When David Crosby first heard singer/songwriter Carey Colvin, he said, “Definitely give up your day job!” With a strong passion for music and the written word, she has been described as a “songwriter with an intelligent approach to her lyrics” [John Jennings].
In addition to many nominations over the years, Carey received the Wammie™ (Washington Area Music Award) for Debut Recording of the Year (The Distance Wall) and for Folk-Contemporary Female Vocalist. She has been a featured performer at venues such as Writer’s Night at The Bluebird Cafe, The Birchmere (opening for CPR – Crosby, Pevar, and Raymond), the Cellar Door Stage at Jiffy Lube Live Pavilion (opening for Styx and Pat Benatar), the Gibson Showroom at The Hit Factory (for 411GINA.org and Good Morning America), and The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.
She’s been a Featured Artist on radio stations across the U.S. and Europe, including NPR’s Car Talk and was interviewed for inclusion in the books Complete Guide to House Concerts: And Other Satisfying Alternative Venues and Girls Rock!: Fifty Years of Women Making Music.
She was the female charter member of the DC Chapter of Just Plain Folks and was a finalist in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest and the Guitar Girls Songwriting Contest. She has served as both a judge and producer in several songwriting contests and produced a popular Songwriters’ Showcase at Luna Park Grille in Arlington, Virginia for six years. For over 25 years, Carey was both scriptwriter and stage manager for the Wammies™.
The daughter of an Air Force fighter pilot, Carey spent her youth traveling both in the U.S. and overseas. Every home in which they lived was filled with music as her family sang together to the sound of her father’s guitar or her mother’s piano, or sang in cars, trains, and planes as they moved from base to base. She continues to raise eyebrows at stop lights as she carries on the family tradition of singing in her car. She performs in a duo format with her husband and music partner Granger Helvey, a noted musician in his own right.
