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One of life's most satisfying sensations is the click of a realization.
Something blurry coming into sharp focus.
Mary Chapin Carpenter can vividly recall just such an epiphany.
"A novel that I've loved for years is My Name is Lucy Barton, written by Elizabeth Strout," says the singer-songwriter. "There's this moment where the main character is taking a creative writing course, and her teacher says to her, 'You will only have one story. You will write your one story in many ways.' I remember reading that line and taking an audible breath. In that moment, I said out loud to no one, 'Oh, that's what the songs are.'"
Carpenter has been writing that story for nearly 40 years, enjoying commercial success through numerous hit singles and 17 million albums sold, universal critical acclaim, a bounty of awards -- including five Grammy wins from 18 nominations -- and the respect of multiple generations of her songwriting peers, earning herself a place as one of 22 women in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her most recent album, "One Night Lonely" from 2021, received a Grammy nod exactly 30 years after her very first nomination. In "Personal History", her 17th album, she presents a set of songs more autobiographical than any collection that has come before, offering songs as memoir, when the wisdom that comes from growing older becomes a north star, whether one is celebrating life's joys or navigating life's inevitable losses. The title is taken from the album's opener, "What Did You Miss." The music is both buoyant and wistful, as she sings in her rich alto, "I've been walking in circles for so long/Unwinding the mystery/I've been writing it down song by song/As a personal history."
The track's blend of pandemic musings with more joyful distant memories -- of steamed-up dive bar windows and late-night porch sessions -- suggests what will follow, with memory, time and place guiding the narrative from a young girl's love affair with songwriting to a woman at peace with her choices and where they have led her. "It's not necessarily chronological," however, she says of the album. "The sequencing traces life backwards and forwards. But every song is connected to something deeply personal."
"Paint + Turpentine" flashes back to Carpenter's mid-20s and 30s and a missed opportunity: an invitation from Guy Clark, a hero of hers, to sit down and write together. "It's about finding peace with a long-held regret of mine," she says of being too intimidated to sit with the legend. But thankfully, "life allows you to eventually understand and accept how things turned out. Some gifts take their time." "Bitter Ender," with its keening harmonica, is a self-lacerating ode to her history of dying on clearly indefensible romantic hills. "Know thyself," says Carpenter with a laugh. The sacred spaces offered in the natural world and the concept of our souls returning to cosmic stardust inform several songs including "Hello My Name Is", and the enveloping "New Religion," about the passing of someone Carpenter adored as a teenager, who helped shape her belief that "nature is my church."
Other songs, including the moving "Home is a Song", featuring the singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, "The Saving Things", and the vividly sketched "Girl and Her Dog," find Carpenter taking stock of life in various ways after passing a milestone birthday. "Girl and Her Dog" is definitely a meditation about growing older," she says of the tune, inspired by a salt-and-pepper-haired woman she spied in a vintage pick-up truck with her two pups while out on a walk. "As she drove by, I made up this story for her. Maybe she's a writer or a painter or a poet, and she's about to sit down at her kitchen table --which is where I like to work for myself -- or work in her garden. I think I had just turned 60 and I was casting about: What am I doing? Who do I look up to? Who do I want to be? These are questions that you would think you would have the answers to long before that age, but I'm still asking them. And I hope I'm still asking them until my last day."
"When you're younger, you're racing around trying to figure out where you belong, what you are you good at, how do you shine. And failure is this terrifying idea. But when you're older, you realize, hopefully, that failure is your most valuable companion because it teaches you so much."
"By the end of that walk, I had done this deeper emotional excavation, sort of a heart and soul inventory and eventually it became that song." If songwriters are often described as craftspeople, there may not be a better example of Carpenter's skills in this regard than "Say It Anyway"; here she takes words and phrases more aptly labeled as cliches, and creates a musical scaffolding to show their truthfulness, spirituality and utility. Similarly, in "The Night We Never Met", the listener is transported back in time, both musically and lyrically, to a chance meeting that only happened in someone's imagination.
The recording sessions for Personal History brought Carpenter together with a mix of newer partners and longtime friends. Carpenter first encountered producer Josh Kaufman ((The Hold Steady, Bob Weir) while recording her January 2025 release Looking for the Thread, her collaboration with Scottish folk musicians Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart. "I loved that experience, and I felt like he was the right person to help me shepherd these new songs into the wider world," she says.
The pair were joined by a coterie of musicians, veteran bandmates Duke Levine on guitar and pianist Matt Rollings, Cameron Ralston on bass and Chris Vatalaro on drums and percussion. Returning to Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in rural southwestern England and reconnecting with Grammy-nominated engineer Katie May (Peter Gabriel, Phosphorescent, and asst engineer for Harry Styles, The 1975, and Carpenter / Fowlis / Polwart's Looking For The Thread), Carpenter said of the sessions: "It's such a privilege to be able be somewhere dedicated to the work at hand, where you're sharing the space, meals, hang time with everybody. When it's time to press record, everybody's live on the floor. I've been so fortunate to work there for my last four records, and it's hard to imagine being happier anywhere else."
The album closes on the hopeful glimmer of "Coda," which looks back fondly on grainy childhood memories on Super 8 film, appraises the battles picked and fought, acknowledging that while all the big noise of life may not be as big and loud anymore, these new, quieter passages are just as rich as any other time than came before it," says Carpenter. "The gratitude you have for where you have ended up brings with it the wisdom that what's most important is to have felt loved in this life. That you've mattered to people." A fitting coda indeed to one's personal history.
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Mary played so emotionally and effectively. I felt bad when she got a sprinkle of Boo's when she brought up Sarah Palin by name in a less then positive light. I was with her on that one though! I am a veteran of at least a dozen of her shows and I am not satiated yet,
This was an evening destined for glorious success. Mary Chapin Carpenter's second performance of her summer tour was at the Cape Cod Melody Tent. An ideal late June evening with perfect temps and a starry sky was augmented by the craft, genius, and melody of MCC and her band of outstanding musicians. For two hours, the audience was treated to old favorites (i.e. I Feel Lucky, Stones in the Road, Passionate Kisses) and new masterpieces (i.e. Mrs. Hemingway, Age of Miracles). Fans and critics alike hail MCC as a skilled and poetic songwriter, and indeed, her new material most certainly does not disappoint. Three years ago, as her album The Calling was being released, MCC experienced health issues that kept her sidelined for an extended period. During that time, she busied herself with writing, and the outcome of that is a gift to all listeners. Her work has always reflected soulful insights and easy-on-the-ear music, and she seems positioned now to take that to even new heights. There was a level of comfort and ease and genuine love for what she was doing that was evident from the moment she appeared on stage. This was a perfect evening, from start to finish, and Carrie Newcomer's opening act was a wonderfully appropriate pairing. Welcome back, Mary Chapin Carpenter---you have been sooooooooo missed!
Chapin is back! After several years, Mary Chapin Carpenter has returned to the stage with stronger than ever vocals. She is a true poet and her talents are showcased on this tour. Chapin fans should not miss this show; newbies will not be disappointed.
It was so great to see Mary Chapin Carpenter again..She puts on a wonderful show..I hope she keeps coming back,because if she does I will be there..
This is not my first Mary Chapin Carpenter concert at the Melody Tent - and I hope to be able to attend many more in the future! Mary Chapin Carpenter always puts on a great show! Love her shows - particularly in the casual "homey" venue that the Melody Tent offers vs the big theaters and concert arenas. The entire experience is much more "personal" feeling - both from the proximity you are to her as well as her interaction with the crowd. I love attending her performamces on "the Lazy Susan" (her words!)! It's great to have her back again! The only reason I gave the show four stars and not five has nothing to do with the performance, but rather the venue. Unfortunately, as people tend to get larger in size, the seats they must occupy do not! The person next to me did not fit in his seat - he needed to occupy his seat and half of mine. Took a little of the enjoyment out of things for me . . .
Mary is so back . . . with depth, warmth and music that is soul-touching. The struggles of life can turn us angry or turn us deep. Mary's have turned her poet-deep . . . making her music touch, challenge and feed our souls. The audience was with her every moment - laughing, applauding, swaying and dancing. And Mary was so with us, too. A great evening!!
To hear some artists live is a gamble; will they live up to their recordings? Will they have any stage presence? Will they be worth the ticket price? With MCC, to hear her live is to hear her music the way it was meant to be heard. From the moment she strode onto the dark stage, lit only with a center spotlight, carrying one of her many acoustic guitars, and started to play and sing all alone, the audience was won. She had us wrapped around her finger, and though we all clapped as each member of her band walked onstage one by one to join in on the song, I don't think we would have minded if it had just been her singing and playing all night. She played from her new album, The Age of Miracles. She played from her prior album, The Calling, for which she could not tour because of a pulmonary embolism. Perhaps most importantly she played her favorites (Haley Came to Jackson--her "serotonin song"), and ours (Stones in the Road, Why Walk When You Can Fly, Down at the Twist and Shout, and on, and on). She left to a standing ovation. Four times. She played 3 encores. And she just looked happy to be up there with her friends, playing music that she loves. The venue was intimate and beautiful. Mary Chapin Carpenter should be heard not in stadiums or arenas, but in halls and amphitheaters built for music. She is one of the rare artists who gains fame but when on stage still seems to be connected to her audience. And the Concert Hall helped to cement that connection. At the end of the night, I went home wanting to listen to every album she's ever made all the way through, because the live rendition opened up new thoughts and interpretations of every song.
Chapin sounded just as good as she ever has! I traveled from Baltimore to NYC just to she her and I was not one bit disappointed. he sang beautifully on her new songs and pulled out the old crowd favorites. It's great to have her back!
Mary Chapin Carpenter puts on a show that displays her extraordinarily broad musical vocabulary. Her connection with her band is magical, and the band itself mixes accoustical with electronic instruments seemlessly.
The Sarah Palin unfavorable comment (after a few songs) was unnecessary. Was this expressed because the concert played to a New York City audience? This probably would not happen in Texas, Oklahoma, or in the south-east. REMEMBER "THE DIXIE CHICKS"! (Recommended rating with reservations.)
After a health-related hiatus, Mary Chapin Carpenter is back and she is as fantastic as ever! No one tells a "story" like she does in her songs, a craft that is rare these days. Truly unique voice, MCC can sing a masterpiece like "Mrs. Hemingway" one moment, and then a "At the twist and shout" the next with aplomb. If you ever get the chance, run == don't walk! -- to see her and her unbelievably talented band!
Mary Chapin Carpenter is a fantastic musician and song writer. Love her lyrics and liked the story behind the songs. Madeleine Peyroux was wonderful, love her voice. The acustics were excellent at BPC. Great show!
Madeleine Peyroux is a jazz singer. I really don't understand the beauty of jazz (a nice way of saying that I hate to listen to it). So, the first hour was mainly shutting my eyes, trying to sleep through it and knowing that it would end sometime after that time was first killed. I would not ever go back to see her show (although she may be a very, very nice person and talented artist). In short, I hated it. Give it a goose egg - 0. No, make that a 1 (her band played well). Madeleine Peyroux gave the impressions that she either was very shy of an audience or that she was going thur the motions to get a paycheck - no audience identification to speak of - just a detached persona. Mary Chapin Carpenter was a 180 degree difference. I loved the show which was truly enjoyable. She sings good songs, they sound great - most of her band has been with her for years and that fact shows - her lyrics tell some great stories or convincingly convey empathetic emotions and she seemed to want to be there and perform. So it's a 10. I'd go back even if the next show was next week. So what's the average? 5.5 = 11 out of 20. P.S.: If Madeleine Peyroux had been the second act, then I would have left after giving her about five songs as a "good try" to enjoy it. However, she was the first act and that meant that I had to stay thru the whole act to get to Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Very rare to find a performer who posseses the stage presence of this lovely lady. She shared the origins of some songs that served to etch the words of these songs into the listener in multi-dimensional levels. Her exchange with the crowd in between songs gave the impression of the existence of a long time friendship between the artist and her fans. Professionalism at it's finest.
Mary Chapin Carpenter is perhaps the greatest songwriter or her or anyone else's generation. She is back in form with new music, most of which was performed beautifully at the CEC/Concert Hall, an old church converted to a music hall. I don't know if it was the venue, the sound man or both, but drums were far too load on the full band songs, drowning out Chapin's sultry voice. The virtuoso performances were steller, especially the opening tune of the show, "We've Traveled So Far," which also opens the new album. "Mrs. Hemmingway" and "I Am A Town" were also memorable. All in all, a great show, but I hope the sound is better at Wolf Trap where I will catch Chapin and the band on their last show of the tour. Thank you Mary Chapin and band.
I did not do any research before the concert to learn about Madeline Pereoux. I regret this now. Madeline sang for a little over an hour, which was an hour too long. She reminded me of the bridesmaid in the ugly saffron dress standing next to Mary Chapin Carpenter who was the beautiful bride in the absolutely amazing wedding dress. Of course, this comparison should be an audible one, and maybe it isn't totally fair to Madeline. I have a feeling the venue for someone with Madeline's signing style was all wrong. The discordant warble was so tense up in the mez that my date had to cover her ears after the first 30 minutes. We almost got up to leave! It really was intolerable. If we had softer walls and a quieter band Madeline's efforts might have been better appreciated by the two of us. Madeline told us when she started that she had three style of songs... Blues, Booze and Ballads. I want to correct her. She had three styles of lyrics. I did not notice much difference between the three from a musical standpoint. Wow, that's a lot about the opening act! My recommendation is to show up an hour late or wait in the lobby until you hear the real clapping begin. Sorry Madeline. When Mary Chapin Carpenter came on the stage and started singing her first song the audience around me, my date and me included, all breathed a sigh of relief. Literally. The soothing tones were just what we needed. The contrast was amazing. Mary told us that she heard Madeline sign and fell instantly in love. She would not have had she been in the audience last night. I thought listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter was an amazing experience, one I would recommend to everyone.
We saw Madeleine Peyroux previously at Berkley and this performance was nowhere near as impressive. I was very disappointed. Mary Chapin Carpenter was very good.
Great set list which took you on a journey by blending old and new. Mary Chapin's voice and style is engaging and down right fun. What a treasure to see live! Also, her band is unbelievably talented and accomplished.
As the NYTimes would say,{ Ms.} Carpenter performed last night at a small venue, that could have supported at least ten times more of her fans. After seeing her at both larger and smaller venues, she performs with a brilliance that only she can obtain. With songs mingled from her newest album, The Age of Miracles, her last foray into the folk/country stream, The Calling, and back to her "pop/country" days of crossover hits, that won her five Grammy"s, Ms. Carpenter has leapt back to health and voice and unbridled exuberance. With her band, many whom have been with her for years, Hello Mr. Jennings and Mr. Carol, and the "newer" additions, they performed with confidence and expertise. Entering and exiting the stage to let the star of the night shine! What more could anyone want of a night with the talented, comedic and overly blessed Mary Chapin Carpenter. I, too, have a calling and a need for solitude and you are mine! Thanks a lot, Chapin! xoxo Marc
I thought Mary Chaepin was great what a great voice and great Band 2. Great mix of old and new material.
