Shearling’s Trans Artist Elizabeth A. Carver Finds Glimmers of Hope in America’s Decline
Praise be the wind
And the filth on it’s back
Paint the inside of my hallow body in holy mural
Like a gunshot wound crater
Like a Rothko
Like a fox pissing in a ditch
Her lungs inundated
She will try to cut the back of the wind she rides
Singing out…
Elizabeth A. Carver’s “I Commit to You God”
Consider for a moment how many songs and albums musicians create every single day or every single year. To put a twist on an the oft-used idiom, “finding a needle in a haystack” is almost laughable compared to finding musical gems in today’s infinite galaxy of songs (largely because the vast majority of them can be streamed or purchased for free).
But to cop from another cliché, great music can still bubble to the surface, if it’s remarkably captivating, if the artist takes pride in their craft and if they work hard enough chiseling it to perfect. Oh, and there’s that small matter of working hard too. Even amid the Internet Apocalypse, which continues to be sold to us as a means allowing every musician of however negligible quality to “make it big,” there are still glimmers of hope that transcend the terrible, trendy trappings of the modern era and give us hope that maybe, just maybe, every facet of creative endeavors isn’t rigged.
A quintessential example of fining hope that creativity, art and individual self-expression still exist, even if it’s measures in the width of.a toothpick, is Elizabeth A. Carver’s The Cart Before the Horse. Issued roughly a year ago, the five-song excursion into free folk did, in fact sell out digitally. But with the demure Carver heavily focused on serving as an auxiliary guitarist/keyboardist in L.A. experimental rock band Shearling, Carver was preoccupied by rapid ascendency of Alex Kent’s post-rock ensemble.
During the artist’s travels with Shearling, Carver rather serendipitously began developing original artistic ideas that were better-suited for a solo project than a large-scale band affair. The dynamic could repeat itself when Shearling tour the European Union later this year.
Fortunately, The Cart Before the Horse didn’t get lost in the woods. Shadrach Tuck, owner and manager of Mishap Records, recognized the majesty of Carver’s work an insisted on giving it a fair shake. About two weeks ago, he reissued a limited-edition CD of the album — which features contributions from Kent, also engineered it. The Cart Before the Horse.
About a week before Mishap’s reissue of The Cart Before the Horse, The Bad Penny caught up with Carver to discuss the step-by-step story of the record, the delight of Shearling fans also glomming on to Kent, and much more.
Go to Carver’s Bandcamp page and Instagram account, and Mishap Records’ website, for more on the artist and updates about what is coming next for the prodigy.
The Bad Penny (beta) 
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