Carrie Newcomer is a songwriter, recording artist, performer and educator. She has been described as a “prairie mystic” by the Boston Glove and one who “asks all the right questions” by Rolling Stone Magazine. Carrie Has 18 nationally released albums on Available Light & Concord/Rounder Records including The Point of Arrival and The Beautiful Not Yet. Newcomer has released two books of poetry & essays, A Permeable Life: Poems and Essays and The Beautiful Not Yet: Poems and Essays & Lyrics. Her song “I should’ve Known Better” appeared on Nickel Creeks’ Grammy-winning gold album This Side, and she earned an Emmy for her PBS special An Evening with Carrie Newcomer. Recent appearances include PBS Religion and Ethics and Krista Tippett’s On Being. In 2009 and 2011 Newcomer was invited by the American Embassy of India to be a cultural ambassador, resulting her interfaith benefit album Everything is Everywhere with master of the Indian Sarod, Amjad Ali Khan. In 2013 Carrie traveled to Kenya, Africa and The Middle East, performing in schools, spiritual communities and AIDS hospitals. In 2015 Carrie’s first musical, Betty’s Diner: The Musical was produced by Purdue University. In 2016 Carrie was awarded an honorary degree in Music for Social Change from Goshen College. In 2019 she received The Shalem Institutes’s Contemplative Voices Award. She has been involved with many health, hunger and social justice organizations raising 200,000 this year for The Soup Bowl Benefit Project.

In recent years Carrie joined with beloved author, Parker J. Palmer on several projects, including The Growing Edge, (www.newcomerpalmer.com) which explores our growing edges, personally, vocationally and politically. Together they have created live events, personal growth retreats, and the highly-rated The Growing Edge Podcast, featuring authors, activists, poets and musicians, and online conversation starters for book and other conversation groups. Spirituality and Health Magazine named Parker and Carrie and The Growing Edge collaboration as one of the top ten spiritual leaders for the next 20 years.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic Carrie has been involved with many creative online projects, including the creation of her own streaming studio, Available Light Studios, and helped found a new online concert platform, Mandolin, with her husband Robert Meitus. She has continued to perform concerts and present workshops through online formats. In May 2021 she will head back into the recording studio to create her next album due for release September 2021.

Gary Walters is a performing and recording musician, composer, arranger and educator. He has been touring and recording with Carrie Newcomer for over fifteen years. He has performed and recorded with many of Central Indiana’s finest musicians, including the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. His compositions range from jazz pieces, works for chamber groups and small orchestras incorporating elements of post-Modernism and improvisation. He is a former faculty at Butler University, teaching applied Jazz Piano as well as directing several jazz combos. Gary has released two solo recordings, Moments in Time and The Way Through, reflecting his varied musical influences and original compositions, as well as recording a band project with The Icarus Ensemble. Gary has appeared on many nationally released recordings including seven with Carrie Newcomer. Gary was also arranger and music director for the 2016 production of Betty’s Diner: The Musical. He has recently released Sanctuary, a book of solo and choral arrangements.  Beginning in 2013 Gary has joined with author Parker J. Palmer and musician Carrie Newcomer to create two nationally touring stage shows, Healing the Heart of Democracy, and What We Need is Here: Hope Hard Times and the Human Possibility.

For more information about Gary Walters visit www.garywalterpiano.com

Violinist/Violist Allie Summers has been performing since she was 6- years old in her family’s bluegrass band. She is a graduate of the prestigious Jacob School of Music, and has toured internationally with a variety of Alt folk, Americana, and classical ensembles. She has been performing live with Carrie Newcomer since 2018, adding a beautiful depth and energy to every show.     She can also be heard on Parker J. Palmer’s newly released recording “The Music Will Play On” available on Spotify and iTunes.