Carol Elliott Has Been Writing Her Life Into Songs for Decades
Now based in San Antonio, Elliott is an Americana singer-songwriter with six albums of original music and a career that has taken her from professional songwriting in Nashville to stages across Texas.
If you really want to know how Carol Elliott is doing, apparently you don’t need to ask her; just listen to her latest songs.
“One of my girlfriends said, ‘I never call Carol to ask how she’s doing. I just go to one of her shows and listen to her latest songs,’” Elliott says.
It’s a pretty good description of a songwriter whose work has long been tied to her own life. Now based in San Antonio, Elliott is an Americana singer-songwriter with six albums of original music and a career that has taken her from professional songwriting in Nashville to stages across Texas. She worked as a songwriter for two Nashville publishing companies and, from 2024 through 2026, was a featured artist on the Texas Touring Roster through the Texas Commission on the Arts. These days, she performs around San Antonio, along with house concerts and festival appearances, often accompanied by Grammy-winning guitarist Joe Reyes.
Her relationship with music started early. Elliott remembers listening to records and singing along as soon as she was old enough to operate a record player. She began piano lessons at six, and her mother gave her a guitar for her 17th birthday.
Once she learned a few chords, writing songs felt like the natural next step. Over the years, one of Elliott’s biggest challenges has also brought some of her most meaningful career moments: getting other artists to record her work.
Michael Martin Murphey recorded Elliott and Wendy Waldman’s “Corn, Water & Wood” for his Cowboy Christmas album. The song received a national award for original Western music from the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and Elliott traveled to Oklahoma City with Waldman to accept it.
Many artists have since recorded the song, something Elliott doesn’t take lightly. “It means so much to me when someone likes one of my songs enough to learn it and play it,” she says.
More recently, Dutch singer-songwriter Mariska Petrovic recorded Elliott’s “Sequoyah,” performing it in English and translating the song into Dutch.
Elliott has plenty more stories to tell, including Garth Brooks recording one of her songs and a chapter of her career that involved working for Dolly Parton. Through it all, her approach to songwriting has remained deeply personal.
“Meaningful. Sometimes fun, sometimes serious. Always sincere,” is how Elliott describes her music. “Almost always true to my life story.”
And what keeps a longtime songwriter pushing through the inevitable creative blocks? Elliott’s answer is considerably less romantic.
“The need to pay my bills,” she jokes.
After six albums and decades of turning life into lyrics, Elliott is still writing her story one song at a time.
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Find Carol Elliott’s music, performances, and social media through her Linktree at linktr.ee/carolelliottsinging.
