Country artist Carrie Cunningham tells stories through music at Spokane Interstate Fair

Although she’s originally from Nebraska, country singer-songwriter Carrie Cunningham is an honorary Spokane native. She graduated from North Central High School, attended Spokane Falls Community College and performed in the Spokane Symphony Chorale. She later studied music production at the Art Institute of Seattle, and she’s lived in Vancouver, Washington, since 2006.

Cunningham returns to the Inland Northwest after a five-year absence to perform at the Interstate Fair this weekend.

“I have a huge following in Spokane,” Cunningham said, “so it’ll be great to finally get out there again.”

She says she was raised on a diverse mix of music – country, ’60s folk, Motown, ’90s R&B – and began writing her own songs as a teenager in 1994.

“But the first song I thought was somewhat decent was in 1996,” she said. “Writing songs was more conducive to be a storyteller in country music than in the pop world.”

Cunningham is about to start work on her fourth album – her most recent, titled “The Way You Look at Me,” was released in 2012 – which she plans to record in Nashville. She says the country music capital has become something of a home away from home for her.

“I love Nashville,” Cunningham said. “I spend a good deal of time down in Nashville because everybody there is so friendly. We’re all trying to do the same thing, so there’s no competition. … We’re all there to support each other and give each other high fives. It’s a wonderful community.”

As a lyricist, Cunningham certainly falls into the storyteller category. She’s influenced, she says, by everything around her: Her ballad “Tears in Rain,” for instance, was inspired both by the death of country legend Porter Wagoner and her mother-in-law’s battle with breast cancer.

“Some of it’s true; some of it comes from listening to other people,” she said of her lyrics. “They have a saying in Nashville that you have your songwriting feelers out, so it’s kind of like we have antennae on our heads and we’re always listening to other people’s conversations and see if there’s anything in there that could spark a story or spark a title.”

Cunningham is also working to sell some of her songs to other artists, a process she describes as long and sometimes grueling.

“The average song on the radio now is already two years old,” Cunningham explained. “Once it goes to the publisher, it has to go to other people as well before it actually gets to the artist. I have a few new ones that haven’t been released being pitched right now. My bluegrass songs are being pitched in the bluegrass community, and I have some being pitched in the Americana world. So I’m diving into all genres. I write what I write. I let the song tell the story.”

And while she’s shared the stage with some big names – she’s opened for the likes of Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire and Vince Gill – Cunningham says she’s dazzled the most by the hardworking career songwriters she encounters in Nashville.

“I get star struck by the songwriters,” she said, “because they’re the ones that make the magic. The singers are the vessels. The artists can be made, but the songwriters – it comes from them.”