AUDIO

Between the Darkness & the Light

Wild Carrot

“…an immaculately-performed piece of art filled with life, love and above all, musicality...the writing creates vivid scenes and characters...I left the record feeling like I have a few new friends.” - Elaine Diehl, Cincinnati Public Radio

NOTES Pam Temple and Spencer Funk are Wild Carrot This Cincinnati-based, award-winning group has what it

“…an immaculately-performed piece of art filled with life, love and above all, musicality...the writing creates vivid scenes and characters...I left the record feeling like I have a few new friends.” - Elaine Diehl, Cincinnati Public Radio

NOTES Pam Temple and Spencer Funk are Wild Carrot This Cincinnati-based, award-winning group has what it takes to please all types of Americana and Roots music fans. With a foot in traditional American music, their repertoire branches in diverse directions: from award-winning original tunes to swing, blues and traditional songs, using guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, concertina, and vocals.

This album features Temple's award-winning original songwriting including the award winning "The Robin's Song", written for a Mother's Day songwriting contest, Pancake Breakfast, inspired by a piece on NPR's "This I Believe," a story of spirit-catching in "Blue Bottle Tree" and the hopeful processing of personal tragedy in "Now I Fly."

Wild Carrot’s entertaining and moving performances have often been described as “honest, soothing, uplifting and fun all at the same time”, moving an audience from laughter to tears and back again in a way that makes the listener feel like they’re in a conversation with old friends. All of this adds up to a performance that’s been described as “seamless”, “life-sized complex, subtle and powerful” and “a joy”.

What’s in a Name? Wild Carrot is another name for Queen Anne’s Lace. The music of Wild Carrot has been described as being strong and complex but delicate and simple, untainted by commercialism, and rooted the solid earth of tradition, like, well, wild carrot.

Awards and Honors • Two-time Cultural Ambassadors to Chile, South America with the U.S. State Department. • Finalists for the prestigious Kerrville New Folk songwriting contest. • Winners of the Walnut Valley New Songs Showcase for Folk. • Named Best Folk Act and nominated for Artist of the Year by the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. • Wild Carrot has received training from The Kennedy Center for the Arts, specializing in integrating the arts into school curriculum through specialized performances and songwriting workshops.

Praise for Wild Carrot: “You can’t just have a taste of Wild Carrot. Slowly savor their contemporary folk rooted in tradition and know you’ll be coming back again and again.” – Jamie Anderson, Sing Out!

"WILD CARROT made art that lifted us out of our seats. How could music so beautifully transcendent be so wonderfully fun at the same time?" – Tina Salamone, Executive Director, Burlington Capitol Theater

“Wild Carrot gave a fabulous performance, charming the audience with their choice of music and beautiful harmonies. It was a ‘feel good evening’ all the way around.” – Shirley Stary, V. P. of Programming, Lakeside Assn.

"…a whirlwind of Roots music forms, touching on Bluegrass, Country, swinging Jazz, Contemporary Folk and Celtic music ...with a consistently masterful grace (and) flawless harmonies.” – Mike Breen, City Beat

“…they perform together in that seamless fashion that only dedicated musicians achieve after lots of practice and a shared goal…” – Peter Read, Nightflying.com

“There is a seamless wholeness to wild carrot that goes beyond the ordinary summing of parts and into the realm of special magic.” – John Krehbiel, Folk Notes

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Live: Crowd Around The Mic

Wild Carrot & the Roots Band

Contemporary Folk Rooted in Tradition...Dig Deep.

"In mood and execution this record remindes me very much of some of my favorite albums growing up; Hot Rize, Red Clay Ramblers, Norman and Nancy Blake. Eclectic but consistently entertaining and sizzling with intensity as only great acoustic music can deliver, with an urgency and intimacy that I

Contemporary Folk Rooted in Tradition...Dig Deep.

"In mood and execution this record remindes me very much of some of my favorite albums growing up; Hot Rize, Red Clay Ramblers, Norman and Nancy Blake. Eclectic but consistently entertaining and sizzling with intensity as only great acoustic music can deliver, with an urgency and intimacy that I love." - Michelle Shocked

“(Wild Carrot’s new) collection is a whirlwind of Roots music forms, touching on Bluegrass, Country, swinging Jazz, Modern Folk and Celtic music — the original songs stand up remarkably well against the well-chosen covers — with a consistently masterful grace (and) flawless four-part harmonies." – Mike Breen, City Beat

"This is an album that is simultaneously lovely, clever, and swingy. Above all, it’s not predictable and is easily the most exciting bluegrass album I’ve heard since the last Crooked Still release." — LV, Off Center Reviews

Bringing their award-winning, refreshing and engaging live show to CD, Wild Carrot’s newest recording, Crowd Around the Mic, features Pam Temple and Spencer Funk in an intimate live concert setting with their Roots Band, Brenda Wolfersberger and Brandt Smith. Produced by fellow songwriter, Chris Collier, this recording showcases the joy and energy this quartet brings to their unique mix of American Roots music, allowing them to connect with an audience in an honest and energizing way.

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Hope

Wild Carrot

Original, traditional and contemporary acoustic music featuring great storytelling and intricate playing work; "able to stand nose-to-nose with any contemporary folk act going and songwriting skills that rank with the best of 'em." Mike Breen, City Beat

Pamela Temple and Spencer Funk are wild carrot Can you play a 30's standard followed by a

Original, traditional and contemporary acoustic music featuring great storytelling and intricate playing work; "able to stand nose-to-nose with any contemporary folk act going and songwriting skills that rank with the best of 'em." Mike Breen, City Beat

Pamela Temple and Spencer Funk are wild carrot Can you play a 30's standard followed by a traditional tune from the 1800's and then launch into a song written just last week? Pamela Temple and Spencer Funk of the award-winning, Cincinnati-based duo "wild carrot" can. Rooted in traditional American music, their repertoire branches in diverse directions: jazz, blues, traditional folk songs, not-so-traditional folk songs, show tunes and originals. They do interesting arrangements with guitar, mandolin, concertina, penny whistle and bowed psaltery. Wild carrot's entertaining, honest and moving performances have something for everyone. Their growing reputation for high musicianship, professionalism and fun has made them a favorite on the national folk circuit.

Awards and Honors Recently chosen as cultural ambassadors to Chile, South America by the US Embassy in Santiago, they were finalists for the prestigious Kerrville New Folk contest, winners of the Walnut Valley New Songs Showcase for Folk, and were named Best Folk Act by the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. Wild carrot has been invited to participate in Muse Machine, performing and giving songwriting workshops to elementary and middle school classes in 60 schools in the Dayton, OH area. They are on the Ohio Arts Council's Artists on Tour Fee Support Roster and are endorsing artists for John Pearse Strings.

Bio Both from Cincinnati, Pamela and Spencer are rooted in traditional folk music but branch in diverse directions. With over 10 years of classical vocal training, Pamela has performed in many venues from coffeehouses to opera houses. Her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica helped her develop an honest and intelligent song-writing style. Spencer has always been drawn to fingerstyle guitar but has studied and performed many styles including jazz, blues, and classical for over 20 years. He has been in demand as a sideman over the years and teaches guitar, mandolin and bass. Pamela and Spencer met back in 1991 at the 30+-year-old Leo Coffeehouse when he was managing the place and she was singing at an open mic. After a few years they decided to join forces and as their musical relationship took root so did their personal relationship and they're still growing. With any luck both will continue long after people stop asking, "Is the name 'wild carrot' a reference to her hair?".

What's in a name? So, where did the name "wild carrot" come from? A wild carrot is the same as Queen Anne's Lace. Wild carrot's music has been described as being rooted the solid earth of tradition, while displaying a delicate intricacy, like the flower of Queen Anne's Lace.

About Hope Where folk duo wild carrot's first recording, Defined, served to display the duo's musical breadth and flexibility in a live setting (no overdubs), their first studio album, Hope, focuses more on the duo's strong songwriting and ever-sharp eye for songs that speak to life, love and the complications of the soul. Some of the tunes are stories of people trying to find their way through the challenges and heartbreak of life ("Tracks", "Bitter Blood", "Out of the Deep End") while others are wrought from personal trials and realizations ("Real Love", "Lay Me Down"). The collection includes the duo's award-winning song "These Songs" (winner of the 2000 Walnut Valley Festival's New Songs Contest and finalist for the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk Contest) and some well-chosen covers run through the hearts and minds of the duo ("Light Enough to Find My Way", "Tide and the River Rising", "Running From Mercy"). Recorded with dulcimer great Bob Bellamy and singer/songwriter/producer Chris Rosser, guest musicians include Don Porterfield (touring with Kate Campbell) on fretless bass, Josh Serukamp (David Wilcox) on percussion and Brandt Smith (Carrie Newcomer) on dobro and banjo. As the touching title track indicates (two poems by Emily Dickinson stitched together with some original lines), keeping hope alive is sometimes like trying to keep a match lit in a rainstorm, but wild carrot shows us it is always there for us to cling to and come back to and move us forward.

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