Quick Q and A with Carlyn Hutchins
 by Kathy S-B  ·  14 February 2009

How strange is that we have a show with one former scientist and one current scientist on the bill on February 20? Chris Pureka was a lab assistant for some time before going into music full-time and Carlyn Hutchins is spending her days in a lab and her nights and weekends working on her music career. Carlyn also helps to run the wonderful Driftwood Folk Cafe in Plymouth. Take a listen to some tasty tunes here.

Do you remember the first time you ever picked up a guitar? Was it love at first touch?

I used to sneak into my sister’s room and play her guitar a little bit, I guess I was 8 or 9. I used the term “play” very loosely! My Dad caught me one day and scolded me, not because I knew I wasn’t supposed to be in her room, but because I was playing it left-handed instead of right handed! I asked for a guitar for my 10th birthday, and my parents gave me one, along with a chord book. The pictures showed people playing the guitar with their right hand and fingering the frets with their left, so that’s how I taught myself how to play. I still wonder what kind of guitarist I’d have been if I had just kept playing left-handed.

Did you have any musical role models as you were growing up? Did you ever dream that you’d one day be performing your own songs on stage?

I didn’t have any specific musical role models when I was growing up. Mainly, I was playing Van Halen, Def Leppard, a little Beatles, and Led Zeppelin tunes at that point so if anything, as a child, I imagined I would be a rock star! When I was in college, one of my parents’ neighbors gave me a Michael Hedges cassette (yes, it was that long ago!) and that’s when I fell in love with the acoustic guitar sound and bought my first, a Washburn. Years later, I discovered Taylor Guitars’ “Sounds of Wood and Steel”, but it was well after I had stopped playing and singing altogether. I just admired the skill of the performers. In all honesty, as an adult, I never imagined I’d be playing at all, let alone playing and performing songs of my own. If anything, I always thought I was a decent rhythm guitarist who could sing pretty harmonies and would end up in a duo with someone else as the main songwriter.

Do you still feel like there’s a women’s music community or has the entire acoustic music scene become more integrated — gay, straight, etc.?

That’s a tough question. In short, yes, I think there is a women’s music community, and I think it is quite strong. However, I would like to think that the acoustic music scene has become much more integrated in this day and age, gay or straight, male or female, or anything in between! My impression is that many people still equate “women’s music” with “lesbian music”, and that is a shame and a horrible stereotype. I’d like to say something completely sarcastic here but my better sense tells me to refrain! The bottom line, in my opinion, is that if an artist’s music speaks to someone, I would hope that someone becomes a fan regardless of what orientation the artist happens to be.

It’s totally fascinating that you are a scientist by day. Is it difficult to separate your daytime life from your musical endeavors?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I’m always thinking about my music while I’m on the job, but I hardly ever think about my job when I’m playing music. I try to not talk about it too much though, but if I’m excited about a new song I’ve written, I’ll let my peers and co-workers listen to it. They give me some nice feedback too. It’s much different with “the powers that be” who are one or more levels above me, and I generally don’t talk with them about it at all. I think some of them kind of frown upon it, truth be told. Maybe they just can’t quite wrap their heads around the thought of someone not wanting to be married to their job and advance up the corporate ladder, like me. I hope that none of them read this, but I think it’s pretty evident that I’ve reached about as far as I can go there, so I go in, do a good job (I think) and leave. The music gives me a nice diversion from the wall I’ve hit in my professional career. The irony is that for as much as they say they like to encourage their employees to have a life outside of the job, they don’t really like to hear about it on the job!

If you could go on a world tour with any one musician, who would it be and why?

Tough question. My gut tells me I would like to have gone on tour with Michael Hedges. I never met him personally, but his music truly touched me and inspired me to go all acoustic. I would like to have seen the world through his eyes, it just seemed as if he found peace somewhere along the way, and was very much in touch with his inner being. It would have been cool to take a few guitar lessons from him along the way too! I cried when I found out he passed away so tragically in 1997, I felt that the music world lost someone very special that day. It’s really nice to see other musicians who play with a similar style (although maybe some not entirely influenced by Michael Hedges), like Kaki King, Vicki Genfan, and Jacob Johnson… it’s really added a new dimension to acoustic music as a whole and is nice eye candy for the audience too!