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<\/p>\nCarter Faith has read the articles about Gen Z turning away from humanity\u2019s oldest vices, and she\u2019s here to say those articles don\u2019t speak for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that\u2019s \u2026 not been my experience,\u201d says the 26-year-old country singer, whose whip-smart debut, \u201cCherry Valley,\u201d features songs called \u201cBar Star\u201d (about a man who looks good under neon), \u201cDrink Up, Baby\u201d (in which she waits for an ex \u201cat the bottom of the cup\u201d) and \u201cSex, Drugs & Country Music\u201d (about, well, you get it).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m from a small town,\u201d she explains with a shrug. \u201cWhat else was there to do as a kid besides stealing your parents\u2019 liquor?\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, whiskey is a no-go for this tequila drinker \u2014 \u201cI feel like it has the devil in it a little bit\u201d \u2014 as is weed these days. \u201cI had a good run, for sure,\u201d she says. \u201cBut my career has changed so much in the last year that now it just makes me go too deep.\u201d She laughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m overanalyzing everything instead of just being like, I have no cares in the world, and nobody knows who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Indeed, the 12 months since \u201cCherry Valley\u201d came out have been a whirlwind, with rave reviews, opening gigs for Kacey Musgraves<\/a> and Post Malone and a prestigious album of the year nomination at the ACM Awards. Now, Faith is preparing to hit the road with Shaboozey<\/a> \u2014 they\u2019ll stop at the Greek Theatre on Oct. 27 \u2014 just as she\u2019s in the running for new artist of the year at next month\u2019s CMA Awards.<\/p>\n Titled after a Tumblr she maintained as a kid, the expertly appointed \u201cCherry Valley\u201d applies a modern sensibility to a throwback sound; Faith sings frankly about lovers and cheaters amid arrangements that evoke the hand-played classics of mid-\u201960s pop and country. (Among her favorite years: 1966, which as she points out gave us both the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cPet Sounds<\/a>\u201d and Nancy Sinatra\u2019s \u201cBoots.\u201d)<\/p>\n Not unlike Musgraves \u2014 her biggest inspiration alongside Lana Del Rey \u2014 she doles out these tales with an arched eyebrow. Yet there\u2019s also a tear in her voice that can just about break your heart.<\/p>\n \u201cCarter puts so much thought into her presentation but she\u2019s so real that the emotion always cuts through,\u201d says Wyatt Flores, who joins Faith for a moody duet, \u201cNothin\u2019 Better to Do,\u201d on a new deluxe edition of \u201cCherry Valley.\u201d The rerelease also includes \u201cPearl Handled Pistol,\u201d a rollicking trio number featuring Laci Kaye Booth<\/a> and Baby Nova that Faith characterizes as a nod to Miranda Lambert\u2019s Pistol Annies.<\/p>\n \u201cI never want anything to feel too sweet,\u201d she says during a recent trip to Los Angeles. \u201cI like the grittiness of that song. You can\u2019t just have a Shirley Temple all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n Faith grew up in Davidson, N.C., a college-town suburb of Charlotte, and learned to sing along to the radio from the backseat of her parents\u2019 car. (Also instrumental: watching her older sister and her friends make homemade music videos to Britney Spears\u2019 song \u201cLucky.\u201d) At 16 she started writings songs; at 18, she moved to Nashville.<\/p>\n Scroll back far enough on her Spotify page and you\u2019ll find singles and EPs from five and six years ago, before she signed a major-label record deal and began turning heads with \u201cGrudge,\u201d in which she lights up someone who\u2019s betrayed her: \u201cIf I were a good Christian woman, I\u2019d probably forgive \/ But I\u2019m pretty sure that even Jesus thinks that you\u2019re a bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018This will probably never come out because it\u2019s so aggressive,\u2019 so I just said it all,\u201d she recalls of the song. \u201cI think that\u2019s why people liked it or it offended people. I\u2019m fine with either, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n The earlier stuff isn\u2019t as funny or as headstrong as \u201cGrudge\u201d or the rest of what ended up on \u201cCherry Valley.\u201d But the music charts an artist\u2019s honest path toward discovering what she wants to say, which is why Faith insists she wouldn\u2019t dream of taking it down from streaming platforms (as many acts do with older songs when they want to tighten up a narrative).<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like tattoos \u2014 I\u2019d never get any of mine removed,\u201d she says \u2014 even the Bible verse (Corinthians 13:13) she got not long after arriving in Nashville. \u201cI\u2019m like, hmm, not really in that part of my life anymore.\u201d One tattoo she doesn\u2019t regret: the lyrics of Fleetwood Mac\u2019s \u201cStorms\u201d scrawled across her hands. \u201cI need to get it touched up, but it hurt like a bitch, and I\u2019m so scared,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n As she starts work on \u201cCherry Valley\u2019s\u201d follow-up, Faith says she\u2019s working hard to preserve the freewheeling mindset that led to \u201cGrudge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow that people are listening, I find myself asking: What do they want? Should I censor myself? Should I water it down? But I think people connected with my music because I\u2019m not censored. So you kind of have to find it again.\u201d<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n This year Faith contributed vocals to a glossy club track by the Norwegian DJ Kygo \u2014 very Maren Morris<\/a> in \u201cThe Middle\u201d \u2014 and in November she\u2019ll appear in an acting role alongside Jessica Chastain in a Netflix thriller called \u201cHeartland.\u201d Yet even as she acknowledges the limitations that Nashville can place on artists \u2014 particularly women \u2014 she says she has no intentions of stepping away from country music the way Morris described wanting to do<\/a> a couple of years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m protective of country music,\u201d Faith says. \u201cI can talk s\u2014 about my brother. You can\u2019t talk s\u2014 about him. I love this genre, and I\u2019d love to be a part of opening the doors a little wider.\u201d<\/p>\n In part she means opening the doors to fans. \u201cMy meet-and-greets have shown me a lot about who my audience is, and it\u2019s a lot of gay people,\u201d she says with a smile. \u201cI think my music gives people who may not always feel accepted in that space something to cherish.<\/p>\n \u201cI love Tammy Wynette, and I\u2019ve gotten to know her daughter Georgette,\u201d Faith continues. \u201cShe was like, \u2018Oh, the gays love Tammy.\u2019 I think it\u2019s the glam and the heartbreak and the drama of it all. It\u2019s always been a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Faith also means opening the doors to artists eager to make space for themselves within country music \u2014 not least her beloved Lana Del Rey, who\u2019s been promising for years to release a country album.<\/p>\n \u201cI have faith because she must \u2014 she must do it for me,\u201d Faith says. \u201cI remember when she started covering \u2018Stand By Your Man,\u2019 and I was like, oh, here we go. She\u2019s so country to me \u2014 if country is storytelling, then she\u2019s a country songwriter.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the thing about being a Lana fan is that every album she\u2019s announced \u2014 that\u2019s never the title, that\u2019s never the genre, that\u2019s never the date. She\u2019s a butterfly \u2014 she can\u2019t be catched.\u201d She laughs. \u201cOr caught.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCatched\u201d is better.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Catched\u2019 is better,\u201d she agrees. \u201cThat\u2019s some country s\u2014.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carter Faith has read the articles about Gen Z turning away from humanity\u2019s oldest vices, and she\u2019s here…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[192677,50469,44992,3747,6161,192678,48,52,51,165649,47,50,49,3906,14906,36506,7087,1459,592,10390,72],"class_list":["post-495803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-carter-faith","tag-cherry-valley","tag-country-music","tag-door","tag-faith","tag-grudge","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lana-del-rey","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-month","tag-nashville","tag-new-artist","tag-parent","tag-part","tag-people","tag-song","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Country](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791981370_183_.jpeg\")
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