Brian Carpenter (musician)
Brian Carpenter | |
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| Background information | |
| Genres | Alternative rock, folk rock, jazz, alternative country |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, producer, radio producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Trumpet, Harmonica |
| Years active | 1998–present |
Brian Carpenter is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and arranger. He is the lead singer and songwriter for the Boston, Massachusetts band Beat Circus. His primary instrument is the trumpet. He also leads and arranges for the Ghost Train Orchestra in New York City. He currently resides in Arlington, Massachusetts.[1]
Personal life
Brian Carpenter was born in Melbourne, Florida. He first attended the University of Florida in the mid-1990s, where he studied engineering and became part of the burgeoning music scene in Gainesville, Florida. He moved to Boston in 2000 and began hosting a radio show on WZBC-FM in Newton, Massachusetts and formed the band Beat Circus in 2002.[2] In 2009 he revealed his son had high-functioning autism.[3]
Musical career
After the formation of Beat Circus, Carpenter began composing a "Weird American Gothic" trilogy of albums, starting with Dreamland, released on the Cuneiform label in 2008, a song cycle loosely based on the Coney Island theme park of the same name. Boy From Black Mountain followed in 2009 with Southern folk songs inspired by his son and his father's life growing up as a farmer in the Florida Panhandle. The album won the Independent Music Award that year for Best Alt/Country Album.[4][5]
In 2006 Carpenter was hired as the musical director for a run of vaudeville shows at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Massachusetts, then celebrating its 90th anniversary. He formed a 9-piece band called the Ghost Train Orchestra to perform the event and in 2011 released an album of rearranged music from obscure late 1920s Chicago and Harlem bands called Hothouse Stomp on Accurate Records.[6][7]
In 2011 Carpenter announced the formation of a new band called Brian Carpenter & The Confessions, which debuted in January 2011 in Biddeford, Maine.[8][9]
In 2012 Carpenter began collaborating with the Berkeley Repertory Theater on a musical loosely based on Herbert Asbury's Gold Rush saga The Barbary Coast.[10]
Selected Discography
- 2004: Ringleaders Revolt (Beat Circus, Innova)
- 2008: Dreamland (Beat Circus, Cuneiform)
- 2009: Boy From Black Mountain (Beat Circus, Cuneiform)
- 2011: Hothouse Stomp (Ghost Train Orchestra, Accurate)
- 2012: Blind (Brian Carpenter & The Confessions, self-released)
- 2013: Book of Rhapsodies (Ghost Train Orchestra, Accurate)
In 2010 Carpenter contributed to tracks on the Swans album My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky.[11]
References
- ^ Monger, James Christopher (2008-01-28). "Allmusic Biography". Retrieved 2008-01-28.
- ^ Garelick, Jon (2004-09-24). "Music – To play is the thing". Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ^ Thompson, Barry (2009-01-06). "Southern Exposure". Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
- ^ Elliot, Richard (2009-12-02). "Beat Circus: Boy From Black Mountain". Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ^ "Independent Music Awards Winners Named on Blurt Online". 2010-01-27. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ^ Greenlee, Steve (2011-03-14). "Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train Orchestra, 'Hothouse Stomp'". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ^ "Brian Carpenter: Eclectic Jazz, Rooted in Americana : NPR". 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
- ^ Ponti, Aimsel (2011-01-27). "Face the Music". Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ^ Gilbert, Andrew (2011-09-11). "Ghost Train picks up speed". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2011-12-14.
- ^ Jones, Kenneth (2012-04-12). "Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor". Retrieved 2012-12-02.
- ^ Gira, Michael (2010-07-30). "Michael Gira on Swans' My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky". Retrieved 2011-03-28.
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