Closer Look: Summer Indie Music Spotlight 2019: Caroline Aiken
Athens-based singer songwriter Caroline Aiken joins WABE in studio for Closer Look’s Summer Indie Music series. She’s joined by David Herdon, on guitar and vocals, and Eddie Glikin, a percussionist.
Grace Walker
Local singer-songwriter Caroline Aiken is no stranger to the Georgia’s music scene.
She joined “Closer Look” in studio Friday, along with David Herndon, a guitarist and vocalist, and Eddie Glikin, a percussionist, to perform as part of Closer Look’s 2019 Summer Indie Music Series.
Aiken began performing at a young age and in 1968 moved from St. Simons Island to New York, “clutching a guitar and a book of songs,” according to her website.
That experience was formative to Aiken who started working as a paid musician as a teenager in New York City, “In Long Island I met a group of guys named ‘Father Time’, and I helped them with their harmonies at the age of 13,” said Aiken. “They invited me into the band and I actually was making money singing with them in clubs.”
Since getting her start, Aiken has performed around the world with artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Arlo Guthrie, Muddy Waters, and the Beach Boys.
In 2015, she performed a national tour opening for the Indigo Girls in Europe and the United States.
She has also appeared in regional and national festivals, workshops and concert series.
When asked to reflect upon her career and whether she ever wanted to sign with a major record label Aiken said, “I wasn’t record label fodder — I wasn’t the sexy little kitten, I wasn’t real pop. I was a renegade, [music] enabled me to work for myself and make my own choices for better or for worse.”
Aiken did have a record label in 1997, which she says taught her the “art of negotiation”.
Aiken stopped by the Closer Look studios along with David Herndon, on guitar, Eddie Glikin, a percussionist and violinist Adam Poulin for an in-studio performance of “Dry Spell” and “Tower of Babel”.
Today, Aiken resides in Athens, Georgia. When she’s not playing music, she serves as the Athens-Clarke County chapter president of Guitars not Guns, a non-profit that provides guitar lessons to youth as an alternative to violence.
For more information about Caroline Aiken, click here or listen to the full conversation above.
Top Stories
