Carl Anderson On His Simple Gospel Song “Hurricane Wind”

On Thursday, Charlottesville native and Nashville-based singer-songwriter Carl Anderson plays The Living Room in Williamsburg, opening up for Mary Bragg. Typically performing alongside his wife, Ellen, Anderson is a songwriter that has been celebrated in folk circles for his deeply honest storytelling – a trend that continues with the release his sophomore full length album Risk of Loss, which is due out in April and follows his 2012 debut, Wolftown.

With an early listen of the new album, I was drawn in with “Hurricane Wind” – a song that Anderson wrote two years ago when he was going through a rough patch. “I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere with my music, I had no money and was feeling pretty discouraged about everything,” he told me in an email. “It’s a simple gospel number that came to me at a time when I was feeling hopeless. I wrote it to try and lift myself up and to this day, the song encourages me to keep going, to keep doing what I love even though it can be hard as Hell.”

Anderson said the song took on a new life when his band hit the studio to record the album. “I had first imagined it with just guitar and voice and some light instrumentation, but when my drummer kicked in with that beat the whole vibe changed. For the first time I put down my guitar and just focused on capturing a really honest vocal performance.”

Catch both Carl and Ellen at The Living Room on Thursday at 7PM. Tickets are $10.