Zoe FitzGerald Carter - Chaos by Design (2026)

Chaos by Design is the fourth album by singer-songwriter, journalist, and memoirist Zoe FitzGerald Carter. The album explores memories, connections, things we yearn for, and what we lose.

“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.

Some of the Bay Area’s leading musicians joined Carter on the album. Dawn Richardson (4 Non Blondes) played drums, Paul Olguin (Maria Muldaur) played bass, and Michael Papenburg (Petty Theft) played electric guitar, lap steel, and mandolin. Pam Delgado (Blame Sally) sang backing parts. Greg Sankovitch played piano and organ, Dan Cantrell played accordion, and Erik “Mr Tasty” Jakobson played trumpet.

Hannah Mayree, an emerging talent who founded the Black Banjo Reclamation Project, added banjo to “Ghost” and “Cicadas.” Recording took place in Sausalito at The Plant, now called 2200 Bridgeway, and in Berkeley at Ninth Street Opus and Fantasy Records. Jeffrey Wood, who previously ran Fantasy Studios, produced Chaos by Design, and Alberto Hernandez handled the sound recording.

Chaos by Design is the fourth album by singer-songwriter, journalist, and memoirist Zoe FitzGerald Carter. The album explores memories, connections, things we yearn for, and what we lose.

“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.

Some of the Bay Area’s leading musicians joined Carter on the album. Dawn Richardson (4 Non Blondes) played drums, Paul Olguin (Maria Muldaur) played bass, and Michael Papenburg (Petty Theft) played electric guitar, lap steel, and mandolin. Pam Delgado (Blame Sally) sang backing parts. Greg Sankovitch played piano and organ, Dan Cantrell played accordion, and Erik “Mr Tasty” Jakobson played trumpet.

Hannah Mayree, an emerging talent who founded the Black Banjo Reclamation Project, added banjo to “Ghost” and “Cicadas.” Recording took place in Sausalito at The Plant, now called 2200 Bridgeway, and in Berkeley at Ninth Street Opus and Fantasy Records. Jeffrey Wood, who previously ran Fantasy Studios, produced Chaos by Design, and Alberto Hernandez handled the sound recording.