Cary Ann Hearst

I once heard Frank Goodman, music critic and founder of puremusic.com, tell a story about seeing Patty Griffin for the first time at the Bluebird cafe in Nashville. It was one of those ubiquitous "in-the-rounds" and Griffin (an unknown at the time) filled in for a songwriter who didn't show up. After hearing Patty Griffin sing one song, Goodman recalls thinking, "Well that's it, we can all go home now — cause it ain't gonna get any better than that." This is exactly the impression that Cary Ann Hearst leaves on anyone within earshot of her electric live performances. Hearst's early show Friday night at The Basement was the evening's gem, as she had the audience locked into her deceptively sweet gaze. Hearst is a natural onstage, and her explosive delivery and precision vocals recall the top female rockers of any genre. Indeed, as I and many others strolled into the parking lot after her fiery 45-minute set, one could hear giddy voices reporting, "That was bad-ass" as folks walked to their cars.

Cary Ann Hearst & the Gun Street Girls deliver alt-country with an alternative edge. Think Patty Griffin's punk-infused lead track on her 1998 release Flaming Red called "Flaming Red" blended with Lucinda Williams' Southern landscapes and a dose of Dolly Parton's sweet country twang, and you get a sense for what Cary Ann Hearst delivers. Short in stature with enormous soul, Hearst is a live-wire onstage. Intimidatingly confident in her vocal abilities, Hearst often stares directly into the eyes of audience members as she sings about jail-bait boyfriends and throwing one's life away for marriage. She's got the swagger and confidence of Jerry Lee Lewis and the chops to match.

Hearst is currently involved in a couple of side-projects (check out The Jesse Janes' version of Reo Speedwagon's "Take it on the Run"), but expect a new record with the Gun Street Girls to be released in 2008. She is building momentum, having performed earlier this year at the Austin City Limits Festival and Nashville's 2007 AMA's. Expect the new record to mark Hearst's transition from under-the-radar phenom to international headliner. If there's an artist out there, right now, who has the kind of talent to follow in the footsteps of Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams, and Jenny Lewis, it's Cary Ann Hearst—I'd put money on it, and so should a major label if she'll have 'em. Do not miss her live show when she comes to your town. —Vincent Wynne - listen!nashville.com

Cary Ann Hearst and the Gun Street Girls
By S. Corey Thomas
Photos by Molly Hayes

"I'm a lousy guitar player, first and foremost," divulges Cary Ann Hearst. Her playful candor is accentuated by a lilting and conspicuously southern voice that, even in casual conversation, carries a tune. But pity the fool that mistakes her sweet cadence and easygoing charm for the trappings of an ingénue: "Let's just say I'm about 5'2", I got bright red hair and a Napoleon complex," she teases. "Every now and then I think I'm big."
As frontwoman for the Charleston, South Carolina-based Gun Street Girls (a band actually comprised of three guys, plus Hearst), the 27-year-old songwriter has found something to get puffed-up about. "It's kind of a conglomerate of a bunch of different musical experiences, turned into a band," she says of her recently formed outfit. Cary Ann Hearst and the Gun Street Girls played their inaugural gig just last summer at Charleston's Chazz Fest, but the four musicians have been working together for some time. Drummer Evan Bivins (formerly of Jump, Little Children) and Hearst share the longest lineage, going back to their years with local alt-country innovators The Borrowed Angels. Lee Barbour, a distinguished jazz guitarist and longtime friend, joined the Gun Street posse looking for opportunities to tour the country and swing a rock 'n' roll axe. Rounding out the group on bass detail is multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer Ash Hopkins. All are current residents of the "Holy City," a fact that is as much an indication of Charleston's vibrant music scene as it is a direct reason for it. But aside from stomping the same ground and rocking similar riffs, the galvanizing force behind the union of the Gun Street Girls was a little record called Dust and Bones.
Whereas many emerging bands spend their early years toiling over that first release, the Gun Street Girls were actually born out of their recording sessions. "I didn't have a band [at first]," explains Hearst, "I just had a bunch of songs that needed to be recorded so that when I toured, I would be able to fund the tour by selling a CD to people. So I made the thing, and everybody played on it ... The record is like a real early version of what's going on now [with the band]." In a makeshift studio dubbed Rebellion Road, located in the basement of the benevolent Levy family ("they're basically our patrons"), Hearst and her future bandmates hosted a who's who of the Southeast's finest musicians over a stretch of 18 months. Among those lending their touches to the project were guitarist Sadler Vaden of Leslie, Slowrunner's Josh Kaler on pedal steel and former Jump, Little Children cellist Ward Williams. "Everybody came down, drank some beers, hung out and made a record for about a year and a half," Hearst remembers. "We weren't in any big hurry. I mean, we shoulda been, but it was just one of those things where when you're askin' people to do something for you, you can't bug them about how long it takes."
The album's 10 songs were tracked and mixed in Pro Tools by Hopkins, a relative novice to full-length recording. The end result, however, is stellar from a production standpoint, especially given the improvised nature of the studio. "It was real intense for him, bless his heart," gushes Hearst. "It was his freshman effort, ya know? I think we did a great job ... It was really a labor of love, because so many people would come and spend time there. Everybody I love, everybody that I'm in a relationship with musically was involved in that record - either sittin' around drinking beers in there or singing on it or playing something. It was really special to me."
Dust and Bones, while a collaborative effort, is pure Cary Ann Hearst at its heart. With her disarming voice at times soft as corn silk and at others intoxicating as a tuneful tornado siren, she unburdens deep and restless emotions through song. Equally striking is Hearst's range as a songwriter; plaintive ballads in the key of Loretta Lynn sway between servings of raucous rockabilly and thrashy, guttural blues. The ease with which the transitions are made, from strident rock to sweet-tongued country soul, raises comparisons to artists like Neil Young who venture into rougher terrain without doffing their cowboy hats. Yet, also like Young (and perhaps, thanks to him), Hearst finds herself straddling the dividing line between traditionalist homage and indie credibility. Fortunately, this is a trail that's been freshly blazed by such crossover pioneers as Neko Case, Calexico and Ryan Adams. "I love those guys!" she exclaims. "I wish I could squeeze all their necks and, like, thank them for creating an audience and a market for jerks like me." Neko Case stands out in particular for Hearst. "When I was focusing my sound, I was like, 'Man, she's totally doing it!' ... and you know who else? That Loretta Lynn record that she made with Jack White? That took brass huevos to make because there were a lot of her hardcore fans that are older that did not appreciate all that racket. But it didn't matter, 'cause that woke, like, an entire audience," she notes enthusiastically. "It was like, all of a sudden, country's the most punk-rock thing you can be."
Last March, Cary Ann Hearst was presented with her own opportunity to bridge the genre gap with a top billing at the Holy City Pop Festival. The brainchild of The Explorers Club's Jason Brewer, the two-day event boasted an impressive line-up of the region's foremost unsigned bands. To be sure, the affair was a hipster's field day. Hearst admits to feeling a bit wary going in. "First of all, I'm a weird girl with this weird country rock 'n' roll band that's not like indie rock at all ... It's totally accessible. There are 40 year olds at my show, and I'm with all these indie rocker kids, ya know, that just happen to like Neil Young and Bob Dylan." But much like Otis Redding poured out his Memphis soul to the "love crowd" at Monterey Pop, Hearst communed with the indie coterie and won a legion of new fans.
Another happy consequence from the performance was the chance to connect with other artists from all over the Southeast. "We all made friends with all these bands from, like, Athens and Atlanta, and all of a sudden you've got this ... little team, ya know? Places to sleep on the floor, a band to play a show with." No longer feeling distanced from her peers based on subtle categorical differences, Hearst offers a refreshingly literal spin on what it means to be "indie:" "Well, put it this way: we're the same as them. We're all a bunch of people tryin' to do rock 'n' roll on our own."
Truth be told, the Gun Street Girls may be one of the most staunchly independent acts around. Their self-produced debut was mixed and mastered in a borrowed rec room. The album is duplicated one at a time, and its unique artwork is hand-printed by Cary Ann Hearst herself with carved linoleum blocks. As for promotions, the band relies on old-fashioned word of mouth and its 21-century equivalent, the internet. "I kind of depend on MySpace, honestly," Hearst admits. "I don't have my mailing list very organized, so I use it all the time to communicate with people. And I have a cool website."
Most effective so far for the band has been maintaining a solid Rolodex. Keeping a good rapport with fans and fellow musicians is a vital tool for survival, insists Hearst: "The music community, as it turns out, is pretty small, and the way it's so panicky and kinda crazy out there right now - your relationships with people are kinda like all you got." Soon after Dust and Bones' release, in June of last year, she put her years of networking to the test. "I basically called everybody that I knew and very politely asked them, if they cared for the record at all, if they would just pass it to somebody that they thought might be interested - no big deal. And I was blessed - blessed - to have a lot of people respond positively ... So luckily for me, it's floating around out there and we'll see what happens."
Throwing chance to the wind and seeing what gets blown back might seem a rather glib approach to success, but it appears to be working. "Man, check this out!" Hearst bubbles with excitement. "If this doesn't prove I'm, like, the luckiest little girl in the Southeast ... I haven't toured jack shit ... but I got the opportunity to go out with Band of Horses, just because I happened to meet them in a bar." Now gearing up for a mini-tour this spring in support of the buzzworthy Horses, Hearst and company are coming up quick on the heels of recognition.
And if the right opportunity comes knocking, the Gun Street Girls are more than prepared to take it. For most members, this project is the latest in a long career of musical endeavors. Bivins began performing with Jump, Little Children in 1991, for example, and Hearst has more than eight years of singing experience in Charleston alone. "Every other band I've been in has been more like a pleasure cruise ... [and] although this project is fun and social, it's definitely a vehicle I've put together to have a professional music career," says Hearst. "This is definitely the most focused thing I've been involved in." And she isn't worried about relinquishing her artistic integrity in a bid for greener pastures, either. "I want to be an independent artist - and I will remain independent in certain ways because I'm good at being broke and I ain't tryin' to get rich necessarily - but I do wanna operate this like a business. It is serious to me, and I want to have the freedom to sing all the time and travel all over the world." - Performer Magazine

Pancakes, a fried egg with hot sauce, salt and pepper, and a side of bacon — Cary Ann Hearst has an appetite that belies her petite frame. Then again, everything about this girl is big: big voice, big laugh, big personality, and big, huge talent.

At Marie Laveau's, Cary Ann and drummer Evan Bivins discuss the launch of the Cary Ann Hearst Band's debut, quasi-self-titled album, CAH. Cary Ann devours her breakfast with abandon, and the lanky Bivins nibbles politely on borrowed beignets and pancakes.

If Cary Ann is a steam train locomotive, Bivins provides the tracks. Formerly of Jump, Little Children, Bivins possesses the kind of centered composure that is the perfect foil for Cary Ann's "wild child" persona.

The creative chemistry between the two is undeniable. Conversation — which drifts from the trials and tribulations of landing a record deal, plans for a summer tour, and the inspiration and influences that went into the creation of CAH — is peppered with spontaneous harmonies and half-formed sentences the pair would finish for each other.

The duo first began making music together in Charleston in the Borrowed Angels, which also included Danny Cassady and Jonathan Gray (ex-Jump). This new incarnation is the result of a collaboration with Ash Hopkins, who plays bass and guitar, and a motley crew of performers stretching from here to Nashville. Sadler Vaden of Leslie can be heard pitching in on rawk guitars and harps, and Josh Kaler of Slowrunner on pedal steel. Ward Williams, another Jump, Little Children alumnus, can be found on the cello. Nashville natives Dustin Welch (from the Scotch Greens) and Cory Yonts (who performs with Bobby Bare Jr.) play resonating guitars, banjo, and pianos, respectively.

Hearst describes the album's sound as having "an organic and heart-worn sound with a sharp edge." This sound is reflective of her love of punk, swamp-blues, ethereal gospel, and primitive rock 'n' roll. Both Bivins and Hearst are quick to point out that this is not a country record.

"Cary is not country, she's not gospel, she's not soul, but all of that stuff is in there," says Bivins. "We just tried to make a real record, which is something I personally don't feel like I hear that much anymore ... a record that is genuine and interesting without being eclectic. It's top-to-bottom, it has a really great emotional spectrum. I'm about as proud of it as anything I've ever done.

I think the key to it was just being truthful to who Cary is and the songs she writes, where she comes from, and then it just takes care of itself," he adds. "When we started making this record, I fully expected to make a country record, especially after Borrowed Angels, but we didn't. We made a record that is a country, gospel, soul-inspired rock record."

Cary Ann agrees, but she is also not ready to call herself a rocker. "About a year ago, I decided I wanted to discover the rock 'n' roll inside of me. Ever since then, I have been listening to all that stuff — Black Sabbath, Iggy and the Stooges. I don't play that because it would sound stupid. It isn't my style, and it's not what I can do. It would sound fake, but I do love it! I feel like I have gotten to know the performer part of myself very well. I sound like Lucinda Williams, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash sometimes, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, and The Band in the early '70s. I wish I was a guitar shredder, but that's not me."

How does she reconcile her desire to rock and her country sound?

"The most rock 'n' roll, punk-rock thing to do is to say, 'Fuck you! You don't like my country song? I'm going to punch you in the face! Sorry you're too good to listen to somebody cryin' in their beer. We'll just go to another bar, cause this is what I am doing right now!'"

To drive the point home, Bivins warns, "Cary really will punch you in the face."

While there's no doubt that this woman is a force to be reckoned with, she isn't just a brawl-starting bad-ass. The woman's got soul. "Organic and heart-worn with a sharp edge" could describe Miss Cary Ann herself just as well as it describes her album. It's for this very reason that CAH is so compelling. One listen and you know that her heart, soul, blood, and tears are in the music.

"Dust and Bones," the first track on the record, offers a prime example. Stripped down to the barest, it has foot-stomping rhythm layered with throaty vocals and bayou Sunday harmonies, put together to tell a tale of sweaty Southern sin and redemption.

"It is the most true to what I had envisioned for myself and it is the most raw, and the most punk rock recording on the record," Cary Ann says of the track. "It was the most true that we got and it's the best song on the album."

As the powdered sugar settles on the empty plates of Sunday brunch, Bivins and Hearst reflect on the album they've created and the hopes they have for their summer promotional blitzkrieg.

"You can't say if, you have to say when," Hearst says. "You manifest things in your life by speaking of them like they are already happening. You can't be a sissy about these things. You have to kick it! You have to do it! - Charleston City Paper

Cary Ann Hearst, Bluesy soul country mams with impeccable twangability tendencies can be a retrofitted drag, or they can be Cary Ann Hearst. Dust and Bones from 2006 recasts Americana as outsider folk and rock'n'roll, right down to the impressionistic precision of the backing band and Hearst's untutored but lively guitar. The title track stomps its feet in an abandoned church and Hearst sings "Dresden Snow" like Wanda Jackson covering something winsome from John Cale's Paris 1919. Only it's not winsome-it's twisted, brilliant and very alive, like most of Dust and Bones. As a pure vocalist, the Mississippi native bears comparison to Jackson or Nashville's Kristi Rose, but there's nothing particularly campy about Hearst's songs or the way she delivers them. She's a canny singer and songwriter with a knack for the telling details that colo her concise narratives.- EDD HURT - The Nashville Scene

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE > Cary Ann Hearst

Interviewed by Caira Conner




She’s an artist you’ll love or maybe already do, at the very least, appreciate as a study in contrasts. Hearst is Mississippi-born and Tennessee-raised, but the same drawl that talks about “workin’ real hard” and “doin’ the best she can” rips through her debut album, rasping grit about love lost and love scorned. American Songwriter catches up with the indie-rock singer/songwriter so she can share a few thoughts on artistry outside Music City.

American Songwriter: Alright—the obvious question—why Charleston? Why not Nashville as a base for the group?
CAH: I lived in Nashville until I was 18; then moved to Charleston and I’ve been there ever since. Charleston is isolated in a sense, it’s kind of a weird, do-it-yourself community in which a lot of bands who take an independent approach do well. All kinds of music gets played in this city. I’d live in Nashville if I was all set up, but I can’t imagine trying to do both—record and financially support myself waitressing or something. Charleston is much more detached from a lot of the stuff in larger communities so we get more mileage out of what we’re doing. Most of my friends in Nashville don’t make any money, whereas we make at least 100 bucks a night. A bunch of artists have been signed from down here. It’s a place where you can tour everywhere or do nothing. I would like to be mid-level sustainable artist.

How old are you?
I’m 28. And I’m pretty normal [laughs] It’s really not that exciting of a life.

Then where do these lyrics come from?
I draw on my family and friends’ experiences—imitate them when I write, especially my mom and grandpa. My mom knows how to put words together when she tells a story. And her dad is that way. I want to be that way, more so with music.

What’s the story behind the name of your band (Cary Ann and the Gun Street Girls)?
Well, there are no other girls. I’m the only one. There was this song by Tom Waits called “Gun Street Girl,” and one time I was driving somewhere, heard it, and thought it was just outlandish. It reminded me of the New York Dolls, [all-male group in women’s clothing] and I just loved it. In my brain, the name is secretly a tribute to that kind of thing. The boys thought it was hilarious. The irony of it would confuse people or amuse them. It’s served me well so far. I can keep on using it even as people come and go.

When did the band start up?
This band started a year-and-a-half ago. Two Septembers ago, we went to Nashville for our first gig as a band, and played a BMI showcase. 2005 is when we all met and got together. I had recorded a record called Dust and Bones before getting together with the band, therefore the band and record don’t sound much alike. I just got friends to play with me on Dust. It was a family project. My bass player engineered it. We were very homemade, very resourceful.

What is it that you want your listeners to take away from your music?
The stories. Most of my stuff is comprised of half of a real story, and half of a story that I’m making up and embellishing. It’s nice to be able to leave something behind that I think could be good for a long time.

What do your plans for 2008 look like?
I’ll be in Charleston for part of the year, but I’ve made a really cool record, Shovels and Rope, with my fiancée. It’s kind of a concept record, all the songs are about the same people in the same town, different stories but the characters are repeating. It’s very stripped down and organic sounding. Michael (my fiancée) produced it. And in the spring I‘m going to record a Gun Street Girls record. And I’m going to get married! I don’t know when but I just know I am.

Check out Cary Ann Hearst on her mini-tour right now, and look for her new album this spring. - American Songwriter