gotten it--some very amazing, powerful women who had done such good work in the community--I felt really honored and humbled. And yeah, boy did I cry.
PM: Wow.
CN: It was good. Yeah, it's kind of my work in music--well, first and foremost I'm a songwriter and a musician and a creator. But I've always, I think, looked for ways to use what I do and what I love to maybe help out where I can. There's a Romero quote that I love, "You can't do everything, but you can do something." And sometimes I think it's a matter of finding out where it is that you can best contribute, that not everybody can play guitar and do a benefit for an organization, but maybe you're good at accounting and you can volunteer at the local food bank that needs some help. Or maybe you're the person who makes really good casseroles when someone's in trouble.
PM: Yeah.
CN: Or the guy that always runs the truck. Folks have all kinds of talents that they can contribute. And usually I say, "Find what it is that you love, contribute with what you love, because it'll be a really powerful contribution then. You can't do everything, but you can do something. And maybe focus on the things that you love and you do well. continue
