Carolann Solebello

Artist Information

Biography

Most familiar to folk audiences as a founding member of the celebrated female trio Red Molly, Carolann Solebello returned to solo performance in August 2010 after six years of steady touring with the band. Her third solo CD, Threshold - the first since parting from Red Molly - was released in June 2011. Carolann is the winner of the 2011 Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival Songwriting Competition.

A New York City native, Carolann first fell in love with mountain music – and the bluegrass and country that grew out of that tradition – while working as an actor in East Tennessee and Kansas. Tunes and techniques she learned from musicians in both places fundamentally changed her approach to songwriting and guitar playing, and subsequently colored her work with Red Molly.

Produced by Fred Gillen, Jr., Threshold explores the sonic landscape of American folk music from Appalachian ballads to honky-tonk barnburners. The 12-song collection gracefully melds elements of traditional and contemporary folk music into what Gillen calls “a country, gospel, old-time, elecric guitar dance through 80 years of American music.”

In addition to Threshold, Carolann has two previous solo albums to her credit, Just Across the Water (2000), Glass of Desire (2009), the latter also produced by Fred Gillen, Jr.

Carolann recorded three full-length CDs with Red Molly. In 2006, the live CD Never Been to Vegas earned the trio Best New Artist status at WUMB Boston. Their 2008 folllow-up, Love and Other Tragedies, spent ten weeks in the Americana Top 15, and Carolann’s song “Summertime” was the #1 song on the Folk DJ chart in July 2008. James, released in 2010, peaked at #4 on the Americana chart, and was #23 on the 2010 AMA Top 100.

Red Molly toured nationally during Carolann’s tenure with the band, and was privileged to perform at numerous festivals, including: Merlefest (NC), Kerrville Folk Festival (TX), Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (NY), Woody Guthrie Folk Festival (OK), New Bedford Summerfest (MA), Musikfest (PA), and Philadelphia Folk Festival (PA).

Carolann continues to earn accolades performing her New York-inflected brand of original and traditional Americana as a solo artist. She makes her home in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and young son.

www.carolannsolebello.com

Notable Venues

Tin Angel, Philadelphia PA
Mayo Center for the Performing Arts, Morristown NJ
Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club, Fair Lawn NJ
Appel Farm Arts & Music Center, Elmer NJ
The Living Room, New York NY
Club Passim, Cambridge MA
Circle of Friends Coffeehouse, Franklin MA
Outpost in the Burbs, Montclair NJ
Me & Thee Coffeehouse, Marblehead MA
Towne Crier Café, Pawling NY

Festivals

2011 Winner, Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival Songwriting Competition, Havre de Grace MD
Open Air Family Music Festival, Scarsdale NY
Black Potatoe Music Festival, Clinton NJ

Carolann has opened for:

Vance Gilbert
John Gorka
Tracy Grammer
John Hall
The Kennedys
Dave Mason
Lynn Miles
Garnet Rogers
David Wilcox
Jack Williams
Phil Vassar

Instrumentation

Carolann is available to perform as a soloist, as a trio with upright bass and drums, or as a quartet with upright bass, drums, and electric guitar or fiddle.

Discography

Solo:
Threshold (2011)
Glass of Desire (2009)
Just Across the Water (2000)

With Red Molly:
James (2010)
Love and Other Tragedies (2008)
Never Been to Vegas (2006)
Red Molly (2005)

With CC Railroad:
Black Horse Motel (2004)
Smile Whatever (2001)

Official Website

http://www.carolannsolebello.com

Links

• Facebook
• ReverbNation

Audio

• Hound Dogs In August
  Listen  
• Empty House
  Listen  
• Downtown
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• The Shadow
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• Papa's Mandolin
  Listen  
• Home
  Listen  
• Golden Boy 5-13-13
  Listen  
• River 5-13-13
  Listen  
• Chinatown 5-13-13
  Listen  
• Backward 5-11-13
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Hound Dogs in August
• Empty House
• Downtown
• The Shadow
• Papa's Mandolin
• Home
• Golden Boy
• River
• Chinatown
• Backward

Video

Paint My Wagon, The Living Room, NYC, January 20, 2012

Home, DeColores Community Garden, NYC, September 9, 2012

Photo Gallery

Press

• A confident, effortless approach... [+ Show ]
  

  Solebello's multi-instrumental chops, her gift for songwriting and versatile vocals run the gamut fr...Solebello's multi-instrumental chops, her gift for songwriting and versatile vocals run the gamut from country, bluegrass, gospel and contemporary folk... She is in total command of her art and exudes a confident, effortless approach throughout.

• A powerful emotional document [+ Show ]
  

  [Threshold] is an album that is best heard as a whole, in the order the songs appear on the disc. Ta...[Threshold] is an album that is best heard as a whole, in the order the songs appear on the disc. Taken this way, it is a powerful emotional document that I know I will want to come back to.

• Steps confidently into the role of solo performer [+ Show ]
  

  For six years Carolann Solebello anchored Red Molly's harmonies with her velvety alto. On her new CD...For six years Carolann Solebello anchored Red Molly's harmonies with her velvety alto. On her new CD, Threshold, she steps confidently into the role of solo performer with the clarity and conviction of her vocals, complemented by some of the New York area's best musicians and Fred Gillen's ever-tasteful production.

• A clinic in how to write a good folk-pop song... [+ Show ]
  

  Carolann Solebello is one of the three women in well-loved Americana-folk band Red Molly. One of the...Carolann Solebello is one of the three women in well-loved Americana-folk band Red Molly. One of the reasons for Red Molly’s popularity may be the way they skirt cliches – their unselfconscious, refreshingly down-to-earth sensibility is all too seldom seen in the ostensibly “poetic” world of folk music and singer-songwriters. As with her main band, Solebello relies on comfortable, familiar chords and changes on this cd (her first solo effort in nine years), but with a potent, metaphorically loaded lyrical style and that soaring voice that frequently evokes another extraordinary Americana singer, Mary Lee Kortes of Mary Lee’s Corvette. The production is rustic and oldschool, a tastily melodic mesh of acoustic and electric guitar textures.
  
  All That I’ve Done Right is a perfect example of how Solebello works. It’s a straight-up country song, a mother addressing her daughter. But it’s not mawkish or sentimental, in fact in its own characteristically understated way it’s kind of harrowing, a “faded chorus girl” looking for a grain of hope in her kid and coming up with it – sort of. Likewise, Michigan, a nimbly fingerpicked tale of a would-be New York expatriate who’s “sick of living underground, sick of being tightly wound.” It has a trick ending, one that’s as sadly universal as it is funny. Another first-class track here is Behind the Door, images tumbling in a vivid evocation of how to walk away from the past – or is it possible to do that at all, Solebello ponders?
  
  The rest of the album mixes shades of light and dark. The opening track, Home, is a memorably uneasy traveling song:
  
  Said goodnight to my soul
  Jesus went in that great big hole
  Throwing rocks but still I roll
  
  Shibboleth is a teeth-gnashing anthem, Steve Kirkman’s reverb-drenched lapsteel sheets matching Solebello’s angst note for note. The pensive Dance with Me features producer Fred Gillen Jr. sitting in on mandolin. And on Michael, an old lover tries to reconnect with her – while she may be “clinging to an oar in a sea of memories” she wisely decides against it as Kirkman’s deliciously evocative electric guitar ending seals the deal. The album winds up with the Gillian Welch-inflected Ties That Bind and a subdued ballad, Long Time Gone. The whole album is as smart as it is accessible – just like Solebello’s other project. And it’s a clinic in how to write a good folk-pop song: other songwriters should get their hands on this to see how it’s done.

• Powerful, soaring alto [+ Show ]
  

  It is wonderful to hear Carolann's powerful, soaring alto featured on its own. The songs [on Glass o...It is wonderful to hear Carolann's powerful, soaring alto featured on its own. The songs [on Glass of Desire] are personal but touch on universal themes of family, transition and fulfillment.

• A voice that is strong and expressive [+ Show ]
  

  ...a voice that is strong and expressive. Musical theater has given her the ability to define the em......a voice that is strong and expressive. Musical theater has given her the ability to define the emotional underpinning in any song.

• A welcome blast of clean and crisp talent... [+ Show ]
  

  Carolann Solebello is a welcome blast of clean and crisp talent in a heavy fog of overly-intense fol...Carolann Solebello is a welcome blast of clean and crisp talent in a heavy fog of overly-intense folk martyrs from back east . Her songwriting and performance artistry bring to the forefront the knowingness that in life, it is not the experience that defines the story. It is the story that defines the experience.

Setlist

Carolann is available to perform as a soloist, as a trio with upright bass and drums, or as a quartet with upright bass, drums, and electric guitar or fiddle.

Carolann's sets include original material from her three solo CDs. Traditional American folk and gospel, plus favorites the Red Molly repetoire may also appear.

Threshold (2011)
Hound Dogs in August
Bury Me Beneath the Willow
A Song I Can't Remember
Downtown
The Shadow
Alice
Empty House
Black Jack Davey
Tea Without Sympathy
Paint My Wagon
Someone Else's Dream
Wash Me Clean

Glass of Desire (2009)
Home
Behind the Door
Papa's Mandolin
Shibboleth
All That I've Done Right
Michigan
Dance With Me
Michael
Burn in Me
Ties That Bind
Long Time Gone

Just Across the Water (2000)
The Sinner and the Saint
Just Across the Water
Ophelia
Give Me Your Hand
Got a Minute?
Children of the Light
Jose
Rainbow
New York Shoes
Your Name

Basic Requirements

PDF Rider

Solebello TRIO Stage Plot

Calendar