Rooted in rural New England since the age of ten, McCarthy grew up in towns where the economies teetered on marginal subsistence from logging and paper and woolen mills. It wasn’t until his sister made a visit home from college, bringing an armful of recordings by Dylan, Baez, and Eric Anderson, that things clicked musically for McCarthy: he traded his clarinet for a Western Auto guitar, purchasing the Black Diamond strings across the street at the barber shop.