“We weren’t hipsters, hippies, or hicks, we were something in between…we were just ART KIDS FROM THE COUNTRY”…the athematic theme song of singer-songwriter Lucas Carpenter. Raised above a funeral home in rural Pennsylvania, Lucas spent his youth performing at river lot parties, singing in choirs, and acting in community theater productions. That is, when he wasn’t detasseling corn (it’s an actual thing) or working as a giant chipmunk in an amusement park. He went on to graduate from Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, and afterwards developed a one-man-band “live looping” show, creating a full-band sound live on stage, layering various instruments, vocals, and electronic beats all on his own.
After years of touring the country, Lucas eventually landed in Nashville, TN. It was there in 2020 that he recorded and released his album The Shimmer, produced by Kevin Rooney (Rascal Flatts, Jason Crabb). The Shimmer was dubbed “Fun, jubilant pop” by Nashville’s #1 independent radio station Lighting 100, and it led to performances at Pilgrimage Music Festival and other iconic Nashville venues, such as The Listening Room. Carpenter and Rooney performed nearly every instrument on the album, blending Lucas’s love for world music - hammered dulcimer, penny whistle, and mandolin - with Kevin’s beat making and electronic skills.
Lucas Carpenter’s latest release, Art Kids from the Country: Volume 1, (2024) is an eclectic, pop storytelling mix, themed around growing up as an artistic, theater kid in small town America. This latest collection of songs was produced by one of Lucas’s musical heroes, Bleu, a Los Angeles-based producer with credits spanning from Demi Lovato to Meatloaf, from the Jonas Brothers to KT Tunstall. To go with the theme of the project, the dramatic, Shakespearean-esque album cover features a flower-crowned deer skull, which Lucas hunted and processed himself…a TRUE art kid from the country!