Carrie Rowan

I Have a Dream, A Song to Sing
41-year-old Northborough Mom Puts Her Heart Into Her First CD
BY marguerite paolino shannon power photographer





As a child, Carrie Rowan Daigneault loved to sing and put on shows for her family. But by the time she entered high school, she had put aside the notion of performing for a wider audience.

"It wasn't cool to do that," she said.

Rowan Daigneault kept singing on her own and even took private voice lessons during college. Yet, her music remained a private pursuit. After graduating, she found a way to use her performing ability in a different type of public arena: She took a job in sales.

"Sales came very easily to me. I really excelled," said Rowan Daigneault, who lives in Northborough. "But it was not fulfilling like I thought it would be."

She rose through the ranks quickly, becoming a regional sales manager and eventually supervising eight people. Her audience could be a large group or a single potential customer, so Rowan Daigneault gained confidence and adeptness with a broad range of presentation skills. But whether selling payroll services or software during those 10 years, she kept singing on her own time.




"I always wanted to do something with my music. I always kept it on my goal sheet," she said. "It's been my dream all these years. When I went to a concert, I would always think, 'I can do that.' "

Now, at 41, Rowan Daigneault is making her dream come true. She started performing in local folk venues more than a year ago, and in June, she released her first CD, Almost Home.

"This is me coming home," she said. "This is what I did when I was a kid … All the other [jobs] were actually preparing me for this."

A Winding Road

While Rowan Daigneault calls herself a "late bloomer," she believes her life experiences are essential to her musical development. When she was ready to put aside her first career in sales, she went to New York City to record a three-song sampler and move toward a career in music. Shortly after the trip, she learned she was pregnant, and motherhood became her second career.

"It's the hardest of all the careers I've had," Rowan Daigneault said.

She and her husband, Robert Daigneault, have two children, just 20 months apart. When Lily, now 7, and Amelia, now 5, were smaller, Rowan Daigneault felt like she was "knee-deep in diapers" - and very far from the intimate coffeehouses where she hoped to someday perform. Still, music remained part of her interaction with the girls, and she felt inspired by them.

"There is such a purity about them and the things they say," she said.

When family tragedy struck a few years ago, though, it seemed that Rowan Daigneault's singing dreams might never be realized. In 2003, her sister passed away at age 38, after years of struggling with the effects of juvenile diabetes. About 18 months later, her father died, tragically and unexpectedly.

Rowan Daigneault describes the losses as "unfathomable" and believes she has been changed by them. She realized she could create something positive out of the sadness in her life. As she moved forward, her music became more personal.

"If you listen to the CD, my heart is pouring out everywhere," she said. "Music takes not only me to a different place but everyone else there with me."

Pursuing a Dream

Rowan Daigneault's husband supports her musical ambitions however he can, in spite of the fact that the business is outside his experience as a high technology professional. One day that meant hanging a door for her basement studio so she could have privacy to practice. Many days it means reminding her of the value of pursuing her music.

"If it's your dream, you have to follow it. You only get one chance."

"This was a way to have a positive channel for all those other emotions. Music for me is healing. It's a way to write about all that human suffering we all go through. This is real life stuff, and it's what inspired the music," she said.

"She's done a tremendous job in a short period of time," Daigneault said of his wife.

While she had prior experience with keyboards, Rowan Daigneault took up guitar four years ago. She started out modestly, with lessons in the adult education program at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School. She began private guitar lessons soon after with singer-songwriter Oen Kennedy, who recognized her talent and encouraged her.

"Carrie is able to take adversity or joy and turn either of them into beauty in the form of songs - a rare gift," said Kennedy, who produced Almost Home. "Carrie is a spiritual being with a seemingly endless creative reservoir, and she always amazes me with her simultaneous dedication to her family and her life as a singer songwriter."

That ongoing dedication to her art - even when she couldn't focus on it completely - made it possible for her to start this third career for herself in music.

In June, a crowd of more than 70 friends and family members turned out for her CD release party, and Rowan Daigneault was overwhelmed by the support.

"It was one of the most magical events of my life," she said. "I feel very lucky and blessed. I'm surrounded by all these amazing people."

Rowan Daigneault writes and performs for audiences of children, as well as adults. Through her business Little Listeners, she plays at local schools and play centers.

"Carrie does a wonderful job. She has the kids up dancing and singing," said Linda Stockhaus, owner of Noodle Noggin' 'N Bean, an education play center in Northborough where Rowan Daigneault performs weekly. "They really respond to her style. She has a very calming influence on them."

Rowan Daigneault believes it is important to inspire a love for music at an early age.

"I feel like I'm making a difference," she said. "Kids are so open and loving. You can't ask for a better audience."

Marguerite Paolino is an award-winning freelance writer from Hopkinton.

Upcoming Shows

• 7:30 p.m., Oct. 7, Sweet Bites Mini Set in Acton

• 6 p.m., Oct. 18, Tom's Gourmet Marketplace in Northborough

• 3 p.m., Nov. 8, Cafe Ziba in Acton

• 7:30 p.m., Nov. 21, The Java Room in Chelmsford

Fast Facts About Carrie Rowan Daigneault

Family: Carrie and her husband Robert both grew up in Northborough and went to high school together. It wasn't until their 10th reunion that they started dating, though. They have two daughters, just 20 months apart - Lily, 7, and Amelia, 5.

Occupation: Singer-songwriter

Musical influences: Shawn Colvin, Eva Cassidy, Karla Bonoff, Patty Larkin, Indigo Girls, The Story, Rosanne Cash, Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan, Carole King, The Beatles, David Wilcox, Jewel, Catie Curtis, Norah Jones, Lori McKenna, Bryndle, Cowboy Junkies, Jackson Browne, and Marc Broussard.

In the band: Oen Kennedy, Lori Diamond, Seth Connelly, Billy Derby, Eric Kilburn, and Phil Punch.

Writing inspirations: Ever Grow Old is about her sister, who died at 38 from juvenile diabetes. She wrote Almost Home for her mother and her late father, but it's also about her return to her musical roots after years of pursuing her two other careers - sales, then motherhood.

Favorite cause: Carrie donates a portion of the proceeds from CD sales to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, in memory of her sister.

To buy the CD, Almost Home: www.cdbaby.com, www.iTunes.com, www.amazon.com

For more about Carrie and to listen to her music, visit www.myspace.com/carriesongs



Win An Autographed Copy of Almost Home CD

Northborough singer-songwriter Carrie Rowan Daigneault has generously offered five autographed copies of her new CD Almost Home for Bay State Parent readers.

To enter go online and fill out a survey at www.baystateparent.com/common/entry form.html.

Select Carrie CD in the pull down bar. The deadline to enter is Friday, Oct. 5 at 11:59 p.m. Contest is open to Massachusetts readers only. Winners' name and hometown will be posted on the magazine's blog at baystateparent.blogspot.com. Prize will be mailed upon address verification.

















- Baystate Parenting Magazine

Thursday, June 5, 2008 | E-mail this article | Print this article

CD a dream come true for musician
By Kate Hannigan RECORD CORRESPONDENT

NORTHBORO — Home means many things to many people.

For Carrie Rowan, a Northboro singer/songwriter and producer of her first full-length CD, “Almost Home,” it means getting to a place with the guidance of love, family, new and old friends and sharing that journey utilizing the extreme reach of the Internet.

Sitting in her comfortable kitchen drinking “tea and strawberry soup” served by her youngest daughter, Amelia, Rowan looked around and laughingly wondered how she managed to pull off writing and producing “Almost Home” over the last year, along with starting up Little Listeners, a preschool program in which she gets the little ones going through music and song, as well as performing a regular gig at Noodle Noggin’ ‘N Bean, in Northboro.


Judging from “Almost Home,” which she co-produced with Oen Kennedy, she’s certainly on the right track. For a first CD, everything about it is beautifully polished, but it’s her delicate voice and honest lyrics, along with an impressive lineup of musicians lending their talents on this CD that makes it an outstanding first effort.

“I feel blessed to be working with such wonderful musicians,” Rowan said of Kennedy, Lori Diamond, Seth Connelly, Bill Derby, Eric Kilburn (who recorded, mixed and mastered “Almost Home”) and Phil Punch.

While she felt the performer and artist inside her early on, she went off to college in Ithaca, N.Y., and put performing on the backburner.

After college, “I had a very successful corporate America career … but one day I just said, is this it, really?” she said. “I left that job and started doing software sales…but it’s funny, I composed a song for my husband (Rob Daigneault) at our wedding. He didn’t know anything about it and everyone was saying all these wonderful things to me about it. We have Rob on tape saying, ‘That’s it, she’s leaving her job on Monday!’ It was just a joke, a farce, but who knew a year later I (would actually leave) my job?”

Rowan met her husband-to-be in high school and they re-connected at their 10-year reunion.

“A year later, we were engaged, and a year after that we were married,” Rowan said. “How many people do that?”

Daigneault has always been a supporter of Rowan’s pursuing a career in music and helped her in the decision to fully submerge herself in the process of this dream. About seven years ago, she made a three-song, demo CD in New York but then was sidetracked by the arrival of two daughters, Lilly and Amelia.

“But the music always stayed with me,” she said.

Rowan hasn’t wasted any of those years she spent in corporate America. She’s putting that experience to a valuable use in marketing and promoting her new career.

“I did sales and sales are sales,” she said.

The Internet is enabling musicians to get their music out into the world, according to Rowan.

“Nimbit, the company I use, is really cool, an amazing service,” Rowan said. “It’s just an incredible vehicle, it’s not even a year and I’ve had 16,000 hits (on the site). I have friends all over the world who can listen to my music. To share a commonality across the sea … it’s just amazing to me.”

A celebration for the release of “Almost Home” comes in the form of a free concert at 8 p.m., Saturday, June 28, at the Parish Center for the Arts, 10 Lincoln St., Westford.

“I was driving home after picking up the CD and thought … this is like this dream come true, just a piece of plastic, I know, but the whole thing has been very lifting for me,” Rowan said.

She is also scheduled to perform at 6 p.m., Saturday, July 12, at Tom’s Gourmet Marketplace, 4 West Main St., Northboro, as part of the Girls in the Round concert series.

For more information, to listen to Rowan’s music, order “Almost Home,” or download tunes, visit myspace.com/carriesongs.


- the Record