This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #103 (December 2002 / January 2003). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

Caroline Herring
Watch the Magic
by Kerry Dexter

When she worked for Texas Folklife resources in Austin, Caroline Herring often escorted conjunto players, swing fiddlers, and other heritage musicians to performances throughout the state. "It was really fun to go out with these master musicians, and have nobody know that I'm a musician. I'd just take care of business, make sure everything's lined up, and then get out of the way and watch the magic start happening," she recalled.

Herring, however, is a musician — and some of that magic has been happening in her career, too. In October 2001 she released her first CD, Twilight, on the Blue Corn label. Her 10 original songs and one cover (Dorsey Dixon's "Wreck on the Highway") revealed an artist with a vivid and visual imagination, a unique perspective on the modern South, and a warm, inviting alto. She was voted best new Austin artist by the readers of The Austin Chronicle last spring, has received four-star reviews for Twilight, and is beginning to appear in top singer/songwriter venues such as Philadelphia's Tin Angel, Austin's Cactus Café, and the Newport Folk Festival. She's both excited by the possibilities and a bit startled by the acceptance. A recent relocation to the Washington, D.C., area has also meant that in some ways she's starting over again, but she is also encouraged by the success and experiences she gained in more than two years in Austin. "For me, I'm now establishing myself as a career musician, in for the long haul, regardless of the ebbs and flows of commercial anything," she said. "By far I feel the most satisfied, like I have contributed something to this world, when I finish writing a song. A close second is when some good sounds are belting out of my throat in front of an audience."

A regular weekday happy-hour gig at Stubb's Barbecue in downtown Austin gave Herring the chance to work on how she related to an audience and soon led to other bookings. "Giving of yourself, understanding what a performance really is, that can take time because there's a lot going on up there while you're onstage," she said. Her earliest memories of singing go back much further, to her childhood in Canton, Mississippi, singing in the Presbyterian church choirs and at camp, where she learned to play guitar. She also listened to her parents' recordings of the Newport Folk Festival and Flatt and Scruggs, as well as all kinds of other pop music. "The Captain and Tennille, I really loved Tennille because there was another alto," she said, laughing.

This is an excerpt from an article in Dirty Linen #103 (Dec. '02/Jan. '03). Read the full text in the magazine, available via subscription or on newsstands and in bookstores.