Singer-songwriter Tracy Shedd releases her first new album in six years next month, and the Tucson Weekly has a preview of the indie-pop earworm single “Holding On.”


The one-time Tucsonan now lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the aptly titled new record The Carolinas reflects the years since she returned from the Southwest to the Southeast. The record is another evolution in Shedd’s style, which has ranged from quiet and acoustic on her last album, Arizona, to piano-driven songs to the melodic shoegaze of her earlier work.

“Holding On” is the album’s second single, following “Kissing and Romancing.”

“I love how living in different states can slowly seep into your music and subtly influence you,” Shedd said. “Arizona was an acoustic, introspective album, whereas The Carolinas has more of a fun, lighter feel. Another difference is the change of instrumentation, adding synthesizers and drums.”

In their seven years in Tucson, Shedd and husband/guitarist James Tritten became a major part of the local music scene. Tritten’s Fort Lowell Records released vinyl albums and singles by the likes of Howe Gelb, Shedd, Young Mothers, La Cerca, Naïm Amor, Andrew Collberg, …music video?, Saint Maybe, and the Luz de Vida compilation.

Since moving to North Carolina, Shedd and Tritten have been playing in a synth-pop project Band & The Beat, with a drum machine and analog synthesizers. That experimentation carried over to Shedd’s new record, recorded with drummer Nicolas Jenkins from South Carolina.

“That opened my mind to the possibility of rearranging songs and not being attached just because you initially wrote something one way,” Shedd sais. “The Carolinas was a blast to create.”

The album will be released Sept. 20, on vinyl by Science Project Records, and digitally via Fort Lowell Records.