Taylor Mill, KY · country

Carly Pearce

2 festivals played ↓

Traditional-leaning country with a '90s heart — heartbreak records written with a razor.

Carly Pearce was born Carly Cristyne Slusser in Taylor Mill, Kentucky, in 1990, to Todd and Jackie Slusser; her stage name comes from her grandfather's surname. She grew up on the country music her grandparents played at home, and a childhood home video captured her declaring she would one day perform on the Grand Ole Opry.

By eleven she was singing with a bluegrass band, and she performed in churches, tent revivals and once at a boys' prison. At sixteen she auditioned for Dollywood's Country Crossroads show, dropped out of high school to take the job, and moved to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, performing up to five shows a day while finishing school through an online homeschool program.

She moved to Nashville at nineteen to pursue a recording career, signing a developmental deal with Sony Music Nashville in 2012 that collapsed after her producer was fired from the label. Several lean years followed before her self-written 'Every Little Thing' found an audience on satellite radio and reached number one on the Billboard country chart, taking her debut album into the chart's top five.

She has since had success with the duet 'I Hope You're Happy Now' with Lee Brice and 'Never Wanted to Be That Girl' with Ashley McBryde. Her music leans on 1990s country production and bluegrass-touched vocal phrasing, and much of her best-known writing deals directly with the end of her marriage.

She has won three Country Music Association Awards, four Academy of Country Music Awards, one CMT Music Award and a Grammy, and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2021.

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