Carrie Johnson, a Simsbury resident, is a singer, songwriter and music instructor and has been performing since she was nine. She has a successful career in the music industry and her credits include: international recording artist, hit songwriter, appearing in Billboard Magazine, performing at Lilith Fair (an all-female music festival) and appearing on NPR's World Café, which showcases various musicians. She is in the middle of finishing her eighth CD of original music to be released this spring.

“I think my mother thought we were going to be debutantes,” Carrie chuckled over coffee with me as she reflected on growing up with her sister and fellow band mate of 22 BRIDES. Now Carrie juggles life as a mother, a working musician, a music teacher, and new wife as she jets back and forth to Nashville to work on her music.  

Her business, Music Time!! With Miss Carrie, LLC, moved in September 2010 to the Music & Arts center in Avon.

“I now teach there Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9am to 9pm. I have over forty students in private guitar and voices lessons ages 7 to adult,” she said.

And I will tell you, Carrie gave my two youngest children their first singing lessons which has inspired them to sing every single day thereafter.

“As a teacher, it is watching the light in my student’s eyes. Like when they can play a song on guitar or when they shine with confidence. I like knowing that I had something to do with that," said Johnson.

The music business is changing, music buying in general is at a standstill, but in Carrie’s experience, “the bottom line always remains writing a great song, being a great teacher, and holding on to the passion that brought me here to music to begin with. These things will always be around.”

And that is probably why Carrie still counts everything from Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty to country stars like Martina McBride and Miranda Lambert to the indie pop folk band, The Weepies, as a part of her current play list on her iPod.

“The most fulfilling part of my job is writing a song that I think stands out and then recording it and bringing life to it. Then performing it is very satisfying. Performing live on stage always feeds my heart and soul, especially in front of my fans,” she said.

She has a lot of fans in the area, not the least of which is her husband Peter Preiser, the new assistant pastor at the Simsbury United Methodist Church.

What gets Johnson up in the morning and helps her throughout her busy day?

“Besides coffee, the gratitude I feel for another beautiful day. That sounds cliché, but it is the absolute truth,” she said.

And then she showed me her new tattoo — which spells out 'gratitude' — to prove it.

For more information about Carrie and her music visit www.carriejohnsonmusic.com or streamline to www.pandora.com , which is online radio where you can create your own radio station by typing in the names of artists you like and Pandora will find others similar for you to make a custom compilation. And it is free!