Carly Goodwin (born July 28, 1981) is an emerging country artist making her way to the top of the charts.

Biography

Carly Goodwin was born in Glens Falls, New York on July 28, 1981. Although Carly was born in New York, she lived many of her early years in Los Angeles, California. Carly began singing as early as she began talking, and it was soon apparent that she had true talent. For her seventh birthday, Carly asked for voice lessons and her talent blossomed under professional guidance. Just over a year after starting her lessons, she was offered the pivotal role of young Cosette in the Broadway production of Les Miserables. She was unable to accept the offer, but it was still a concrete recognition of her singing ability.

While living in L.A., in addition to singing, Carly made television commercials for Hallmark and Kodak and made a guest appearance on the popular series The Wonder Years. When Carly was 12, her family relocated to Park City, Utah, where Carly spent her high school years, during which time she played the lead in many local and school musical productions. Carly sang The National Anthem regularly at Utah Jazz basketball games, world class ski events in Park City, and many other events.

Carly has always been a lover of nature, and she was thrilled when her family bought a ranch in Montana in 1993. Carly spent her summer vacations, holidays and any other breaks at Dreaming Bear Ranch. Carly loves to hike, camp and explore the world around her, and Dreaming Bear Ranch really helped foster those values within her. In 2004, Carly’s family sold Dreaming Bear Ranch to finance Dreaming Bear Music, and its influence on her life continues.

Nashville

After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in English, Carly packed her bags and headed to Nashville in August of 2003. She was ecstatic to move there and begin pursuing her lifelong dream of becoming a country recording artist. Carly’s influences are wide, and range from Bonnie Raitt, to the Dixie Chicks, Patty Loveless, The Eagles, The Beatles, Coldplay and Garth Brooks.

Shortly after moving to Nashville, Carly began to meet the people who would help her make her dreams come true. Through a friend of her grandparents, Carly was introduced to and worked with some great songwriters, including Carl Jackson. Impressed by Carly’s extraordinary musical gifts, the multi Grammy award winning producer agreed to produce Carly’s debut CD. Willie Nelson heard Carly’s rendition of his classic hit, Crazy, and invited her to perform with him in Los Angeles. From there, Willie and Carly decided to record Crazy as a duet and include it on Carly’s debut album- that was the first time ever that Nelson has performed a duet of his classic song on a county album. Carly and Willie have performed with one another several times, including Farm Aid and several state fairs. Carly and Carl loved working together and their collaboration on the “Carly Goodwin” debut album resulted in a true masterpiece.

Baby Come Back Home

Since releasing the album, Carly has been touring at fairs, festivals and military bases. One of the favorite songs on Carly’s debut album, Baby Come Back Home, which is from the perspective of a soldier’s wife, has garnered Goodwin a lot of attention. Carly co-wrote the song after hearing soldier’s wives sending messages to their husbands overseas and being extremely moved. After people began to hear the song, the response was astounding. Carly was overwhelmed with requests from troops all over the world asking her to come and visit their bases. Carly has traveled to bases all over the country, including two visits to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2004. The groundswell also earned her guest spots on regional TV shows, two appearances on Fox & Friends national broadcast, and Glenn Beck’s nationally syndicated talk show, as well as network affiliates throughout the country. Baby Come Back Home was added to the Armed Forces Network’s play list of songs. Carly continues to receive e-mails from around the world in praise of her and her song.

After spending so much time with the troops all over the nation, Carly had the idea to create The World’s Longest Letter to the Troops. This letter, which reached over 15 miles in length, was started during Fan Fair of 2005, and signed by many country celebrities, over 150,000 people from all 50 states, and has even been signed by Congress. When asked about the letter, Carly responded, “It has been an amazing experience for me. I have seen the heart of America, and the love and support for our troops in everyone. I am very grateful that I have been able to spend time with so many of the men and women that do so much for our country, and I am honored to be involved in showing them our support.”

Goodwin will be spent the month of January 2006 overseas in the Persian Gulf, toured bases and performed, as well as delivered The World’s Longest Letter To Our Troops. She also toured Europe last September (2006) and will be at Fan Fair this year in Nashville. Carly has a large Spring and Summer tour coming up as well- so make sure you check out her website at www.carlygoodwin.com for more information. In 2006, Carly and Willie Nelson had a #1 hit in Europe with their hit duet "Crazy" it was up for duet of the year at the European Country Music Awards and received the Los Angeles Music Award for "Country Single of the Year". Carly is currently working on her second album.

Carly has big dreams and a big heart. Her goal in pursuing music is to help others, and to give back. She has affiliations with AAHP (Artists Against Hunger and Poverty) as well as Boundless Playgrounds, and numerous organizations that help military families. Carly has most recently started working with The Peace Alliance, a Washington DC based non-profit with the vision of creating a department of peace within the US Government. You can find out more at www.thepeacealliance.org.

Some interesting things about Carly

For all of you fans out there- we have given you some tid-bits about Carly that are not displayed in a bio, but that you might find really interesting!
Although many people have a favorite something or other, and usually just one of each, Carly has a lot of favorites. She can’t really pick one of just about anything (except men).
Did you know that Carly’s favorite colors are blues, purples and greens? Her favorite movies are The Secret, Sliding Doors, Happy Texas, Star Wars, Magnolia and lately, Little Miss Sunshine. For dessert, pass the chocolate- Carly will eat just about anything as long as it has chocolate in it! Her favorite restaurants in the world are Real Foods, in Santa Monica, CA, The Yellow Porch in Nashville, and any place that serves sushi. Carly loves to vacation in places that are sunny, relaxing, near an ocean and mountains and overflowing with culture; her favorite places that she has traveled thus far have been the Caribbean, Italy and Peru. This year, she hopes to travel to Thailand and India, as well as go back to Europe for some R &R. If Carly has some down time, you might find her hanging with friends, exercising, painting, traveling, or cooking- she loves to cook! This year, Carly has decided to become an artisan bread baker, and all we have to say is yum! Most girls have a favorite flower, but when Carly was asked what her favorite one was, she said “I love flowers- weeds to showcase orchids. I love getting plants that can last a while and that I can live with instead of flowers that will just pass quickly. My favorite flower- well, I love anything vibrant and beautiful, but I have a special place in my heart for tulips- did you know that tulips are the only flower to keep growing after they are cut?” Carly’s favorite cities are Venice, San Francisco, Boulder, Chicago and New York. On the road and at home, Carly reads a lot of books and her favorites are ones that have impacted her life and made her think- like The One Minute Millionaire, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Walden Pond, Atlas Shrugged and Holy Cow. As many of you know, Carly is a huge environmentalist- although she has a car right now that is a teal Subaru, affectionately called Tealy Dan, her favorite car, and next one will be a hybrid car. Carly’s favorite quotes range from Emerson to Ghandi to Martin Luther King; when asked this question, she explained that, “My favorite quote right now is ‘Whether you think you can or can’t – you are right’ by W. Clement Stone, but I have always been a big fan of ‘do or do not, there is no try’ from Yoda too.”