NYC Artists on the rise: Howth – Live at Zebulon on 11.09 + The Studio 11.20.

Carl Creighton is nothing if not autobiographical. On the website of his boutique label, The Homesick Collective, you can read of his past 27 years in minute detail, and get the impression you’re witnessing an artist purge from an eventful past. Carl’s work as Howth similarly reads better as catharsis than concept. Truly a songwriter for our times, his emotional letting is rarely perfect, but maintains an almost embarrassing honesty when discussing topics ranging from Occupy Wall Street ("Belly of the Beast"), to kissing someone named David ("David"), to paying off his student loans ("Alexander Hamilton").
The past couple of years have found Carl traveling frequently across the US. Now living in Brooklyn, Creighton uses these geographical signifiers as touchstones through his ouevre. From describing the blinding lights of Bloomingdale’s, to the darkness found at Alexander Hamilton’s grave, there’s a hodgepodge of ideas here that reflects the bouncy journey of a twenty-something just beginning to discover life’s joys and disappoints. It’s the kind of America you find in Jeff Mangum and Paul Simon, where discovery meets disillusion, but the journey makes it worthwhile. – Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)