About Vienna Carroll

Vienna Carroll is a singer, playwright, actor, historian and herbalist. The fire in her soul lights up the fire in yours and Vienna’s folksy blues and soulful funk take you back to church and her roots. She learned music from the Black Ladies of her youth, including her fearsome great grandmother who accompanied Grand Ole Opry country radio on her guitar every Saturday night but played only proper Pentecostal chords on Sunday. Vienna also attended her godmother’s Baptist church and sang in the choir at her family’s AME church. At her Alabama grandmother’s 125 acre working farm, she listened to gospel and country on the radio and joined in the Sunday church services an hour’s drive away down a dusty road, where singing was often accompanied only by the hand clapping and shouting of its fervent members. She later formalized her study of early African American music and culture at Yale University, where she received a BA in African American Studies. The passion in Vienna’s voice and her masterful storytelling fill a room, draw you in and hold you close. She interweaves old songs and forgotten stories of Black heroes to give you a memorable larger-than-life performance that’ll have you clapping your hands, tapping your feet and singing along. Her influences are Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington and her early church experiences. Her latest CD release, Harlem Field Recordings, is Black Roots music with a groove. It features Vienna on vocals, Stanley Banks (George Benson) on bass, Newman Taylor Baker, (Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Henry Grimes) on washboard, Keith Johnston(Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Jon Hendricks) on guitar; and guests Nioka Workman (Anthony Braxton, David Murray) on cello, Melanie Dyer (Joe Bonner, Reggie Workman) on viola, and Henrique Prince (Ebony Hillbillies, Sun Ra Arkestra) on violin.

Work experience

  • Artist-Resume-Vienna-Carroll-8-2021
  • 162.05kB
  • View Resume

Vienna's Skills

Live
  • Singer
  • Touring Musician
Venue Type Experience
  • Club
  • Theatre/PAC
Musician
  • Singer
  • Studio Musician
  • Touring Musician

Vienna's Genres

  • Blues
  • Folk
  • Jazz

Vienna's Experience

I sing acapella, I sing with a band and I sing in theater performances. I love to sing. I write and perform in plays about pre-civil War Black heroes and how Black folks freed themselves from slavery, featuring the Spirituals, work songs. chanteys and other music of that time period.