Surviving the past few years has been no easy task, and Carsie Blanton ’s new single ‘After the Revolution’ acknowledges both the struggles we’ve been through and the hope for what’s yet to come. Blanton is releasing the title track from her forthcoming album on Friday, 6th October, 2023 ahead of a run of dates supporting Declan O’Rourke across Ireland from 27 October to 25 November.
‘After the Revolution’ is the second single off the album of the same name, which is due out on 21 March, 2024 . Blanton previously released the carefree song ‘Ain’t We Got Fun,’ which has enjoyed ample airplay on RTÉ Radio 1.
Raucous guitar and swelling strings add to the emotion of ‘After the Revolution’ as Blanton shares her glowing vision of the future: “After the revolution, we’ll have a better life / You’ll be a better husband / I’ll be a better wife.” Her idea of what lies ahead has been hard-earned. You can feel the weight of history here, yet Blanton’s voice shines ahead, a beacon guiding us through the darkness.
“After the Revolution’ is one of the first songs I wrote for my new record. I started writing it in summer of 2021, when I returned home from a somewhat grueling tour with another maxed out credit card and my first case of Covid,” Blanton explains. “Fevered, drugged up, and quarantined in my backyard shed, I had a semi-hallucinatory reverie about the future. The REAL future; not the one being pedaled by ad campaigns or political parties. A big, deep wave of hope and grief welled up and hit me upside the head. I wasn’t sure if I even meant it, at the time. But now I do. It’s like James Baldwin said: ‘I can’t be a pessimist, because I’m alive. I’m forced to be an optimist.”
In a time that can feel so bleak, Blanton’s spirited attitude is a tonic for the soul. “It is possible to face the world as it is—rapidly heating, ruled by grifters, ravaged by profitable wars—and still have hope,” Blanton says. “Not the narrow, grasping hope you might hang on an election, but a patient, zoomed-out hope. I still believe in people.”
Blanton is known for her 2020 tribute to John Prine, ‘Fishin with You’, which brought her to the lineup for the sold-out Vicar Street Celebration of John Prine earlier this year. That show introduced Blanton to O’Rourke, and the rest is history.
Carsie Blanton Tour Dates Supporting Declan O’Rourke
Fri 27 Oct: Mandela Hall, Belfast (+CB)
Sat 28th Oct: Theatre Royal, Waterford (+CB)
Fri 3rd Nov: Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick (+CB)
Sat 4th Nov: Town Hall Theatre, Galway (+CB)
Fri 10th Nov: Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (+CB)
Sat 11th Nov: An Tain Arts Centre, Dundalk (+CB)
Sun 12 Nov: Jerome Hynes Theatre, Wexford (+CB)
Thurs 16th Nov: Live at St. Luke’s, Cork (+CB)
Sat 18th Nov: Vicar St., Dublin (+CB/MM)
Fri 24th Nov: Arts Centre, Mullingar (+CB)
Sat 25th Nov: Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny (+CB)
Tickets for all shows are on sale now from www.singularartists.ie
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