Mary Chapin Carpenter – Personal History

Carpenter’s name has been in circulation of late: touring and an album with Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis, a US nationwide tour in the offing with Brandy Clark and now her 17^th studio album released in June. For an artist into her seventh decade with a lifetime of accumulated awards there’s no slowing down or a desire to stop travelling. This album was recorded near Bath in Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios. She likes these shores.

Her gift for couplets and story telling remain intact and a hallmark that elevates her work. Over the 11 tracks there’s an acoustic vibe although the instrumentation is varied. The songs are reflective and personal about her life or imagined scenarios where she’s singing in the first person or observing at a distance. If you followed her during Covid you’ll have enjoyed her kitchen concerts on Instagram where she worked through her catalogue and fussed about her Golden Retriever, Angus. Girl and Her Dog revisits her current peacable and simple life at home and the constant presence of the mutt. This vocal, like the rest of the album is delivered with her warm and on occasion, slightly breathless intimacy. She seldom raises her voice but with the appearance of brass in The Saving Things she matches the loud backing and it’s a refreshing switch. 

Bitter Ender starts with harmonica and immediately hits a groove. The song contains her best melody on the album. Lyrically it returns to a common theme throughout of loneliness, introspection, struggle and regret – ‘Once in a while the universe smiles / Lets you think that you’re in on the joke / The plans that you made /And the life that you craved /Now it’s all going up in smoke”.  (The video is fabulous and worth a peek.) The Night We Never Met is a clever lyric that identifies scenes of love and companionship that never happened. The accompanying piano plays along to a rhythm created by brushes on the snare. Say It Anyway has a beautiful spaced piano accompaniment allows her lyric to appear as clear as an opening in a forest – “The storms of life will always toss us on their waves / Wherever there’s a lighthouse there’s a light that saves”.

Her legion of long time fans will be delighted and need to know that this is a continuation of her recent sounds, pace and melody. Fill your boots. However, I suppose I loved her 90s work more and some of the exuberance and feisty attitude that’s missing here ensured songs such as He Thinks He’ll Keep Her, I Feel Lucky andPassionate Kisses are still on my iPhone playlists. Her view nowadays seems to be via the rear view mirror rather than the windscreen. That aside class is permanent and this is a fine release.