Carlton Anderson stopped by the station and played some songs for us, told us some stories, and we got out of working for 20 minutes!
Carlton is from Cypress, about 45 minutes outside of Houston, Texas, and he was working the oil fields. But all of his coworkers told him to go to college. But Carlton needed money for that. So he saved up for a guitar. Then he used his guitar to work gigs to save up some more money. Then he applied to Belmont, the music college in Nashville. He got accepted but still didn't have enough money. By the third time they accepted, he had finally made enough. College is expensive!
We checked his Instagram, and anyone who can sing like this in the middle of a creek and barefoot is our kind of country! And nobody got electrocuted.
After he graduated from Belmont, he met up with Tim Dubois, an award winning songwriter and music executive in Nashville. He said that Carlton had a great voice, just needed some good songs.
So Carlton got writing.
He likes to say that he's taken "the scenic route" to where he is now.
After sharing some of his songs with us, the scenic route is paying off.