Carter Faith spent her high school days like many teen dreamers — posting videos of cover songs online. Enamored with the music of Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves, Fleetwood Mac and fellow Tar Heel State native Eric Church, the child of the aughts wasn't content to just sing into a hairbrush in her bedroom (though she did that too). Determined to share her voice with her small North Carolina town and beyond, she'd upload videos of herself to YouTube performing songs by the artists who inspired her.
So in a whirlwind year during which she was named a Spotify Artist to Watch, signed a music publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville, played Bonnaroo and made her Grand Ole Opry debut, one of the most surreal experiences of the past few months was realizing that singers were now actually covering her song.
That song is "Already Crazy," a piano-laden ballad that expertly captures the flurry of emotions at the end of a relationship. It's tender, self-deprecating, honest and arguably the best country breakup song released this year.
Faith, who wrote the song with Tofer Brown and Lauren Hungate, said she and her co-writers set out to write a very different song. But their attempts at writing a fiery barn-burner gave way to an introspective ballad that's raw, angry, defiant and hopeful all at the same time.
"We'd already written another song that day and then I had this title 'Already Crazy.' We tried to write an upbeat, 'Redneck Woman' type of song, but it wasn't hitting," Faith tells Wide Open Country. "Tofer started playing these extremely beautiful chords and we were like 'Ok, ballad.' It kind of just fell out. It comes from a really honest place. Just from the reaction I've gotten it seems like people — women, especially — really relate to it...It's empowering. It's not just a sad heartbreak or really even a sad song to me anymore. Maybe I'm crazy, but who cares?"
A recent graduate of Belmont University, Faith released her debut EP Let Love Be Love, featuring previously released single "Joyride," in 2021. (The lilting, cowboy-rides-away jam "Greener Pasture" followed in 2022.) Now she's gearing up for another whirlwind year with the release of her full-length debut album, expected in 2023. As she's seeing so many of her dreams realized, the singer-songwriter says sometimes the hardest part is just staying in the moment.
Lily Nelson
"I'm always thinking of what I'm gonna do tomorrow or what I'm gonna do five years from now. I think that comes with being a creative and being a dreamer, but I'm really trying to stay in the moment that I'm in," Faith says. "I played a show this weekend and I was just onstage and being present — looking at people in the crowd... I just think if you can't be present you're losing so much."
In this moment, Faith is grateful to be able to share her music and help others stay in the moment for a three minute song that captures their joy, their heartbreak or something in between.
"I really hope people find themselves in my music. I know my name is on it and I'm the one performing, but I feel like...it's not just my song [but also] the people who helped me create it, my team who got out and got these interviews and my band who played on it with me," Faith says. "I hope that people that listen to my music feel like it was written for them."
