Vanessa Carlton helped usher in a new era of female songwriters during the early 2000s. “A Thousand Miles,” her first single, was one of the biggest songs of 2002, topping the pop charts in America. None of her subsequent singles came close to matching that song’s success, but Carlton continued releasing albums into the following decade, fine-tuning a sweeping, cinematic pop sound that featured her vocals and piano skills at the forefront.
Carlton began recording her second album in June 2003. She spent a year creating Harmonium, a confessional and somewhat dark album that was markedly different from her first record. Public response was different, too, and Harmonium dropped out of the Top 40 during its second week of release. By the end of 2004, it had barely sold more than 100,000 copies.
Carlton continued writing songs and in 2007 released Heroes & Thieves, a diverse album that received strong reviews but, like its predecessor, failed to sell well. Rabbits on the Run was released next. Carlton supported the album with a tour, and a holiday EP called Hear the Bells appeared that November. Over the next few years, she worked steadily on her next album and in the autumn of 2015, Carlton released her fifth album, Liberman.
See her on January 30th in Austin at the Parish on 6th street.
Vanessa Carlton w/ Skye Steele
Saturday, January 30th
Doors: 8pm
All ages
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