★★★★★
Carrie Newcomer's seventh album, The Age of Possibility, is a hit-or-miss affair, veering lyrically betweensubtle insight and studied quaintness, and musically betweenundefined melodies and arresting backbeat. Revered on thecoffeehouse circuit for her juxtaposition of inventive wordclusters with mundane phrases, she mostly excels at establishingmood, letting her dusky alto ferret out the hidden story inevery whispery song. C+
- ew.com
2011-03-03
★★★★★
Twelve albums into her solo career, Carrie Newcomer doesn't seem ready to slow down. On opener Before and After (which features Mary Chapin Carpenter), Newcomer's ultra-smooth alto recalls Anne Murray. Ghost Train, an ode to new beginnings, and the poetic, rhetorical If Not Now, also stick early on...
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-02
★★★★★
Carrie Newcomer has a very distinct voice, one that you either like or don't like. Even if you are in the latter category, remember that the same has been said of folks like Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello and give Newcomer the props she deserves as a songwriter. Not that she's Dylan. She's actually pretty well lined up with Mary Chapin Carpenter, as she does come up with some pretty stunning lyrical turns...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Carrie Newcomer's fifth album for Philo finds her songwriting talents firing on all cylinders with delightful results. While there's material on My True Name that could easily fit on country radio ("I Should've Known Better," "What Kind of Love Is This," "Something Worth Fighting For"), there are other tunes like "This Long" and "When One Door Closes" that push the musical boundaries further than any of her previous outings...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
This album owes a bit more to Southern rock and country than Newcomer's previous albums, although there's no trace of growl or twang. Producers Mark Williams and Roger Meitus have colored her very conventional folk songs with a few more electric guitars, and Newcomer's deep vocals have grown increasingly uninhibited. Her lyrics have a palpable honesty about them, although they are not inventively written...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
This is Carrie Newcomer's first album (the Philo Records version is a re-release -- it was originally issued on Newcomer's own Windchime label). These folk songs are not particularly original -- the music is textbook American folk, and her lyrics hop from predictable rhyme to predictable rhyme (way, stay; lies, disguise; arms, harm; more, door...). But those who like the genre will undoubtedly like Carrie Newcomer...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27