Carsie Blanton

Carson Amanda "Carsie" Blanton (born July 22, 1985 in Bethesda, Maryland) is an American singer-songwriter based in New Orleans, Louisiana who performs on guitar.

Blanton has released five studio albums—Ain’t So Green (2005), Buoy (2009), Idiot Heart (2012), Not Old, Not New (2014), So Ferocious (2016)—and three EPs—Hush (2002), Beau (2010), Rude Remarks and Dirty Jokes (2013). In November 2011, Blanton opened multiple shows on Paul Simon's So Beautiful or So What tour.

In 2013, she ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund her record Not Old, Not New, raising over $60,000. She is also known for her blog, which deals with topics of a sexual nature. Blanton is considered "one of the best singer/songwriters in the business." Loudon Wainwright III says she is a "young up-and-comer ... at the top of my list." In 2017, she invented a card game called The F'ing Truth (formerly 'Bango') and sought funding on Kickstarter.

Carsie Blanton grew up in Luray, Virginia. She began taking piano lessons at age six, and playing guitar and writing songs at age thirteen.In 2002, at age sixteen, Blanton went to live in a group house with other artists and musicians in Eugene, Oregon. In Eugene, she sang back-up vocals for a touring funk group (The Champagne Syndicate), took up swing dancing, and started her first band (The Short Skirts). She recorded and self-released her first album Hush in 2002. Her first studio album Ain’t So Green, produced by Steve Van Dam of Everything, followed in 2005.

In 2006, Blanton relocated from Eugene to Philadelphia to pursue her music career full-time. She began working with manager Bill Eib (Amos Lee, Mutlu Onaral), and by 2007 she was playing over one hundred live shows a year. In 2010, Blanton performed live on NPR's nationally syndicated program, Mountain Stage, and opened for The Weepiesand Shawn Colvin. In 2011, Blanton toured with Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown: A Folk Opera, playing the role of Head Fate, and opened multiple shows on Paul Simon's So Beautiful or So What tour. In 2014, Blanton performed on the nationally syndicated NPR program Song Travels with Michael Feinstein.

Blanton's "Smoke Alarm" is used as the theme song for the podcast Tangentially Speaking with Dr. Christopher Ryan. She has appeared multiple times as a guest of the show.

Blanton is co-founder of an online tool for the music industry, Quidplayer, an embeddable “pay what you please” MP3 player and store. Quidplayer allows fans to download tracks directly from artists, and to set the price they want for those tracks.

Blanton created Quidplayer in 2008 with Jon Darvill. In her online biography, Blanton states the following in reference to this approach: “My true calling as an artist is to share…What I actually want to do is make beautiful music and then give it to everyone, regardless of what they give me back.” Since 2011, Blanton has released all of her music (digital and physical) using the "pay what you please" approach.