Wildplum Recordings' Caren Armstrong Page

Welcome to the web home of Wildplum recording artist Caren Armstrong.
Caren is an award winning songwriter, having won the Emerging Songwriter Award at the Napa Valley Music Festival and the Songwriting Competition at the Tucson Folk Festival. She is a consistent draw in the Bay Area, repeatedly attracting capacity crowds at venues such as the Freight and Salvage and at house concerts. She has opened for Nanci Griffith, Lee Ann Womack and toured with Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks. In addition to her busy gig schedule, she hosts regular songwriter nights at two excellent California venues, Strings and the Sweetwater Saloon and has hosted Steve Seskin, Caroline Aiken, Tom Kimmel,Tom Prasada-Rao, Richard Berman, John Smith and many others.
(Above photo by John Pearson: Caren at the Freight & Salvage, October, 2004)

JUST ADDED!!
CAREN SOLO IN SAN FRANCISCO
Great American Music Hall
opening 2 shows for Nanci Griffith
April 18th, 19th

SUNDAY May 20th 8pm
The Unveiling of "EVERYTHING"

Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
with members of Houston Jones
www.thefreight.org

The CD is entitled Everything and will be unveiled at the Freight and Salvage on May 20th.

A number of very fine musicians are contributing to the project. They include Chris Kee, Peter Tucker, and Glenn Pomianek (all formerly of the Waybacks and currently with the excellent high octane Americana band Houston Jones); Koto master Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto (founder of The Murasaki Ensemble); Passion Star Records recording artist Edo Castro; Dickie Chicks producer Lloyd Maines; and the extraordinary fiddle of Darol Anger and percussionist Joe Craven (David Grisman Quintet).

NEW!! Caren now has her very own artist web page. You can find it at www.carenarmstrong.com

Fresh from opening for the Beach Boys (yep, they're still surfing on) at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga (see photo on Photo Gallery), Caren has a new CD titled The Truth Stays True. It is available now from the Wildplum Shop Page.

Digital Downlaods
You can get MP3 downloads of Caren's music right here on the Wildplum site (the best way to support her music- cuts out the "middle man"). just go to the Wildplum Order Page.
Looking for digital downloads (mp3s) of the music from Wildplum artists? They're also available from most "music services", including: iTunes, Rhapsody, MPERIA, Emusic, the new Napster, AOL's MusicNet, MusicMatch, Yahoo Music, and many more.
Just go to your favorite download site and search for the artist's name. If they do not currently list the artist you want, email the download site and ask them to get the music from our digital download distributor, CDBaby.

Caren's first CD, Every New Day is once more available! Recorded in concert at Strings, it is a super-fine live performance. For more info- and to get your copy- see the "CD Info" page.

Caren's fans have always been a great source of useful information about booking opportunities. So, if there's an event, festival, house concert series, or venue in your area which you think we should know about please feel free to email paul@wildplum with your suggestions. Thanks to those of you who have been sending your ideas.

Caren's new poster caused a bit of a sensation at Folk Alliance in Vancouver- and elsewhere as well. Check out the "stuff" page for a view of the poster. Posters and T-shirts are also now available for sale on the "Stuff" page. "nice poster. pound o' flesh indeed. you go girl!"- RittHenn

People have been saying things about Caren behind her back. Here's some of what they've said.

"Her guitar playing and music writing is influenced by the folk and acoustic music of years past, and is on the cutting-edge of today's great acoustic/folk music. Combine that with deep, soulful lyrics, and you get a CD that is one of the best female folk CDs of the year." ( Erik Deckers of Indie-Music.com - for the full review see: http://indie-music.com )

"Her style is all lightness and fluidity, graced with the sultry sway of jazz and the persuasiveness of some very intricate guitarwork." ( Annie Lin of Go Girls Music - the full review is at: http://www.gogirlsmusic.com . You can get a free gogirlsmusic.com bumper sticker there also.)

"Skillfully blending the sounds and styles of Sheryl Crow, the Indigo Girls, and Natalie Merchant, Armstrong may in fact be independent, but she's strong enough to hold her own with the best of mainstream women rockers. " ( Mish Mash Music Reviews - for the full review see: http://mashmusic.tripod.com )

"The folk songs are the meat of Independent Girl. 'Don't Go to Sleep,' 'I Feel Your Love,' 'It's a Long Long Way,' 'Slipping Away' and 'Leaving Lincoln County' are all beautiful songs that wholly express a variety of emotions with a striking efficiency and fusion of melody and lyrics. The rare combination is solidly evident in Caren's songwriting." ( Valerie Fasimpaur of Rambles - the full review is at: Rambles.net )

We've added a cool feature to the web site: Caren's Forum. Its a threaded discussion list which allows Caren's fans to stay in touch with one another, as well as get your questions answered concerning Caren's music, touring, producer activites, and (just about) anything else that tickles your fancy. Just click on the "Forum" button off there to the left.