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Vienna Carroll
Vienna Carroll’s rich soulful sound takes you back to her first music love, the Black church.
About Me
Vienna Carroll’s rich soulful sound takes you back to her first music love, the Black church. She tells forgotten stories of Black heroes and presents those old songs through a modern lens to make: Afro-Future Roots Music. Vienna learned music from the Black Ladies of her youth, including her fearsome great grandmother who played guitar to Grand Ole Opry radio on Saturday nights but only proper Pentecostal chords on Sundays. When visiting her maternal grandmother’s 125-acre Alabama farm, Vienna joined in the Sunday church services an hour’s drive away down a dusty road, where singing was often accompanied only by the hand clapping and shouting of its fervent members. Vienna formalized her studies of early Black music at Yale University with a BA in African American Studies. Her influences are Nina Simone, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ray Charles Thelonius Monk and the Black church. Vienna has performed with her band, The Folk - Keith Johnston (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Jon Hendricks) on guitar; Stanley Banks (George Benson) on bass; Washboard XT/Newman Taylor Baker (Matthew Shipp, McCoy Tyner, Henry Grimes - on washboard;, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC and also in Harlem’s famous Marcus Garvey Park (Quest Love – ‘Summer of Soul’). Last year she also toured in New Zealand, making stops in the North and South. At home her performances included the inaugural Collective Arts Festival in Wyoming, Pinkster celebrations throughout NYC and the Fiddlers Fest in Rochester NY. Vienna Carroll & The Folk have also performed at the Logan Arts Center, Chicago; American Folk Art Museum, NYC; The Langston Hughes House, Harlem; and the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, NH. Vienna has a soon to be released CD, Harlem: Afro-Future Roots and 5 other CDs. Other Projects: Mary Had a Baby a story about Harriet Tubman and the United States Colored Troops who freed nearly 800 folks from slavery | CT Sea Music Festival | SHALLOW BROWN: Thessalonia and the Free Sailor, Langston Hughes Huges House, Harlem NY | Valor In The Hills, award-winning series about a free Black NY community during the Civil War. Hudson River Museum, Yonkers NY | First NYC Underground Railroad Festival Juneteenth Celebration, Plymouth Church of the Pilgrim, Brooklyn NY | Singin Wid A Sword In Ma Han, NYC Fringe Festival Audience Favorite Award. Vienna lives in Harlem with her wife Katharine, her garden and window boxes.
