Artists:Carey Creed

Carey Creed's "Peace of Wild Things" has been released recently by Azalea City Recordings to a sellout crowd of 240 at a CD party/benefit concert for city- and county-wide interfaith charities. Mike Joyce of "The Washington Post" has reviewed the CD, calling her voice "lovely" and "warm as it is naturally tuneful" and praised the music's "whimsical...tender...acoustic charms." Mary Cliff of WAMU-FM has already aired about a third of the songs from the CD on her "Traditions" show.

But many moons before Carey dreamed of making albums, her Dad used to play Tin Pan Alley tunes on piano pretty much every day of her childhood...which may have been the impetus for her crafting her first songs on piano. As a young adult, she was inspired by the music of Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell to compose her own guitar-driven social justice and love songs, which she sang and played at anti-war protests and downtown coffeehouses.

Over the years Carey has performed with jug bands, rock groups, big bands, jazz duos, and Black gospel choirs. The merging of these influences may account for her numerous awards, which include two Wammies from the Washington Area Music Association and a couple of First Place awards in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest.

Genre-jumping has led to collaborations with many other artists; Carey has been a guest on more than 20 album projects. Other collaborative highlights include performing with Grace Griffith, Mosaic Harmony, and Tom Prasada-Rao at venues such as the Birchmere, the Schlesinger Concert Hall, and the Kerrville Folk Festival Main Stage. Recently she was honored to be a special guest with Garnet Rogers at a Focus Inn concert.

Carey's first CD, "Plum Branch," came about as a result of major changes in her life: music and poetry became lifelines as she dealt with the death of her husband combined with her own struggles with cancer and scleroderma. The story behind the CD's title is that her husband Jim had given her a home-made card with an ancient Vietnamese poem on the cover entitled "Rebirth." After Jim died, Carey set the poem to music. The title came from poet Man Giac's description of a plum branch blossoming even after Spring was gone.

Grace Griffith's version of "Rebirth," (on Blix Streets Records) has been broadcast on NPR's syndicated show, "Midnight Special." Grace's newest CD on Blix also features a Creed co-write, this time with Fred Sisson: "Passing Thoughts." "I'll Know You," Carey's 2003 CD on Azalea City Recordings includes radio airplay magnets "Chloe" and "Mountain Cathedrals." The project was produced with Tom Prasada-Rao and mastered by Grammy winner Bill Wolf.

Carey continues to evolve as a musician while inspiring and engaging audiences at coffeehouses, folk festivals, environmental benefits, nursing homes, and meditation retreats, and interfaith concerts..