Carly Goodwin: The Next Big Thing

Even Without a Record Deal, Carly’s Song Baby Come Back Home Is An Instant Hit Earning Her The Title “America’s Sweetheart” 

By Perry Hicks - special to GCN

     See and hear her sing just once and you will be convinced Carly Goodwin will be Country Music’s Next Big Thing. Young girls are going to look up to her; young women are going to admire her; and young men will sigh as they fall helplessly in love with her. Carly’s hit song, Baby, Come Back Home, is earning her the title of “America’s Sweetheart.”

     Baby Come Back Home was inspired by a radio broadcast Carly heard while driving down Nashville’s Music Row. Laid over a “bed” of Country Music was a narrative by military wives relating their experience with long separations and the fear they have of never seeing their husbands again. What she heard was so touching it brought Carly to the point where she could no longer drive and she pulled over to wipe the tears from her eyes. Carly’s reaction is perhaps something all of us can understand.

     When our fighting men and women are deployed, their military units muster on tarmacs, in aircraft hangers and at shipside docks. With banners waving, and bands playing, crowds of friends and family come to send them off. After tender good byes with tears and kisses, young wives and girl friends stand on tiptoe; some holding children; straining to get just one last look at their personal hero. They wave trying to look brave all the while inside desperately pleading, don’t die on me over there. Please come back. We need you, too.

     Baby Come Back Home has so well captured this heart-wrenching emotion thousands of all ages have lined up at military bases to hear her perform. After each performance, crowds converge on her to not only express their great appreciation for being remembered, but also to share their personal stories. Many of the latter have such poignancy that Carly sometimes finds herself almost overwhelmed by the sadness of it all.

In an exclusive GCN interview, Carly spoke to her new fan experiences this way:

     “I really believe that music should be from the heart, and I do my best to always reach people with the music that I sing. Baby Come Back Home has been an incredible learning experience for me because I have seen the impact that it has had on so many people. I wrote about a situation, but now I really get to meet those people who live the story I wrote about. I have come to realize that the families of people in the military are some of the bravest and strongest people out there. Some of the stories that I hear are heartbreaking- and I try my best to be there for those people and support them,” said Carly.

     Hit song; singing before thousands of appreciative fans; Carly has even been in the studio recording her first CD. Not bad for a young woman without a major record deal.

Born To Perform

     Carly has always wanted to perform from the time she could talk. In her bio, she explained, “I always sang.  I never shut up.”

     At age 7 she asked for singing lessons. By age 9 she was offered but ultimately turned down a part in Broadway’s Les Miserables. “I wanted Carly to have a normal childhood,” said her mother, Gail Goodwin.

     Along the way she built a respectable resume including Hallmark and Kodak commercials, the Wonder Years, as well as singing at NBA Jazz games.

     Carly, aptly named after singer Carly Simon, was born in the Adirondack mountain region of New York State. She lived there only until age 2 when her family first moved to Phoenix, Arizona and then to Southern California. By her early teens, her family had moved again to Park City, Utah. During her high school and college days, her family owned a ranch in the mountains of Montana.

     In step with Carly’s life always keeping her on the move, she first started college at the University of Utah, before transferring to the University of Colorado at Boulder and finally earning a degree with honors from the University of Michigan.

     “Although Michigan is a great school, I should have stayed in Colorado as I love the sunshine and mountains,” said Carly.

     Surprisingly, Carly did not study music in college but instead chose English. Carly explains it this way, “I chose to get a degree in English because the music degrees at the University of Michigan focus on classical training. I have been trained in those areas. Country music is really music from your heart and soul. My degree in English allowed me the freedom to really explore my writing more, which was very helpful.”

     Country Music fans are renowned for their loyalty. In choosing Country, Carly proclaimed that she was prepared to make Country a career telling me, “I chose to be a country singer because it is where my heart is, and I always believe that people should follow their hearts. I hope that country audiences choose to have me around for thirty years, but I have made the commitment and I will be here, in this genre forever. For me, country music is home.”

Dreaming Bear Music

     It is one thing to come to Nashville with song in your heart and a guitar in your hand but it is quite another to cover the business end of the Country Music scene. Watching the store for Carly is her mother, Gail Goodwin.

     “I have always believed in Carly’s talent even from the time she was a toddler when she would spin around with her arms in the air calling out, Look at me, I’m a star!” Gail said wistfully before pausing to add, “I sold Dreaming Bear Ranch in Montana to form Dreaming Bear Music. That is how much I believe in my daughter.”

     Gail’s faith is not just that of a devoted mother. Along with a ranch, Gail Goodwin also traded a very successful career in real estate investment and development. If new to Nashville, Gail’s business acumen and marketing experience has given her the critical skills and judgment necessary to further Carly’s career.

     “I am confident that we can make this work. I have been successful in every business venture I have ever had,” Gail said. Lending some support to this claim is the fact that Gail Goodwin is the second co-writer for Baby Come Back Home.

Where Art And Business Converge

     It is not enough just to be a great recording artist or stage performer. The real money is in owning the songs that you perform. Quite literally, the nexus of art and music business is songwriting. Working with Carly are three spectacular songwriters, Carl Jackson (who also won a Grammy in 2004 for best Country Music album of the year), Gerald Smith (third co-writer of Baby Come Back Home) and Larry Alderman.

     “I am a lyricist,” Carly told me. “I have on the shelf journals filled with lyrics. I get my ideas from all kinds of places but mostly just from listening to people. There are so many stories out there. 

     When asked what it is like to work with such accomplished professionals, Carly responds enthusiastically saying, “It is so amazing to be co-writing songs with them.”

     Carl Jackson does not hold back his amazement for Carly Goodwin, either, telling me, “She is wise beyond her years.”

     Jackson has been producing Carly’s debut CD which at the time of this writing all but two recordings have been mixed. The CD is due out in this September. Carly wrote about 1/3 of the songs. One of the unmixed songs is a duet with Willie Nelson; the Patsy Cline classic written by Nelson, Crazy.

     When asked to describe what the CD is like, Jackson pauses before carefully saying, “Very Country. The songs have a lot of depth. It isn’t pop country but deeper, something more like Emmylou Harris.” Jackson then added, “I am so proud to be working with her.”

     The CD will take the name of Carly Goodwin.

An Unbelievable Instrument

     My first exposure to Carly was watching her on FOX News Channel’s morning show, FOX & Friends. She was performing outdoors on New York City’s noisy Avenue of The Americas. Although she could not have heard herself singing, she still hit each note perfectly.

     Carl Jackson praises her this way, “Carly’s voice is an unbelievable instrument; just an amazing singer- technically one of the finest; reminiscent of Trisha Yearwood with amazing control- and only 22 years old.”

     An interesting factoid about Carly is that she has had over 12 years of classical training giving her singing precision that has paid dividends in the recording studio. Jackson admitted to me that when it came to mixing Carly’s vocal tracks, “There really wasn’t much to do at all.”

A Perfect Gentlewoman

     Perhaps the most striking thing for me was actually talking to her. Her speech is very calm and measured but not calculated. She warms to subjects like songwriting and family and saddens a touch when the plight of military wives is broached.  Carly is well spoken, and embodies the qualities we used to ascribe to gentlewomen; putting all present at ease, suspending judgment, and never focusing attention to oneself.

     Thus, Carly’s love for performing has not led her to place herself on a pedestal. She addressed her relationship with fans this way saying, “I believe that each of us comes to this earth with a gift to help make it a better place. I believe that sharing my music with the world is my gift and I am honored if people are inspired by it. We are supposed to inspire one another. It is an inspirational catch 22- they inspire me, I inspire them.”

     For young girls, new performing pop artists like Rebecca St. James has brought a new coolness to Christianity; with certainty, Carly will bring something to their table, too. When I asked her what she might want that to be she answered:

    “I would hope to inspire people to really believe in themselves and their dreams. We were created from something so awesome that we have to be able to reach the stars if we really try. I would hope that young girls, boys and people of all ages would see the potential and power that lies within them.”   

To listen to Carly's song Baby Come Back Home...Click Here

For more information visit Carly's website at: http://www.carlygoodwin.com/