Zena Lynn Carpenter writes from the bones of the places she has lived in. Growing up in the slow-paced oceansides of Florida, and having deep roots in neon-lit Nevada, she creates a melancholic vision of rusted motels and quick-stop Shell stations paired with the glamorous side of a life filled with road dogs and starlit jazz clubs. 

 

Residing in her southern bungalow filled with her grandmother’s paintings and a friend’s photography, she has spent the past few years writing from her experiences of driving around America appreciating the different life avenues that inspire strangers to create. 

 

As Carpenter says, “I have always been infatuated with the lust for life attitude that cats like Steve McQueen, James Dean, and Marlon Brando cultivated. I want my music to represent the life that I have created and seen; there’s not much use for words to be sung if they can’t be backed up, ya know.”

 

Being inspired by the hotshots of the ’60s and growing up playing small folk clubs under various names, Zena Lynn Carpenter channeled a repertoire of careers and styles that has influenced her music into the femme fatale heartbreak temper twisted with the old folk storytelling it is today. 

 

“My grandparents owned a Christian music and book shop in California back in the ’70s, so growing up we always had all of these old martin guitars and Amy Grant records everywhere,” Carpenter says. “I think it was only natural for me to always come back to music in the end.”