Asthmatic Kitty Records have announced the release of Carrie & Lowell Live, an audio and visual document of Sufjan Steven’s November 9, 2015 performance at North Charleston Performing Arts Center in South Carolina.
In his review of Carrie & Lowell (read it here) for Folk Radio UK, James McKinnon explained “the subtle acoustic textures of Carrie & Lowell reflect his wracked soul-searching state in the wake of his mother, Carrie’s death in 2012. Accompanied by previous tour mate Laura Veirs, he contemplates memory, mortality and faith on what is probably his most direct record to date.” He concluded:
Memories, like the photograph that adorn the album’s cover, fade with time. In working through his memories and committing them to tape, Stevens has managed to do that rare thing which many artists strive for: render a personal experience in all its richness and ambivalence in a way that feels vivid and universal. And like other albums such as Eels’s Electro-Shock Blues that have been wrought from painful experiences, Carrie & Lowell is disarmingly beautiful and uplifting because of its origins, not in spite of them.
The live show is available on YouTube and Vimeo (watch above) and as an audio download (and streaming) on most digital platforms as of April 28, 2017. Click here for all other streaming/purchasing options.