Carsie Blanton, Brittany Ann Tranbaugh team up at World Cafe Live

“Are you ready for protest songs?” Carsie Blanton asked the crowd at World Cafe Live, kicking off Memorial Day Weekend and her Philly headlining show Friday night. After a year of touring her great After The Revolution album, Blanton had even newer, unreleased songs to try out on the fans. She shared the stage (and at least one band member) with singer-songwriter Brittany Ann Tranbaugh, whose set also included new material, like Tranbaugh’s single “Cascades,” which was released the same day as this show.

Tranbaugh opened the night with her full band before dropping down to a trio of her, Joe Plowman on bass, and Liz Faure on guitar for her new songs “My First Bedroom” and “Cascades.” When drummer Adam Shumski and a violinist rejoined them, Tranbaugh tested out a few unrecorded songs on the crowd, ending with an unrecorded “party song” during which Blanton appeared on stage to help with at the end.

For her part, Blanton filled her 90 minute set with new songs, old songs, solo songs, trio songs, cover songs, the whole spectrum. She spoke warmly about singer-songwriter John Prine and performed “Fishin’ With You,” the song she wrote for Prine back when he passed away in 2020. Her protest singer side came out when she covered covered Melvina Renoylds’ “I don’t mind failing in this world.” Later in the night, Blanton slowed down the vibes with a cover of Dan Reeder’s “Born A Worm” before going solo to perform new songs.

As the night wound down, Blanton talked about folk icon Pete Seeger and how he had a very thick FBI record at the time of death. She told a story of an FBI agent in attendance at a Pete Seeger show who found the crowd sing-a-long suspicious. Therefore, she naturally encouraged the crowd to sing along “loud enough to scare the FBI” on her closing “Be Good.”