On Oct. 17 at 7:30pm, folksy Americana musician Kohanna McCrary, known professionally as just Kohanna, will share her sound and her ode to Colorado with Carbondale audiences at Steve’s Guitars as part of her “Where We Going” tour.
McCrary, who grew up in a small Virginia town, has chased her dream of music for what she describes as a lifetime of hard work and endless learning. After moving to Nashville for a year to break into the music industry, she later found herself at University of Colorado Boulder, where she studied marketing and became more involved in the local music scene.
“I spent three years in Colorado, and I just had the best time ever,” McCrary said. “I got involved with the music community there and met so many great people during my time there. I am so excited to be returning.”
In discussing her background and inspirations, McCrary said she has always made music and has drawn inspiration from artists such as The Lumineers, Sylvan Esso, Maggie Rogers and Australian musician Steph Strings, who McCrary had the chance to tour with in Denver, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins.
While these influences can be heard throughout her music, her sound is entirely unique, vulnerable and homegrown. Part of this tour is to promote her most recent album, “Colorado: Side A” as well as to share songs she’s been working on with over 20 creatives in the collaborative piece known as “The Colorado Project.”
In the upcoming tour stop at Steve’s, which will include a full band and fiddle, McCrary looks forward to sharing the stories that inspire her songs.
“I’ve been wanting to go further west to perform, just to be in the mountains and I have wanted to bring my band out there because a lot of them haven’t witnessed a good chunk of the beauty that Colorado has,” McCrary said.
One of the songs she plans to perform at Steve’s is “Sweet Abilene,” which tells the story of a woman, Abilene, who chooses stability over freedom despite her husband, Adam, leaving her for long periods of time to go into the mountains.
“We’re not just going to be going from song to song, one after the other,” McCrary said. “We plan to break down the background of our work and delve into the backstory of the backstory of the songs. I feel that a lot of the themes that myself and the band come up with for the songs are very universal, and I want to make sure that we can continue to connect with audiences that way.”
For more information or to support future projects, visit kohanna.co To purchase tickets for the show at Steve’s, visit stevesguitars.net