Caroline Smith
The transformation is complete: Minneapolis folk singer Caroline Smith has become a Los Angeles-based pop and R&B artist. Fortunately, the rising star still spends time in the Midwest and will make a return trip to Madison’s High Noon Saloon on April 13.
Previously the frontwoman for indie folk group Caroline Smith & the Goodnight Sleeps, Smith made her soulful grown-up debut with the 2013 release of Half About Being a Woman.
“It was a coming-of-age album. I was less a tender folk singer and more a confident woman playing the music I grew up with,” she says, adding with a laugh, “like TLC and Justin Timberlake.”
The album’s title track is Smith’s favorite recorded song. “There are times in a musician’s life when you feel like you’ve said what you wanted to say the way you want to say it.”
Since that release, she has made such a splash on the pop and R&B scenes that about a year ago she received a letter in the mail that contained a career-changing opportunity: an offer to move to L.A. and write for Rhianna’s new album, Anti, released in January.
Although none of her cuts made it on the final album, writing for someone else is “a really great exercise to break through the wall of your own ego,” Smith says. Especially when writing for someone as daring as Rhianna, “you don’t have to worry about what people will think of you.”
While in Los Angeles, she has also made time to work on her own music. Her new single “Giving Myself Away” — among three new songs she will perform at High Noon — again takes up the issue of womanhood. “It’s about putting up walls as a woman,” she says. “We’re expected to play a lot of different roles, but sometimes you just have to say no.”
These universally empowering messages are part of what makes her music so much fun to listen to — well, that and her superb vocal control, sassy songwriting and beat-heavy instrumentals.
On the verge of releasing her next album — due out later this year — Smith recently signed with a new, yet-to-be-announced management company. “I’ll have a lot more freedom to continue to hone my sound and make the music I want to make.”
With the added support, the upcoming album promises more feel-good tunes while still containing the resonant intimacy that picks up on classic soul. But watch for a twist or two. Says Smith: “I’m always looking for a new direction to grow.”
