Get to Know Carter Faith: The Davidson, NC Girl Who Found Her Creative Home in Cherry Valley

Carter Faith was not raised in a musical household. There were no parents playing guitar on the porch, no family band, no early stage experience. What there was, however, was a grandfather with a collection of country cassette tapes that a young girl from Davidson, North Carolina started listening to, and eventually could not stop. That quiet beginning is the whole story in miniature.

Carter Faith Jones was born on June 14, 2000, in Davidson, North Carolina, a small college town on Lake Norman just north of Charlotte. Raised in a non-musical family, she discovered her passion for music through her grandfather's collection of country cassette tapes and spent her early years absorbing everything from Tammy Wynette to classic rock. She taught herself to play piano and guitar in middle school and by the time she turned sixteen had started writing original songs. That first song came after a breakup, which is one of the oldest entry points into country music and also one of the most reliable. "I had this connection to music, and one day I wrote a song, and the rest is history," she said. "I really have not stopped writing songs since and I feel like I found my purpose when I learned how to write."

After high school, she made the move that every aspiring Nashville songwriter eventually has to make. She relocated to Nashville to attend Belmont University and pursue a career in country music. Faith quickly made inroads in Music City, becoming a regular at Song Suffragettes, a weekly roundtable of women songwriters in Nashville. She wrote constantly, built relationships, and signed with Altadena before eventually landing at MCA Nashville and Universal Music Publishing Group in 2024. Her influences are as wide-ranging as her sound: Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Kacey Musgraves, and Fleetwood Mac all appear on her reference list alongside Tammy Wynette, Nancy Sinatra, and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

The collaborations that arrived early in her career turned heads across the industry. Bon Iver personally selected Faith to sing background vocals on his song "AWARDS SEASON" after he heard her song "Greener Pasture." "It was the craziest experience ever because he's an iconic artist to me, and to have a whisper of my voice on there, I'm honored," she said. She also got country legend Alison Krauss on "Blue Bird" from her 2024 EP The Aftermath, calling the opportunity "very surreal."

The tours that followed confirmed she could hold her own on any stage. Her early career was a whirlwind of high-profile runs with Little Big Town, Shaboozey, Ella Langley, Keith Urban, Willie Nelson, and many more. She performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, describing it as "probably the biggest thing I've done so far." She made her Stagecoach debut, played CMA Fest multiple times, and graced the Grand Ole Opry stage more than a dozen times before her debut album was even released. 

That album, Cherry Valley, arrived on October 3, 2025, via MCA Nashville. The title came from a road sign she spotted while on tour, a name that came to represent something imaginary and yet deeply real: a creative home, a sweet spot where her old school influences like Tammy Wynette, Nancy Sinatra, Pet Sounds and Revolver meet today's country. "Every time I have slipped into a dark place, which I have a propensity for, this album has brought me out of it," Faith said. "The world of Cherry Valley has been a safe and freeing place for me and everyone who has worked so hard on this record."

Cherry Valley received critical acclaim and featured on several best of 2025 lists and was nominated for ACM Album of the Year. Billboard praised her vocals for "exuding fragility with a smoky resonance." The Tennessean called her the center square of the puzzle that country, folk, and rock synergy has timelessly inspired.

She is twenty-five years old. She has hundreds of millions of global streams. She was named to the 2026 Opry NextStage class. She has sung alongside Alison Krauss and whispered on a Bon Iver album. She found Cherry Valley on a road sign while on tour and turned it into a debut record that critics could not stop writing about. The grandfather's cassette tapes did their job. Read all about her on our website.