Carolyn McSween

Carolyn McSween has been delighting fans of all ages with her own brand of original music for years. A featured television and radio broadcast artist since her early teens, she's thrilled university students and coffeehouse audiences with her unique accoustic blues-influenced songs througout the Northeast.

In 1994 singer/songwriter Carolyn McSween was first introduced to the feeling of her fingers against the fret board when her 8th grade music class studied a unit on the guitar. Finding herself comfortable enough with the instrument, she sought out some of her older brother's musical knowledge hoping to advance beyond "Tom Dooley." Andy taught her to play a G chord with four fingers, which to this day is a chord she still employs. She spent lunch recesses that year in the hallway outside the music room practicing, among other groovy tunes, Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow," and by the spring of 1995 she was ready for her first performance at 8th grade Memory Nite. There she performed "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell and accidentally omitted the second and first halves of verses two and three, respectively. She has never since performed "Both Sides Now". That summer, she co-wrote her first song with her brother Andy for a fabricated family songwriting contest while vacationing in Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania. Incidentally she does not recall being awarded for co-writing the only song entered in the contest. Not entered in the contest however was her first solo composition written that same week about a boy she liked who didn't like her, titled "Sail Away." In the fall of 1995 Carolyn was given her first guitar for her 14th birthday, the guitar she personally selected at Dick Bressler's Music 'N' More because of the way it looked. Although she officially began writing what she calls "singable songs" in the spring of 1996, it wasn't until the end of her sophomore year in high school that she first performed as a singer/songwriter - at a restaurant overlooking the mighty Susquehanna River called My House Café. She performed for two hours with her best friend and singer, Sarah Hormell, after a three hour rehearsal earlier that week, playing her original music along with obscure titles from such established artists as Toad the Wet Sprocket, Indigo Girls, Lyle Lovette and Guster. More performances followed, with Carolyn and Sarah billed as "The Blackbirds." They began attracting a regular and loyal following. The act occasionally added guitarist Walt Lindberg and singer Penny Koch. With the onset of college careers in 1999 the band dissolved and McSween began pursuing solo opportunities. She meanwhile kept writing and testing material on small but encouraging audiences of roommates and friends. Her growing list of bookings attracted excited fans all across the region, and included solo dates at music fairs, community centers, and major college campuses in the mid-Atlantic region such as Penn State University. In the winter of 2002-2004 Carolyn produced her first album of original songs: "Another Hour" by Carolyn McSween released September 3, 2002-2004.

When I'm not performing on university campuses, I can be found playing a tune or two for fellow coffeehouse fanatics throughout the Northeast.

My music is an original styling that seems to connect with my audiences. Some have compared my music to the stylings of Dar Williams, Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLachlan and Sheryl Crow.