b. 16 August 1980, Mitford, Pennsylvania, USA. Carlton was brought up in a musical family, with her pianist mother instilling in her daughter a love of classical music. Vanessa began playing piano at an early age, and was soon highly proficient, composing her first piece at the age of eight. She was accepted into the School of America Ballet in New York at the age of 14, but a period of teenage angst saw her beginning to compose songs again. After graduation Carlton stayed in New York where she worked as a waitress to pay the bills. She began performing her own material at open-mic nights, and within a year had signed a recording contract with A&M Records. Her heavily-orchestrated debut album earned comparisons to Fiona Apple and Tori Amos, with the latter a particular influence on "Sway" and an atmospheric reading of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It, Black". Be Not Nobody debuted at number 5 in the US album charts in May 2002. The upbeat first single "A Thousand Miles" had by this point also climbed into the Top 5, with Carlton championed alongside Alicia Keys, Nelly Furtado and Michelle Branch as part of the new breed of musically literate female singer-songwriters.
With sales of her debut album climbing over the 1 million mark, Carlton maintained her public profile in 2003 with a prominent contribution to Counting Crows' hit cover version of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi". During this period she also worked on tracks for her second album with Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins. The bold, experimental Harmonium was greeted by widespread commerical indifference and hastened Carlton's departure from A&M. In a surprise move she signed a new recording contract with rap mogul Irv Gotti's label The Inc., and worked with ubiquitous songwriter Linda Perry on several tracks for her next album. The involvement of Perry meant Heroes & Thieves (2007) was a lot more mainstream than its predecessor, which would have pleased her record company but was something of a comedown for an artist who had made such a bold statement with her previous album.
DISCOGRAPHY: Be Not Nobody (A&M 2002)****, Harmonium (A&M 2004)***, Heroes & Thieves (The Inc./Universal 2007)***.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Copyright 2008 by Muze Inc.; all rights reserved.

A Thousand Miles
by Vanessa Carlton

White Houses
by Vanessa Carlton

Ordinary Day
by Vanessa Carlton