Carrie Newcomer

Oprah Winfrey beware: There’s a new book club in town. Granted, the talk-show mogul probably won’t have to sweat the competition created by Carrie Newcomer’s online reading group, which was designed to connect the folk singer’s audience with literary works that influenced her songwriting. On the other hand, Newcomer bills herself as an “activist, mother and teacher,” a résumé that seems custom-built for Winfrey’s soccer-mom audience. Newcomer’s crunchy granola suites also have found a home on Rounder Records, which issued The Gathering of Spirits last fall. As a guitar-strumming singer-songwriter, Newcomer travels a much-traversed road, but her sweet, clear vocals and impassioned yet reserved delivery are a welcome antidote to the boy-rock heart-bleeding and pound-yer-skulls metal that too often pass for a night on the town.