Carolina Story’s unique style of Folk music is derived from the dynamic of a married couple creating it. Their blended harmonies backed by guitar, harmonica and suitcase percussion create a sound that is solely their own. Their songwriting is based on their personal experience together on the road.
Interview conducted on Aug. 10, 2020
by Dan Locke
Band Members Emily Roberts & Ben Roberts
Blending folk intimacy, country grit, and alt-rock muscle, Carolina Story’s resilient new album, Dandelion, is an ode to survival in the face of struggle, a full-throated tribute to the power of hope and the unbreakable bonds of family.
Congratulations on your 11 years of marriage!
How did you discover music?
EMILY: I would have to say that my first musical memory is singing hymns in church as a child. My dad loved to listen to “Country & Western” as he still calls it to this day. I have fond memories of my mother and I singing together to the songs on the radio growing up.
BEN: I also remember learning to sing in church as a kid. My mom was always playing the piano and my dad always had music playing on the stereo or in his truck. He turned me onto the music of George Jones, Cat Stevens, Neil Young and so many more. I am a child of the ’90s so that music was very formative for me.
How did you start to write music?
EMILY: I started playing the guitar when I was about 19 years old. I took a songwriting class in college that really opened up the art of writing songs for me. Meeting Ben also helped me dive head first into it.
BEN: After I started playing guitar when I was 12, writing songs was just the next natural step. I wrote a couple songs on the acoustic guitar in my bedroom and then joined a band in the 7th grade. It was off to the races after that from a writing standpoint.
How did you get your first guitar and do you still have it?
BEN: After already beginning to discover a ton of music, I remember seeing the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana on MTV. It was Summer of 1997. I begged my Mom for 1.) a poster of Kurt Cobain and 2.) a guitar. I remember wanting to learn on the acoustic first so we went down to the local music store inside the mall. The first one I picked up was a black Fender DG20CE. I didn’t even know how to play a chord yet so bought it without playing it. I began lessons on that guitar a few weeks later and never looked back. I still have the guitar and will write on it from time to time.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
EMILY: “Sleepwalking” was the title of the first song I wrote while in college. We recorded it for a very early, now unavailable album called “When The River Met The Sea.”
BEN: The first song I wrote was called “Another Night Downtown.” I was 12 years old. I basically took Oasis’s “Wonderwall” and re-wrote the lyrics. I performed it at the school talent show once, never recorded it and it was never heard from again.
How did you discover that you were able to work together as a band?
BEN: It was a pretty natural feeling and fit from the first time we began singing and playing together. I learned a bunch of Brandi Carlile songs from her album The Story after finding out that she was Emily’s favorite artist. The first song we sang together was “Josephine” from that album. We knew almost immediately that we were better together as opposed to doing separate projects.
How the band did get its name?
BEN: We had met in August of 2007 and had started singing and playing together. We went on a week-long camping trip in Western North Carolina that Fall. I had been a whitewater rafting guide on the French Broad River in Hot Springs, NC a couple of Summers before. I had fallen in love with the place and wanted to show an area of the country that meant so much to me to Emily. On that trip, we began writing our first songs. It was there that the lightbulb came on to start a band together once we got back to Memphis instead of working on individual projects. We came up with the name Carolina Story to represent the genesis of the band.
What was your first performance together like?
BEN: Our first performance was in Memphis sometime in 2008. It was in the basement of an old Methodist church in midtown Memphis. Space had been converted into a venue called “The Abbey.” What made it so memorable is that the church and that space is where Johnny Cash and “The Tennessee Two” played their first paid performance, a Christmas fundraiser organized by a Women’s Bible study group.
How was it to play the Grand Ole Opry?
EMILY: It was an unforgettable experience. A dream come true, if you will. We were able to have both of our families there and so many friends. Ben even had both of his grandmother’s there. The thing that made it most special was the fact that I was 7 months pregnant with Wilder, our son and first born. To stand in that hallowed circle at the Opry with our budding family all together was surreal. That made it the most special performance of our career by far.
Tell me about your latest album “Dandelion” which is going to be released on Sept. 4th?
We would much rather the music and the songs do all of the talking but in essence, it’s an album about the inspiring resilience of people. When we came up with the title “Dandelion”, we knew that we had stumbled upon the entire concept for the new album. The dandelion is a beautiful flower often mistaken for a pesky weed that can be found in suburban lawns or growing through the cracks in a parking lot. The similarities of the dandelion and people surviving and moving forward among the harshest elements was very inspiring for us and gave us a clear vision for this album.
Tell me about the making of “Hold of Me”?
BEN: When we knew that Paul Moak was going to produce the album, we were really excited about this song in particular and how he would go about it. Paul is super talented in so many ways and is a genre-spanning producer but he comes from a rock and roll background. We really bonded over our mutual love for Nirvana. We knew that “Hold of Me” was going to be the most rock-leaning song for us to date and that it was. When we went into the studio to record it as a band, I was wearing my Grandfather’s old Stetson cowboy hat along with a Nirvana t-shirt. Before we hit record, we dubbed the sound we were going for as “Nirvanacana,” our own little blend of roots and rock. We had a good laugh about it. We went in there and did two takes of the song. We would have landed on the first one but Paul told Sam, our guitarist, to really let it rip during the solo. He delivered, as the solo you hear is one magical take.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
EMILY: It’s no easy task, that’s for sure. After the first couple of years of eating whatever we wanted, drinking whatever we wanted and getting very little sleep, we made some subtle changes to tour healthier. When traveling from city to city, we cut out fast food and started eating Subway and Chipotle when we can find them. We also bring along a big cooler filled with healthier options when we’re on the road now. We take walks around the venue when we’re waiting around or in the mornings when we’re able to. We realized that we need that hard to get alone time to shut down the mind to recharge the mental batteries. Also, water. Drink lots of water.
What have you been doing with your quarantine? Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
EMILY: I have taken this time during quarantine to get even healthier mentally and physically. I have now walked for 100 plus consecutive days. I’ve been reading much more and have started painting again during this time. It has also been great to spend more time with our two kids. This is the longest we’ve been able to be at home in a long time and it has been good for us to all spend that much needed time together.
BEN: I’ve been cooking a lot during this time, especially focusing on perfecting my barbecue. We’ve been doing a lot of swimming, canoeing and fishing. As frustrating as these times have been with not being able to tour, it’s been a breath of fresh air to spend this quality time together as a family.
Many people are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You recently did the Satellite Social with Carolina Story. Why did you name it that?
All of our album artwork for the new album and the singles is based on the Apollo 12 moon landing. So, we used the word Satellite to play off of those brilliant flying machines in outer space as well as using the word to describe the remoteness of our situation due to the virus. The word social came in to play in describing an event or party and the fact that we would be utilizing social media to bring our performances to people.
Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
In five years, we would love to still be touring coast to coast and hopefully making it to Europe and other places around the world. We hope to have the opportunity to make several more albums by then as well. We also have several individual projects that involve music among many other interests that we hope to have off the ground in five years.
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