Dave Carter, 49; Folk Music Writer Toured With Joan Baez

Dave Carter, 49, a respected songwriter in the folk music scene, died of an apparent heart attack July 19 in Hadley, Mass.

Carter had just returned from a run when he was stricken and died a short time later. He was scheduled to perform Saturday with his longtime musical partner Tracy Grammer at the Green River Festival in Greenfield, Mass.

Born in Oxnard, Carter was raised in Texas and Oklahoma. His mother was a fundamentalist evangelist and his father a mathematician. Carter studied piano, guitar and cello and began writing music at an early age.

He earned a master’s degree in music from the University of Oklahoma, and worked as a computer programmer and studied Jungian psychology before turning full time to music in the 1990s.

Carter formed a duo with Grammer, a fiddler, in 1998 and released their first album, “When I Go,” the same year.

They signed with the Signature Sounds label and released three CDs, “Tanglewood Tree,” “Drum Hat Buddha” and “When I Go.”

Carter and Grammer toured with singer Joan Baez earlier this year. In a recent interview with the Boston Globe, Baez praised Carter’s songs, saying, “Dave is masterful with words, and there’s a real spiritual connection in there.”