Cari Hutson at The Bugle Boy

With a range of styles from soulful blues to pop and rock, Cari Hutson is a force of nature. After years of cutting her teeth as a powerful singer and gutsy performer fronting bands on Austin’s Sixth Street, she landed a role as the Queen of Rock and Roll herself in a touring production of the Broadway musical, One Night with Janis Joplin. She ended up making such an impression on Joplin’s old friend, Dave Getz, that the Big Brother and the Holding Company drummer gifted her the opportunity to record her own version of his previously unreleased Joplin co-write, “Can’t Be the Only One.” The song appeared on Hutson and her band Good Company’s 2016 album, Don’t Rain on My Sunny Day, produced  by Jeff Plankenhorn. Three years later, Hutson and her band were awarded a $20,000 grant at the annual Black Fret “Black Ball” in Austin. In 2022, she released the ferociously assertive five-song EP Salvation & Soul Restoration, followed by the singles “Love Hurts” in 2023 and “Mother Mary” in late 2025.

“I first heard Cari Hutson sing in the theatrical production ‘A Night With Janis Joplin’. I’m really thrilled and honored to have Cari sing ‘Can’t Be the Only One’, a song that Janis and I wrote together in 1968 which we never got to perform or record. Her interpretation of the lyric and her rootsy, blues feel brings the song to life. If Janis could hear it (and maybe she can) I think she would be pleased.” — Dave Getz, Big Brother and the Holding Company drummer