Editing Dave Carter (section)

== Early life and education ==
Dave Carter was born in [[Oxnard, California]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=2002-07-24 |title=Dave Carter, 49; Folk Music Writer Toured With Joan Baez |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jul-24-me-passings24.1-story.html |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=EDITOR |first=BILL O'NEILL,LIFESTYLE |title=Dave Carter earned folk's highest prize |url=https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2002/07/25/dave-carter-earned-folk-s/50904581007/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=Cape Cod Times |language=en-US}}</ref> His father was a mathematician and a [[petroleum engineer]] and his mother was a science teacher and a [[Charismatic Christianity|charismatic Christian]].<ref name="mmatters">{{Cite web |last1=Bulla |first1=David |url=http://www.mmreview.com/Features/Tanglewd.htm |website=Music Matters Review |title=A 'Tanglewood' Music Feast—Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer }}</ref> Carter was raised in [[Oklahoma]] and [[Texas]] and would draw on his rural upbringing in many of his songs.  He studied [[European classical music|classical]] piano from age 4 to about age 12, when he took up guitar.  At 17, he left home to [[hitchhike]] around the country, especially the [[Midwestern United States]] ([[Great Plains]] area).  After graduating with degrees in music (cello) and [[fine arts]] from the [[University of Oklahoma]], Carter moved to [[Portland, Oregon]], where he continued his education at [[Portland State University]], earning a degree in mathematics.  He began an advanced degree in mathematics, but a personal epiphany led him to realize that this was not to be his field.<ref name="SO-45-1">{{Cite journal |first1=Matt |last1=Watroba |title=Sing Out! Spotlight: Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer |journal=[[Sing Out!]] |volume=45 |issue=1 |date=Spring 2001 |issn=0037-5624 }}</ref> He went on to study what he called "the psychology of mystical experience" at the [[Institute of Transpersonal Psychology]] in [[Palo Alto, California|Palo Alto]] and the [[California Institute of Integral Studies]] in San Francisco,<ref name="mmatters" /> and worked as an [[embedded systems]] programmer for several years before taking up music full-time in the mid-1990s. Carter was greatly influenced by [[mythologist]] [[Joseph Campbell]], who visited his college, and American mystic [[Carlos Castaneda]]. He was also influenced by the American landscape, [[Arthurian mythology]], the environment, and transcendental psychology.