By Cameron Lee
August 9, 2025
Photo: Steven Fiore
Charlotte’s Woody delivers a sound suited for a lazy summer day, hazy with your favorite THC indulgence or a cold, cheap beer. Their music feels down-on-its-luck but unintentionally sanguine, embracing all of life’s quandaries. Principal songwriter and multi-instrumentalist John Carstarphen draws influence from off-kilter slacker rockers like Mac DeMarco and Pavement, alongside the whiskey-soaked Americana of The Felice Brothers — but infuses it all with a distinctly pastoral charm.
After a couple of years collaborating with a rotating cast of musicians since releasing their first single, “House Plant,” in 2023, Woody’s lineup now features Sam Willard on guitar, Ian Pasquini on keys, River Dawson on bass, and John Muhlbach on drums.
The band’s debut album, Bull Fightin’ Betty, dropped in June, and they’ll make their Hopscotch Music Festival debut this September. The record is an easygoing listen — equally somber and hopeful, with a subtle country twang and just enough pop sensibility to make you want to hit repeat a few times after the first listen. Willard’s Beach Boys-inspired backing vocal harmonies often provide a hook that lingers as each note fades.
On the opening track, “Get Down Sunshine,” Carstarphen laments, “Fill your head with smoke, you know it’s all a hoax / like the ones they used to tell you / don’t let it get you down, sun shines down on you my friend, until the very end.”
John Carstarphen, New Creatures, and the formation of Woody
Hailing from Belmont, North Carolina, Carstarphen formed his first band, New Creatures, in 2019 with high school friend Conrad Sloand. Their surfy garage rock band, all living under one roof in McAdenville, played college parties and small venues across the Carolinas until their 2022 breakup.
New Creatures shared songwriting and vocal duties, and many early Woody songs were written during that period — including “Lucky Lucy,” their second single released in November 2023 from the Sardine King EP. Produced alongside singer-songwriter Steven Fiore (Young Mister), the EP revealed Carstarphen’s knack for winsome, cosmic alt-country jams, complete with Fiore’s luminous guitar work.
The debut album, Bull Fightin’ Betty
With Bull Fightin’ Betty, Woody leans into a sharper indie rock edge. Throughout their catalog, which features 17 songs including this latest effort, Carstarphen’s vocals shift from the moody depths of UK singer-songwriter King Krule to the raspy tones of John McCauley, frontman of the garage-y Americana band Deer Tick.
The album was recorded and mixed by Charlotte’s Ryan Halberg (Redwood Sleeper, Pretty Baby), who Carstarphen credits with capturing the band’s authentic live sound.
“I feel like that’s really where we kind of developed. We kind of recorded something that captures what we sound like live, which previously, I just never really felt like we did.”
Across eight cohesive yet distinct tracks, Carstarphen’s melancholic lyricism explores themes of procrastination and overthinking, especially on “Yer Way”:
“You’re a dreamer, got to get away to some new place, where no one knows your name / Get out, get out, get out of your head (Get out of your own way) / Get up, get up, get out of the bed,” complemented by Willard’s vintage barbershop-style harmonies.
The album captures the dilemma of a mid-20s troubadour navigating life’s uncertainties — hopeful yet weighed down by the gloom of current realities. Carstarphen reflected on his writing process for Bull Fightin’ Betty:
“As it goes with songwriting, sometimes you’re on fire and writing a bunch of songs, and I think I kind of hit one of those time periods,” said Carstarphen. “I usually write the chord progressions and the lyrics, and then sometimes River helps me out big time… and then I’ll bring it to everybody, and we’ll kind of structure it out a little more… everybody kind of writes their own parts.”
“Thick and Clueless” bursts with an uptempo indie pop-rock energy, driven by gleaming guitars and Pasquini’s keys that echo the quirky elegance of post-punk and new wave icons like The Cure.
The penultimate track, “Bugg,” carries a gothic vaudevillian charm, with Carstarphen crooning in a muffled, nasally, Dylan-esque style. On “Outro,” he confronts relationship struggles with raw honesty:
“I know sometimes I’m hard for you to understand / I may f*ck up, f*ck up, and f*ck up again / I’ll just shut up, take my pill and be a man / I’ll change for you, I hope one day you’ll understand.”
Charlotte’s Growing Music Community, and What’s Next?
Bull Fightin’ Betty showcases Carstarphen’s songwriting dexterity while embracing a laid-back slack-rock ethos. Their sound flows seamlessly from folk to indie rock to alt-country, and with this debut, Woody is emerging as one of Charlotte’s most promising new bands.
They’ll bring these songs to life at their Hopscotch debut, with several singles queued for release at a steady pace. Carstarphen says they’ve also been experimenting with heavier sounds lately, which has been “super fun.”
On Charlotte’s music scene, Carstarphen remains pragmatically hopeful — a reflection of the mood in Woody’s music.
“Showing up for other bands that you like, and going to people’s shows, engaging with their social media — you know, I think that’s kind of what helps build the community the most,” he said. “supporting one another in that way, buying each other’s merch…I think that’s a really cool thing.”
Follow Woody on Instagram and listen to their debut full-length album, Bull Fightin’ Betty.
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