Melissa Carper stays busy. Her new single with Bonnie Montgomery is just out, and later this week she'll fly to Europe for dates in Oslo, Zurich and Copenhagen. Less than a week after that, back to the States for shows in Hot Springs, Little Rock, Seattle and a show at WoodyFest in Okemah, Oklahoma. In the midst of this, she's launching a new nonprofit in Arkansas, Natural State of Being. A concert to support that effort will take place in Eureka Springs on Aug. 1. That concert will feature two beloved bands, Sad Daddy and Big Smith. Earlier this month, Melissa Carper came to our studio to talk about the nonprofit, her latest recordings and her earliest days performing.
She says Natural State of Being, her nonprofit, is dedicated to helping people experiencing homelessness and struggling with mental health issues and addiction.
Melissa Carper: I started the nonprofit in January of 2025. That's when I actually just started applying for the 501(c)(3) and it came through just like magically a month later, which I hear sometimes people have to wait a really long time. So that felt good because then I knew there wasn't any restrictions for how much money we could raise and being able to give everybody their tax deductions. And I'm like, wow, we're the real thing already. But the concept of this — I've been thinking about it for probably at least five years or more, like trying to create a small community for homeless people and people that have mental health challenges, so that that has resources for that, and trying to figure out like what could I build that would be some sort of like super supportive ideal community and have that community feel.
Kyle Kellams: So I think a lot of us wonder about things like that. How can we make something that makes lives better for others? But then the motivation to apply for the 501(c)(3) and then to follow through. Do you think there was a final nudge for you that said, okay, it's time to do this?
Carper: Yeah, I think probably because I had a little extra money, and it actually costs a lot to pay a lawyer to get you the 501(c)(3). And I was like, well, I have a little extra money, a little extra time — January, February is when my stuff slows down a little bit. So I was like, maybe now's the time to go ahead and do this and get it going. And I had been talking to other nonprofits and trying to figure out, do I need the 501(c)(3)? And then, doing research over a couple months, I was like, it's just the way to go. I'm just going to make it completely official, pay the money to make it happen.
Kellams: So yeah, some help financially will come from this show that's going to happen on Aug. 1.
Carper: That's right. We're doing a big — this is the biggest benefit we've thrown so far for the nonprofit. We had a couple small ones last year, just like little — we didn't even know, me and my cousin started this out and we weren't sure even how to do it. And then I have a board of five people, and we all started coming together like, let's throw a super organized, really well-run benefit. And that feels good rather than to be like, let's throw something together in two months and see what happens. So a lot of work is going into this to make it really good.
Kellams: What will we experience on Aug. 1?
Carper: Well, it's going to be an amazing show with Sad Daddy opening for Big Smith, and the Eureka Springs Auditorium, of course, is a beautiful venue to play a show. And the acoustics are so good in there. And the town of Eureka Springs has been just such a huge support for me. I've spent 15, 20 years of my life living there and getting to know the whole community. And so the community already is just everybody's saying, what can we do? We're going around finding sponsors and we're going to have a silent auction also, so we're collecting donations for the silent auction as well. But it's amazing going around town and finding so much support there. And I know in Fayetteville, we'll find that too. And then also, since Big Smith is playing, I expect to find a lot of support from southern Missouri and Missouri.
Kellams: You and I are talking on a weekend. You're in Fayetteville because you're going to be doing a show that will benefit Phoenix Art Gallery.
Carper: That's right.
Kellams: You're busy, you're touring, you're going to Europe not long from now. What compels you to help out nonprofits, be it the arts or trying to help unhoused or mentally —
Carper: Well, my nonprofit has a very personal thing for me, but the Phoenix Art Gallery — my good friend Gina Galena is helping. I think she's like a director management person and she's helping them bring in entertainment and all kinds of — she's helping with all the event planning. She's been asking me now for a year or so if I would have time to come and do a show for them. So I told her, well, I'm already going to be in Arkansas with Sad Daddy, we just played a festival, Strings on Kings, and I'm going to be there then. So if we can plan it for the next weekend, then I don't have to make an extra trip to Arkansas, because as I was just talking with you, I'm traveling around so much these days that I'm exhausting myself, so I try to plan things now so that I don't have to make extra trips. So it worked out. She planned the Phoenix Art Gallery benefit for a time I'd already be in Arkansas. And I'm getting paid for that — I know Adventure Subaru is sponsoring that, and I'm getting paid to do it. So I'm happy to be here and supporting the Phoenix Art Gallery.
Kellams: I want to ask you about a couple of your most recent musical projects, including finding Bonnie Montgomery to help you out on the song "Rather Have Love."
Carper: That's Bonnie's song. She just needed to finish her verses up to that song, and I think it was last spring we sat down on her porch and wrote — finished writing it together — and recorded it soon after that. And then this spring we ended up releasing it together. I’m a huge fan of Bonnie.
Kellams: She's amazing.
Carper: Yes. She's absolutely incredible. And I know she's well known in these parts of Arkansas and Central Arkansas. And we're both living down in Texas now, so we've been able to play together and write together, which is a lot of fun.
Kellams: And the record that you did with Theo Lawrence. Havin' A Talk.
Carper: Yeah, and that's kind of an older collaboration now at this point. It just came out in February of this year, but we actually recorded it back in August of 2024 in Nashville. And we were going to do just a quick little release the next spring. But then he got picked up as an artist with Warner Records, and they wanted to take on that album as well. So we signed that onto Warner, and then we had to wait a little while before that could be released.
Carper: We had great musicians. We went up to Nashville and recorded at the Bomb Shelter, which is a studio that I've used now for, gosh, maybe five or six records now because I love them so much. And there's such a great group of musicians in Nashville that I keep having on the record. So we had Chris Scruggs play, and he also helped produce. And then we did bring a bunch of folks up from Texas — Emily Gimble and Theo's guitar player, T.Bo Ripault — and we brought Kevin Smith, who plays bass with Willie Nelson. So yeah, it was just a great group of musicians and a great studio. And me and Theo had been writing songs that entire year. We didn't even know we were going to make an album, but before we knew it we had eight songs and we're like, well, let's just make an album.
Kellams: You know the opening line, "I want to travel all fifty states with you," and then you come in and say, "But you never really want to leave the house." I think we all kind of feel that way. We want to explore, but we love being where we are too.
Carper: Yes. That song was Theo's concept, and he had a lot of it. I thought that was perfect, because you got these — this couple arguing at home. The one person wants to go and travel. The other person's like, you're never going to even leave because you don't even want to leave the house and go down the street and go dancing at the bar. And it's just like this perfect little mild argument that's happening the entire song.
Kellams: You mentioned that you're well-traveled and busy. I want to ask you about something I've read about you — when you were younger in Nebraska and during your childhood, you kind of did a tour of Elks and Eagles clubs throughout Nebraska.
Carper: Yeah.
Kellams: The reason I want to ask — my father managed and was a bartender at an Eagles club in Midway, Arkansas for years. I just think everyone should — I think you'll have a better outlook on life if you spend time at Eagles and Elks clubs across the middle of the country.
Carper: Well, back in the '80s when I was doing this — my mom's dream was to have a country band. And so she trained up her children to be in the country band. So I was 12, my youngest brother was 8 playing drums, I was playing electric bass, and then my older brother was playing lead guitar, my mom played rhythm guitar. And we just learned all the great country classics, and also some rock and roll like Elvis. And we were just trying to play all the hits. And we'd play these four-hour-long gigs at mostly Eagles and Elks and Moose lodges that were within an hour or two of where we lived there in North Platte, Nebraska. And that just became part of my life from when I was 12 until when I graduated high school — I got to go out and play shows. And back then, those were the places where people that loved country music loved to dance. There was a lot of dance culture, and definitely in Nebraska. I don't know if that culture has kind of died in general, but it was like my parents grew up going out to dance clubs and dancing — that's how they met each other. And I think that culture was still holding on in those clubs and we were just playing for people to dance. So yeah, it was super fun. And I love to see it when an American Legion or one of those clubs is being revived and they're bringing that back in.
Kellams: Where can people find out more about Natural State of Being?
Carper: We have a website, naturalstateofbeing.com. You can go on there, you can buy tickets for this show Aug. 1 at the Eureka Springs Auditorium with Big Smith and Sad Daddy. And you can also write us if you're interested in sponsoring. The project is just in its very beginning dream state, and we're trying to raise money to buy a piece of land and start building a little community, a little village that would be meant for homeless people, like building little tiny houses. And the dream is for it to be centered around an organic farm that the community would work on, and there'd be community buildings like a music studio. And I want it to be very much nature oriented, because I feel like going back to the earth and nature is one of the healing elements — I feel like it's helped me so much to find that in my life. And I've done a lot of WOOFing on organic farms, so I kind of want to incorporate that feeling. That really builds community, and you go out and work on the farm together and then you harvest the vegetables and then you go cook a meal together. That's the kind of feeling I want to have there.
Kellams: I'm sorry, you used the word — you've done a lot of —
Carper: WOOFing.
Kellams: WOOFing?
Carper: Yes. It's an organization — have you not heard of it?
Kellams: I'm sorry, no.
Carper: It's W-O-O-F, and it's the — I think it's an organization of organic farmers. And if you go on that website, you can volunteer on farms all over the world. And usually they'll put you up, they'll have some type of lodging, and then you get to eat for free too, because you're working — basically you're working for your food and your lodging. And I've gone out just to try to see different parts of the world doing this, and I also wanted to learn more about organic farming. And you'll find all kinds of people that have decided to do this, whether they're just doing it volunteering for a month or some younger kids — they're not sure what they want to do, they don't want to go to college, and they're signing up for a year of working on a farm so they can learn how to farm organically. So there's all kinds of people you'll meet doing that. And it's a great experience. And I realized that this is something I want to work into this village, this community that I'd like to make for homeless people.
Kellams: Well, safe travels as you continue to travel. Get rest while you can.
Carper: Thank you, Kyle.
Kellams: Melissa, thanks for coming in. Appreciate you.
Melissa Carper speaking in the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio earlier this month. The benefit concert for the nonprofit Natural State of Being will take place Saturday, Aug. 1, at the Eureka Springs Auditorium in downtown Eureka and will feature two bands. Sad Daddy will open for Big Smith. Ticket information available through Eventbrite. More about the nonprofit Natural State of Being and more about Melissa Carper can be found at melissacarper.com.
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