Cincinnati-based musician Curt Kiser, who records under the moniker Carriers—a project that fuses a softly psychedelic aura with Americana-informed indie rock—belongs to a cohort of artists buoyed by this week’s election results. Spurred by Dr. Amy Acton’s victory in the Ohio gubernatorial race on Tuesday night, he stayed awake until 4:30 a.m. to follow a cover of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ 2003 track Soul Journey“Look At Miss Ohio.” Kiser clarifies:
It’s been a big week for Ohio and even bigger for Amy Acton. She’s been an inspiration since the first time I saw her on tv talking to us each day about the latest numbers of COVID cases. She had to deliver really hard information and she did it with such care, intention and gentleness. She gave us hope that we could get through this together.
That night watching her announce that she was the new governor gave a lot of people a sense of hope for something, anything to change in a positive direction…not just in Ohio but in this country that has been living in a new nightmare everyday. I believe her when she said “the healing begins today.”
She’s not a career politician, she’s been a public health servant who faced so much adversity as a kid and had to make it out alive still believing things could be better. A few weeks ago I looked up how many governors had been women in the USA. Only 15. Insane and makes total sense. Well, that’s changing now. Looking forward to it and believing in a better future.
If she doesn’t know this song, I think she’d appreciate it. It’s sad, but powerful. Kinda how we’re all feeling right now. To quote Amy, “This is a win for all of us. It’s for all the scrappy kids who have been underestimated, overlooked or counted out.”
In his Substack newsletter, Kiser adds, “I actually met Amy a few years ago, while I was working at a hotel here in Cincinnati. I brought breakfast to her room and told her I thought her voice sounded familiar on the phone and that we looked forward to listening to her each day during the pandemic. She was incredibly kind, taking a little time to record this video for my partner Kristin’s milestone birthday. Had no idea she’d be running for Governor a few years later.”
Listen to Carriers’ take on “Look At Miss Ohio” and compare it to the original below.
