New single from Carrie Tree that comes with the health warning: “don’t play games with things that run deep.”

With the promise to herself that 2024 will be the year when she no longer hoards her songs but sets them free, Carrie Tree – one of our treasured singer-songwriters (her Marillion connections adding significantly to her status in our eyes at least) - pulls no punches at the start of what’s been called “a fearless journey of radical honesty.“

No Games finds Carrie once again working alongside producer Aukai with whom she collaborated on The Canoe album. The main tracks were recorded in the piano room of Hameau de Les Damias in South France, & then developed and finalized in Markus’s garden studio in Mexico. All sounding very exotic, yet there’s a gentle and bucolic subtlety about the track. Don’t be fooled by the gentle acoustic strum and the fragility of the vocal. The fine whispers and sparkles of piano and accordion help to create a genuine emotion that on the one hand is cutting and raw, on the other provides a soothing comfort.

We could roll out the thesaurus melting descriptions of haunting and gossamer, poignant and vulnerable, but should pay tribute to the intimate yet spacious arrangement that Aukai crafts.

Fingers crossed that No Games will not quite open the floodgates – that wouldn’t be Carrie’s style – but begin a reassuring trickle of music that should be heard otherwise bound in the archive.

Here’s a flavour of Carrie:

As an established artist, weaving her music through festivals, retreats, and global stages for many years, Carrie has self-released 3 albums and 2 singles, collaborating with icons like Damien Rice, Carly Simon, Albert Mazibuko (Ladysmith Black Mambazo) and Lamb’s Andy Barlow along the way.

Carrie Tree online: Website / Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Youtube / Instagram / Bandcamp

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