Zoe FitzGerald Carter to Release CHAOS BY DESIGN Album

Singer, songwriter, journalist, and memoirist Zoe FitzGerald Carter will release her fourth full-length album, Chaos By Design, on October 28, 2026. Emerging from the mist of memory and association, longing and loss, the twelve songs on Chaos by Design are akin to vignettes from a dream. The eleven original Americana, jazz, and folk infused songs are joined by Zoe's interpretation of Gerry and the Pacemakers' Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying. The songwriter will celebrate the release with her band on October 28, at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, CA.

Chaos By Design was recorded at The Plant in Sausalito (now 2200 Bridgeway) and at Ninth Street Opus and Fantasy Records in Berkeley. Produced by Jeffrey Wood, former head of Fantasy Studios, and recorded by sound engineer Alberto Hernandez, the album features some of the Bay Area's top players including Dawn Richardson (4 Non Blondes) on drums, Paul Olguin (Maria Muldaur) on bass, and Michael Papenburg (Petty Theft) on electric guitar, lap steel and mandolin. Adding both delicacy and spice was Pam Delgado (Blame Sally) on backup vocals, Greg Sankovitch on piano and organ, Dan Cantrell on accordion, and Erik 'Mr Tasty' Jakobson on trumpet. Rising star and founder of the Black Banjo Reclamation Project Hannah Mayree played banjo on both Ghost and Cicadas and will be joining Zoe at Sweetwater Music Hall.

'Writing the songs on this album, I found myself talking with ghosts and coyotes (Cicadas, Ghost, White Coyote), escaping into a mythological paradise (Arcadia), and returning to the sepia-tinged world of childhood and adolescence (Pirates in the Woods, Sarah),' says Carter.

'The title track, Chaos by Design, arrived with more urgency, asking me to consider some deeply uncomfortable questions like: Am I living my best life? Am I wasting my talent and my time? But what started with existential panic quickly turned to radical self-acceptance ('If you told me I could be anyone, I'd still be me'),' the songwriter continues.

'Although Chaos by Design is driving and percussive, the rest of the album has a laid-back, folk/Americana feel and there is a little bit of that open chord, Laurel Canyon feel on some of the tracks (Sarah, White Coyote).

Swimming Pool and Breathe Again dip a toe into jazz, and I fell in love with the gentle bossa nova style of Gerry and the Pacemakers' song Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying. But within all these songs is the same yearning -- to find meaning and beauty in an increasingly chaotic world. To highlight moments that make the general messiness and challenges of life feel worthwhile.'

The album opens with a song about songwriting – and, in particular, melody (Melody). 'As a former journalist and author, I think a lot about lyrics, but I never want to settle for a prosaic or predictable melody,' says the songwriter. 'To me, one of the great joys of songwriting is how the music – the rhythm, melody and arrangement – as well as the words work together to create the atmospherics of a song.'

The title track, Chaos by Design, begins with self doubt but quickly traverses to personal and global compassion. 'The song is the most driving, percussive track on the album.' says Zoe, 'but it's also the most broadly humanistic. We are all just doing the best we can.'

White Coyote is the true story of driving home from San Francisco on New Year's Eve a couple of years ago. 'Just as we were driving past San Quentin prison about to cross the Richmond Bridge, a pure white coyote ran across the road right in front of our car,' she recalls. 'It was very dramatic – the moon was full, the new year had just begun, the coyote was huge and mythic-looking – and it felt like a message of some kind. Writing the song allowed me to imagine what that message might have been if the coyote had actually spoken to me.' The song is of course an homage to Joni Mitchell's Coyote and has a rangy, open-stringed chord feel.

Imagined conversations are also at play on Ghost. 'My partner and I spent a fall in an old farmhouse in Vermont that I was convinced was haunted. Lights and fans would randomly switch on; there were muffled noises in the walls. Like with White Coyote, I allowed myself to imagine who and why this Ghost was haunting us.'

'Sarah is about my beloved older sister. Seemingly overnight, she became unknowable and inexplicably grown-up. I missed her so much, especially when she left for college, and later when she moved to Northern Canada. We later reconnected as young mothers and were together when our mother died. Today we are extremely close. The song uses open-stringed chords and a lap steel to evoke the dreamy, sepia-tinged quality of memory while the piano (Greg Sankovitch) moves and grounds the storyline.'

To the Rain, written during the floods in Northern California, seeks to capture our feast or famine climate-disrupted world. 'The song features fingerpicking on my Gibson Hummingbird and an exquisite instrumental by Dan Cantrell (accordion) and Michael Papenburg (lap steel).'

'Cicadas is about losing my mother to an end-of-life suicide, something I wrote about in my memoir, Imperfect Endings. This is the most stripped down of all the songs on the album. It features my acoustic guitar, Dan Feizli on stand-up bass, and Hannah Mayree on banjo. Although I've largely come to peace with my mother's decision, I sometimes feel we are still in conversation, especially when I am alone in nature. During her last weeks, I asked her to send me a sign or message when she was gone, and I have, at times, been convinced she was getting in touch with me.'

'Pirates in the Woods was written with my good friend John Croizat. The song returns to an imagined childhood of games played in the woods with a best friend. It captures the comfort and nostalgia of an unfettered childhood: the endless games, the adventures with friends, as well as the parents who never forgot to call us home for dinner.'

'Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying acknowledges that we may get our hearts broken, but we need to leave our tears behind and be resilient in the face of a new day. The song has a laid-back, bossa nova feel, and Jason Luckett adds background vocals and guitar.'

'Swimming Pool is for anyone who has found themselves feeling a little strange and disembodied while staying alone in a large, impersonal hotel. Jazzy and atmospheric, the song is both soothing and unsettling and has an unexpected descending melodic line in the chorus.

'Arcadia is a love letter to Greek myth, to poetry, and to imagination and Breathe Again was written in the early days of the pandemic. Jazzy and blessed by Erik Jakobson's gorgeous trumpet, the song imagined a time when lockdown was over and we'd all get to 'meet in a Mexican restaurant, talk loudly over mescal and wine.'

About Zoe FitzGerald Carter

Known for her deep honey voice and literary lyrics, award winning San Francisco Bay Area author turned singer-songwriter, Zoe FitzGerald Carter, brings a unique blend of Americana, jazz, blues, folk and rock. 'Zoe sings with personality & self-assurance,' writes John Apice of Americana Highways. 'Her tone has authority, experience & character and she conceives poignant, well-distinguished tales with finesse.'

The title track of Before the Machine, won first place in the Corpus Christi Songwriters Contest: the music video premiered on Americana UK and placed in the New Zealand and Vienna film festivals. 'Let's Just Stay Friends,' was awarded second place from the International Acoustic Music Awards. In addition to writing and performing music, she teaches memoir and songwriting and has been on the faculty of the Oahu Writers Retreat for the last ten years. She is the author of Imperfect Endings.

Tour Dates

October 15, 2026 — Zoe FitzGerald Carter & Jason Luckett at Artichoke in Portland, Oregon @ 7:00 PM, Portland, OR, United States

October 28, 2026 — Album Release Show at Sweetwater in Mill Valley, w/Hannah Mayree @ 8:00 PM, Mill Valley, CA, United States