Steamboat Pilot & Today

Carrie Elkin's latest songs have momentum. They sound like feet walking. They sound like wind blowing through the hair of a woman driving down the highway. If you listen close enough, they sound like Elkin leaving town to stand on stages across the East Coast and the Midwest.

You hear the anticipation in her voice as the days approach a new chapter in her life. You'll notice that her voice isn't wavering. It's getting stronger, in fact.

On Saturday, Elkin will play her last show as a resident of Steamboat Springs when she opens for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at Howelsen Hill.

It's not the largest crowd she's ever performed in front of, she said. When she was younger, she used to sing the National Anthem for sporting events in Cleveland.

"But that was just one song, and I didn't write it," she said.

This time, Elkin will be singing a 45-minute set of her original music with hundreds of people she has gotten to know during the four years since she's lived in town.

Elkin will be playing Saturday with flutist Mary Jarchow and drummer Eric Barry.

After the applause ends, Elkin will pack up her belongings in her red Subaru and hit the road for a 2 1/2-month tour of the United States. When the tour ends, she plans to settle in Austin, Texas, and rejoin a group of musicians that she "grew up with musically" in Taos, N.M.

For the past two years, Elkin has been living in a tiny, one-room cabin on 75 acres by herself. She wakes up early every morning and plays the guitar and writes down the songs that collected in her mind during sleep.

"There's so much excitement in my heart to hit the road, and that is coming out in my music," she said. "This is the first time in my life I'm leaving without a job, but it feels right."

-- To reach Autumn Phillips call 871-4210

or e-mail aphillips@steamboatpilot.com