Dereen Shirnekhi Photo
Sam Carlson in the WNHH FM studio.
Sam Carlson broke a string as he tuned up his Guild D‑50 acoustic guitar to perform live on radio. But no worries — he had a backup Guild M‑20 with him as well.
Sam Carlson performing on WNHH FM's "Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51."
“I always bring two guitars,” he said, “in case a string breaks — which never happens.” Until it does.
Minutes later he launched into “Choke Cherries,” one of five original indie rock/folk-rock compositions he played solo Thursday on the latest episode of WNHH FM’s “Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51” program. (Click on the above video to watch it.)
Carlson often plays with a full band. His group SG Carlson & The Tines will play some of the same songs Friday evening on a bill starting at 6 p.m. at Volume Two/Never Ending Books as part of the weekend-long NHV Noise festival. Sunday he’ll perform again at East Rock Brewing Company & Beer Hall from 4 to 6 p.m.
In his 16 years as a stalwart of the New Haven original music scene, Carlson, now 33, has mastered not just the two-guitar back-up, but pretty much all the facets of the biz: He writes music. He runs a downtown recording studio called Sans Serif Recording. He does graphic design and his own advertising. He produces music videos like this killer 2020 B horror short about a murderous shopping cart on the loose on Whalley Avenue, set to his song “Crisis Shopper.” (Best scene: Local musician Bill Saunders’ cameo giving the finger to Carlson outside Howe Street’s Brick Oven Pizza, then paying the bloody price.)
On “Acoustic Thursday,” Carlson stripped the songs to their steady acoustic-strumming rhythm, the way he originally writes them before bringing them to his bandmates to flesh out. He sang in an almost-quiet tenor. He filled in the band-version lead guitar with, in one case, a whistling solo, a fadeout with a strum-to-arpeggio switch.
He didn’t break any more strings.
If you, too, are a local musician interested in performing live on WNHH FM, click on the “E‑mail the Author” button at the top of this story to learn more.
Previous “Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51” performances:
• MJ Bones
• Johnathan Moore
• Charlie Widmer
Sam Carlson’s “Acoustic Thursday” set list:
Choke Cherries
Know By Feel
Emptied & Refilled
Seawall
Among The Copper
