Young singer-songwriter shows no sign of slowing down

May 13—Saturday may have been her graduation day from Texas A&M University-Commerce, but singer-songwriter and The Voice of Hunt County winner Carissa Carter doesn't plan on taking much of a break.

"I would absolutely love to have a full-time career in music, so I'll keep performing as much as I can and working on new songs," Carter said.

Last year, Carter released her first album online, titled "The Scratches: Part 1," which consisted of eight original songs — some of which she wrote while still in high school.

"The whole album is just me singing and playing the guitar or piano," she said. "The most recent and best sounding song on it, I think, is 'Walkabout.'"

Carter describes her lilting ballad, "Walkabout," as a "three-minute version of a romantic movie with a happy ending — the rom-com wedding song if you will ... It's the moment two people decide to become one, the tale of how they got there, and their joy of going on the adventure of life together."

As she continues to work on songs for her follow-up album, tentatively titled "Carissa Country," Carter is pushing herself to develop further in her craft.

"When I first realized that writing was something that I needed to do when I was 13, I had no idea what a hook was or what chords were, and I probably wrote about a dozen songs before I came up with something that I didn't think was half bad," Carter said. "Now, I'm working at being wittier and getting better at wordplay. I also love telling stories through song."

In addition to writing and performing her own songs, Carter regularly performs cover tunes by favorite artists of hers — ranging from Miley Cyrus to Chris Stapleton to Adele — so when the inaugural Voice of Hunt County talent contest was announced in December 2022, she took it as an opportunity to try something a bit different.

"It was actually the first time I'd ever competed in a contest like that, but since I was going to graduate soon and wasn't sure where I'd be after that, I decided it was now or never if I wanted to enter," Carter said.

As it would turn out, taking that chance paid off for Carter, as after two days of competition, she rose to the top among 19 of Hunt County's most skilled vocalists.

"I loved all the people I met doing the contest and the judges were nice," Carter said.

One of the judges on the panel for The Voice of Hunt County was none other than Joel Weaver, a veteran Nashville studio and touring musician who operates a music store and studio in Commerce — Brick Row Music/Brad Davis Studio with his longtime friend and musical collaborator Brad Davis. It was with Weaver that Carter worked while recording tracks for her debut album.

"I recorded at Joel's studio and he was awesome. He has so much knowledge and experience from his work in Nashville," Carter said.

"On the first day of The Voice, he didn't turn around in his chair, though, when I sang," she said with a laugh. "I don't know if it was just because he recognized my voice and wanted to see what the other judges thought."

Long before her recent musical successes, Carter was born in Mooresville, Indiana and her family moved to Sulphur Springs when she was seven years old, where her grandmother lived.

"Living in the country in Sulphur Springs was a big change from the suburban environment in Mooresville," Carter said. "It was in Sulphur Springs that I discovered my grandmother's vinyl (record) collection and fell in love with country music. My dad also liked to listen to bluegrass."

It wasn't too long after developing an appreciation for country music that Carter started singing at church and for fun for anyone who would listen — regardless of species.

"I like to say that I've been 'mooed' [as in booed] a lot for my singing, because I used to sing to the cows behind our house," she said with a chuckle.

Much more recently, in addition to her musical endeavors, Carter graduated from A&M-Commerce with honors with a bachelor's degree in political science.