High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Valerie Carter (born Valerie Gail Zakian Carter on February 5, 1953) to James J and Dorothy Carter, is an American singer-songwriter. Carter is perhaps best known as a back-up vocalist who has recorded and performed with a number of singers including Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Linda Ronstadt, Christopher Cross, The Outlaws and, most notably, James Taylor.