> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Newcomer digs deep for cause - URL: https://www.smdp.com/newcomer-digs-deep-for-cause/ - Published: 2008-03-28T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T19:02:44.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Singer/songwriter donates to charity* *By DANIEL ARCHULETA Managing Editor* Rare is an artists that puts their money where their mouth is. Some make occasional appearances to raise funds for important causes, but few take that idea on the road with them. Carrie Newcomer, who plays McCabe’s in Santa Monica on Saturday, makes every one of her shows a fundraiser. She has decided to give 10 percent of all her profits to the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that is dedicated to social justice for all. Newcomer, a Quaker herself, said that it’s important to include philanthropy in everything she does. “It is kind of funny. It is something that I hardly think about anymore. It’s just what I do,” Newcomer said. “It’s a pretty integral part of my creative process.” The idea of giving back is so ingrained in her professional life that she was hard pressed to nail down a date for her first charitable contribution. The singer/song-writer, who recently released her 11th solo album dubbed “The Geography of Light,” has been contributing part of her tour proceeds since 1998\. Aside from giving to the American Friends Service Committee, she has contributed to Habitat for Humanity, Planned Parenthood and America’s Second Harvest. “In some ways it sounds altruistic but it’s really not. I get to meet incredible people everywhere I go and I get to work with these organizations to make the world a better place,” she said. “It keeps my hope alive. I get to meet people in every community that are working in these ways. They don’t always get the front page but they are there.” Newcomer selects organizations based on various subjects in her music. While she doesn’t consider her brand of folksy acoustic music particularly political in nature, she concedes that some of her music features decidedly socially aware themes. “I wouldn’t call myself a political writer, but I don’t censor what I write about,” she said. ”Sometimes what I’m thinking about the world and politics will get into my writing. That is a part of my life and how I experience the world. I have a strong spiritual life and it gets into my writing.” Using her Amish background as a springboard for her musical direction, Newcomer realizes that her experiences manifest themselves in the music she creates but doesn’t limit herself artistically. Her music lingers somewhere between folk and rock, but she also includes a taste of pop into some of her work. She likes to exist in between genres and seems to revel in the ambiguity. “There has never been an easy category to place me in over the years,” she said. “People have placed my music in different CD bins. I’ve been in the folk category, sometimes I get called Americana. I’ve seen my CDs in pop rock. I generally call myself an acoustic singer/songwriter.” While her music spans a number of genres, Newcomer said there is one thing that she has always been enthralled by. “I’ve always been drawn to the singing poets,” she said. “Those artists and song-writers who use language in beautiful ways. Those that make poetry within the context of music.” While she has been influenced by the poetry of others, it’s her spiritual beliefs that seem to take center stage in everything she undertakes. “It all feeds the art,” she said. “We bring everything we are and everything we experience to our art.” Newcomer will appear at McCabe’s Guitar Shop on Saturday. McCabe’s is located at 3101 Pico Blvd. For information, call (310) 828-4497. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/032808-13_01.jpg) BIG GIVER: Carrie Newcomer, who plays McCabe’s in Santa Monica on Saturday, makes every one of her shows a fundraiser. (Photo: Photo courtesy Carrie Newcomer) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 28, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/032808.pdf?ref=smdp.com)