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Photo credit: Jim McGuire

Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer invites listeners to “pause the perpetual motion” of their lives with her new album, The Beautiful Not Yet (September 16, 2016). “Life is always lived between then and soon, right here and now, in the beautiful not yet,” Newcomer says. On the album and in a companion book of poems and essays, she explores how we might live more present, engaged lives, even in the face of division, uncertainty, or heartbreak.

Dubbed a “prairie mystic” by the Boston Globe, Newcomer is acclaimed for her “deep, rich alto and penchant for exquisite melodies,” both on gorgeous display on the new record. So is the deeply spiritual view of the world that grows out of her contemplative Quaker faith. “I’ve always been more intrigued by good questions than easy answers,” she says. “Questions like, what sustains and connects us? Where do we find help in hard times? When I stop and pull back the layers of distraction, what is at the very heart of my life?”

Newcomer considers herself a spiritual progressive, and is a prominent voice for interfaith dialogue and social justice. Her thoughtful approach to spirituality has led to appearances on programs such as public radio’s On Being with Krista Tippet and PBS’s Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. Her work is influenced by collaborations with authors and theologians such as Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren, Scott Russell Sanders, Barbara Kingsolver, and Jill Bolte Taylor.