Eileen Carey: Girls Rock!<\/p>\n
Eileen Carey is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and musician. Her most recent album, Movin On, won Americana Album of the Year at the 2009 Los Angeles Music Awards. Just who is the up-and-comer Carey?<\/p>\n
For the answer to that, we must travel back through the mists of time. Carey\u2019s career in the entertainment industry has its roots deep in the past. Carey has been exposed to music since she was a child growing up in Ohio.<\/p>\n
Carey began her music education at age 8 when she received a drum kit for a present. She became \u201can accomplished drummer\u201d by age 13. All through high school she performed at various family and school events although the warm receptions she received only served to reinforce a feeling she had that her small-town environment was holding her back. In the late 1980s she would leave her friends and family behind and move to California.<\/p>\n
It would be there that her life would go through some major changes. She would marry, start a family and even begin her studies of acting, film and theater. Struggling through countless casting calls, Carey captured a role as one of \u201cthe original \u2018Uh-Huh Girls\u2019\u201d backing Ray Charles in a national Pepsi advertising campaign and Super Bowl performance. She also got gigs in the major motion pictures: Hoffa, Basic Instinct and the Keaton-Nicholson Batman.<\/p>\n
Scoring those roles only served to urge her to score her songs as the need to make music once more took center stage. She once again drew on her old muses–Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, The Beatles, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, songwriter Diane Warren and major Motown artists–and took pen to paper to focus on writing and performing her own, original material. She began by playing intimate venues, local clubs and regional music festivals.<\/p>\n
Carey soon began recording and as the new millennium began she released her 2000 debut disc an EP entitled That Town. This would only include 3 folk rock or country pop cuts: \u201cWings\u201d, the title track \u201cThat Town\u201d\u2014which somehow sounds as if it was one of her earliest songs–and \u201cLazy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Two years later Carey released the rockin\u2019 \u201cThat Town\u201d the single and more importantly her next CD titled Possibilities. This one featured only 9 tracks including the parenthetically-placed \u201cJoey\u201d and the original \u201cBad Boy\u201d (not to be confused with the 1984 Paul McCartney track of the same name.)<\/p>\n
In between live performances and everyday life Carey continued to write and record. In 2005 she would release Hearts Of Time. The album included 10 tracks including the lead-in \u201cHearts Of Time\u201d and other contemporary country cuts such as \u201cHollywood\u201d and an encore of \u201cLazy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carey says one of the best experiences of her career was \u201creceiving a great review . . . from Music Connection and Nashville Music Guide.\u201d The next year she released her single \u201cWalking After Midnight\u201d. 2007 witnessed Carey\u2019s cuts being added to Tennessee T-Cakes\u2019 music selections available for inclusion in their gift baskets.<\/p>\n
In fact, Carey contributed cuts to several compilations since the start of her career including charity projects. She\u2019s been especially active with causes such as Operation Gratitude, Worldfest, FemMuse, Team Diabetes, Indie Music for Life and Angels Among Us for which she was selected as Top Sponsor.<\/p>\n
2008 would be the best year yet for Carey as she would release her most recent work, Movin On. As per usual, Carey, unlike some contemporaries, pays tribute to obvious influences without directly imitating them. The album opens with the \u201csounds like a single\u201d Keith Urban penned piece \u201cThat Was Her This Is Now\u201d.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s ironic that this song (co-written by Vernon Rust and Urban) is the first in a number of songs that seem to come from a woman’s viewpoint. While some critics claim cuts are crammed with assertive females it no doubt is simply the result of a prevalent female perspective which no doubt flows more easily out of Carey than a male point of view. (We writers write what we know, folks.)<\/p>\n
The second selection is \u201cWhat Goes Around Comes Around\u201d. It\u2019s an upbeat song co-written with guitarist JohnMcDuffie. It\u2019s followed by the (almost) title track \u201cMoving On\u201d which moves on to the next number, \u201cStand\u201d. \u201cStand\u201d is perhaps one of the disc\u2019s hidden hits in terms of overall quality.<\/p>\n
The bold \u201cDo I Dare\u201d is yet one more example of Carey\u2019s versatile talents as a performer. One of the best tracks on the album, however, soon eclipses this one. Indeed, \u201cHe\u2019s Not Mr. Right He\u2019s Mr. Right Now\u201d has convinced your crusty chronicler to put an end to all the drinking and partying.<\/p>\n
After all, this song was clearly written about cutie Carey\u2019s experience with your randy, rockin\u2019 writer and yet yours truly has no memory of even one of the moments this song obviously implies we must have shared. This song is obviously your playful penman\u2019s theme song. Calling this cut the \u201cCritic\u2019s Choice\u201d, however, would be so vain.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the honor must fall to the more obvious choice–\u201cOut With The Girls\u201d. While we\u2019ve already heard Dolly Parton do this kind of thing decades ago with \u201c9 To 5\u201d, Carey somehow still makes it work with her own personal tuneful twist. It has an upbeat tempo\u2014all-girl tune\u2014or not it\u2019s catchy. (In 2009 Carey put out a dance remix which could be headed for \u201cThe Land of Multiple Replays\u201d.) This one even scored Producer’s Choice Dance Single Of The Year in 2010 at the L.A. Music Awards.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaith\u201d follows. It\u2019s a bit more of a low key track that is somehow vaguely reminiscent of Hynde. Carey believes that it is important to have \u201cfaith in your ability and the willingness to seek out opportunities and take chances\u201d\u2014a message that can be found in much of her music.<\/p>\n
The album closes with \u201cNewsflash\u201d which could be a musical message\u2014a notification from Carey\u2014perhaps a foreshadowing of something more. Indeed, Carey\u2019s cuts could be catching on as her Movin On album took the Americana Album of the Year at the 2009 Los Angeles Music Awards. Her 2009 single release of \u201cThat Was Her This Is Now\u201d scored \u201cSong of the Year\u201d at the 2009 South Bay Music Awards.<\/p>\n
While women may appear be a target audience to some critics there is a bigger picture to see here. Yes, the \u201cOut With The Girls\u201d dance remix is a hit with women everywhere and has even been nominated for \u201cDance Song of the Year\u201d at the 20th Annual Los Angeles Music Awards. Still, other songs are receiving airplay the world over in such countries as the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Japan, Sweden and even Serbia.<\/p>\n
There is more to the music here than tired, one-track feminism. Carey seems to be a singer with a lot to say and to more than just overworked women and other troubled tootsies. This brassy babe\u2019s belief of enjoying the moment without stressing over the future is a message significant to any audience. \u201cNewsflash\u201d, folks: Eileen Carey is indeed \u201cMoving On\u201d . . . to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n
My name is Phoenix and . . . that\u2019s the bottom line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eileen Carey: Girls Rock! Eileen Carey is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and musician. Her most recent album, Movin On, won Americana Album of the Year at the 2009 Los Angeles…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press"],"yoast_head":"\n