Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American folk and
country musicCountry music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
clubs before signing in the late 1980s with
Columbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, who marketed her as a country singer. Carpenter's first album, 1987's
Hometown GirlHometown Girl is the debut album from American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. It was released on July 30, 1987 on Columbia Records. The album did not produce any chart singles...
, did not produce any singles, although 1989's
State of the HeartState of the Heart is singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter's second album. It is much more country sounding than her preceding basically folk début Hometown Girl. State of the Heart eventually rose to the #28 position on the Billboard Country Albums chart, with four of its tracks finding places...
and 1990's
Shooting Straight in the DarkShooting Straight in the Dark is Mary Chapin Carpenter's third studio album. It was a #11 Country Album on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Four of its tracks became Billboard Hot Country Songs hits: "You Win Again" at #16, "Right Now" at #15, "Down at the Twist and Shout" at #2, and "Going Out...
each produced four Top 20 hits on the
Billboard country singles charts.
Carpenter's most successful album to date remains 1992's
Come On Come On, which yielded seven charting country singles and was certified
quadruple platinumMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
in the U.S. for sales exceeding four million copies. She followed it with
Stones in the Road-Personnel:As listed in liner notes.*Kenny Aronoff – drums*Paul Brady – tin whistles, background vocals*J. T. Brown – fretless bass, bass guitar*Mary Chapin Carpenter – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar*Jon Carroll – piano, accordion...
(1994) and
A Place in the WorldA Place in the World is the sixth album by Mary Chapin Carpenter, and was a #3 Country Album on the Billboard charts. Album tracks that entered the Hot Country Singles chart were "Let Me into Your Heart" at #11, "I Want to Be Your Girlfriend" at #35, and "Keeping the Faith" at #58...
(1996), which both featured hit singles. In the 2000s, Carpenter's albums departed both thematically and musically from her early work, becoming less radio-friendly and more focused on societal and political issues. Her most acclaimed and most topical album to date,
The CallingThe Calling is the ninth studio album released from country music singer Mary Chapin Carpenter. It is the follow-up album to her 2004 album, Between Here and Gone. The Calling was released on March 6, 2007 on Zoe Records. Carpenter had previously been on Columbia Nashville, this being her first...
, was released in March 2007. She followed that with
The Age of MiraclesThe Age of Miracles is the tenth studio album released by American music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. The album was released on April 27, 2010 on Zoë Records and was produced by Carpenter and Matt Rollings....
in April 2010.
Carpenter has won five
Grammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s and is the only artist to have won four consecutive
Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal PerformanceThe Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance was first awarded in 1965, to Dottie West. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1965 to 1967 the award was known as Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female...
, which she received from 1992 to 1995. As of 2005, she had sold more than 12 million records.
Carpenter has performed on television shows such as
Late Night with David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
and
Austin City LimitsAustin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...
and on radio shows such as
The Diane Rehm ShowThe Diane Rehm Show is a National Public Radio call-in show based in the United States. In October, 2007, The Diane Rehm Show was named to Audience Research Analysis’ list of the top ten most powerful national programs in public radio – the only talk show on the list...
. She also tours frequently, returning to Washington almost every summer to perform at the popular outdoor venue Wolftrap.
Early life
Carpenter was born in
Princeton, New JerseyPrinceton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
, to Chapin Carpenter Jr., a
Life Magazine executive, and Mary Bowie Robertson. Carpenter lived in
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
from 1969 to 1971 before moving to
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
She attended
Princeton Day SchoolPrinceton Day School is a private coeducational day school located in Princeton Township, New Jersey, serving students in grades pre kindergarten - 12. The largest division is the Upper School , with an enrollment of approximately 400...
, a private coeducational
prep schoolA university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
, before graduating from
The Taft SchoolThe Taft School is a private, coeducational prep school located in Watertown, Connecticut, USA. The school was founded by Horace Dutton Taft in 1890. It has 570 students, about 470 of whom live on the campus. Taft is a member of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization...
in 1976.
Carpenter described her childhood as "pretty typical[ly] suburban," with her musical interests defined chiefly by her sisters' albums of artists such as
The Mamas & the PapasThe Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
, the Beatles, and
Judy CollinsJudith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
. When Carpenter was 16 her parents divorced, an event that affected Carpenter and that she wrote about in her song "House of Cards." Carpenter spent much of her time in high school playing the guitar and piano; while at Princeton Day School, her "classmates threatened to cut her guitar strings if she played "
Leaving on a Jet Plane"Leaving on a Jet Plane" is a song written by John Denver in 1966 and most famously recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. The original title of the song was "Oh Babe I Hate to Go" but Denver's then producer, Milt Okun, convinced him to change the title....
" one more time." Despite her interest in music, Carpenter never considered performing publicly until, shortly after graduating from Taft, her father suggested that she perform at a local open-mike bar, a stressful experience for the shy Carpenter, who recalled, "I thought I was going to barf."
Carpenter graduated from
Brown UniversityBrown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in 1981 with a degree in
American CivilizationAmerican studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
. Carpenter played some summer sets in Washington's music scene, where she met guitarist
John JenningsJohn Jennings is an American musician: a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and music producer.Among his producer work are 8 albums by Mary Chapin Carpenter, as well as releases by Beausoleil, John Gorka, and Janis Ian...
, who would become her producer and long-time collaborator. However, she considered music a hobby and planned on getting a "real job." She briefly quit performing, but after several job interviews decided to return to music. Carpenter was persuaded by Jennings to play original material instead of covers. Within a few years, she landed a manager and recorded a demo tape that led to a deal with
Columbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
.
Early records and "country" label
Carpenter's first album,
Hometown GirlHometown Girl is the debut album from American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. It was released on July 30, 1987 on Columbia Records. The album did not produce any chart singles...
, was produced by John Jennings and was released in 1987. Though songs from
Hometown Girl got play on public and college radio stations, it was not until Columbia began promoting Carpenter as a "country" artist that she found a wider audience. For a long time, Carpenter was ambivalent about this pigeonholing, saying she preferred the term "
singer-songwriterSinger-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
" or "
slashThe slash is a sign used as a punctuation mark and for various other purposes. It is now often called a forward slash , and many other alternative names.-History:...
rocker" (as in country/folk/rock). She told
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
in 1991, "I've never approached music from a categorization process, so to be a casualty of it is real disconcerting to me".
Some music critics argue that Carpenter's style covers a range of influences even broader than those from "country" and "folk."
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
critic
Richard CorlissRichard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
described the songs in her album
A Place in the WorldA Place in the World is the sixth album by Mary Chapin Carpenter, and was a #3 Country Album on the Billboard charts. Album tracks that entered the Hot Country Singles chart were "Let Me into Your Heart" at #11, "I Want to Be Your Girlfriend" at #35, and "Keeping the Faith" at #58...
as "reminiscent of early Beatles or rollicking Motown," and one reviewer of
Time* Sex* Love* noted the "wash of Beach Boys-style harmonies...backwards guitar loops" and use of a sitar on one track, all elements not commonly found on a country or folk album.
After 1989's
State of the HeartState of the Heart is singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter's second album. It is much more country sounding than her preceding basically folk début Hometown Girl. State of the Heart eventually rose to the #28 position on the Billboard Country Albums chart, with four of its tracks finding places...
, Carpenter released
Shooting Straight in the DarkShooting Straight in the Dark is Mary Chapin Carpenter's third studio album. It was a #11 Country Album on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Four of its tracks became Billboard Hot Country Songs hits: "You Win Again" at #16, "Right Now" at #15, "Down at the Twist and Shout" at #2, and "Going Out...
in 1990, which yielded her biggest single up to that point, the
Grammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning "Down at the Twist and Shout". Two years later, Carpenter released the album that, to date, has been her biggest popular success,
Come On Come On (1992). The album went quadruple platinum, remaining on the Country Top 100 list for more than 97 weeks, and eventually spawned seven charting singles.
Come On Come On was also critically acclaimed;
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
s Karen Schoemer wrote that Carpenter had "risen through the country ranks without flash or bravado: no big hair, sequined gowns, teary performances....Enriched with Ms. Carpenter's subtlety, Come On Come On
grows stronger and prettier with every listen."
The songs of Come On Come On had the qualities that would come to identify her work: humorous, fast-paced country-rock songs with themes of perseverance, desire, and independence, alternating with slow, introspective ballads that speak to social or relational issues. "
Passionate Kisses"Passionate Kisses" is a Grammy winning song penned by the American Alt Country performer Lucinda Williams and made famous by the 1993 single version by Mary Chapin Carpenter.-Original Release:...
", a cover of fellow singer-songwriter
Lucinda WilliamsLucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
's 1988 song, was the album's third single. Carpenter's version peaked on the
U.S. CountryHot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
chart at #4, and was the first of Carpenter's songs to cross over to mainstream pop and adult contemporary charts, charting at #57 on the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and at #11 on
Adult ContemporaryThe Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
.
The sixth single on Come On Come On, "
He Thinks He'll Keep Her"He Thinks He'll Keep Her" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. The song was Carpenter’s first number-one single on the Radio & Records country music charts, although it peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.First...
", was Carpenter's biggest hit off the album, charting at #2 on Billboard's Country chart and at #1 on
Radio & RecordsRadio & Records was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It originally started out as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006, up until its final issue in 2009.-History:The company was founded in 1973 and...
's Country chart. Written by Carpenter and
Don SchlitzDonald Alan "Don" Schlitz, Jr. is a country music songwriter. For his songwriting efforts, Schlitz has earned two Grammys, as well as four ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year awards...
, the fast-paced song follows a 36-year-old homemaker who leaves her husband, and was inspired by a 1970s series of
GeritolGeritol is a US trademarked name for various dietary supplements, past and present. Geritol is currently a brand name for several vitamin complexes plus iron or multimineral products in both liquid form and tablets, containing from 9.5 to 18 mg of iron per daily dose...
commercials in which a man boasts of his wife's seemingly limitless energy and her many accomplishments, then concludes by saying, "My wife...I think I'll keep her." Carpenter said, "That line has always stuck with me. It's just such a joke." The single received a Grammy nomination for
Record of the YearRecord of the Year may refer to:*Grammy Award for Record of the Year*The Record of the Year, a British award based on public polling...
.
Continued 1990s success
In the wake of Come On Come Ons success, Carpenter wrote songs for a variety of artists, including
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, who recorded "Stones in the Road" for her 1992 album
Play Me BackwardsPlay Me Backwards was a 1992 album by Joan Baez. In addition to her own work, she included songs by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Janis Ian. The album marked the first time Baez worked with producers Kenny Greenberg and Wally Wilson, with whom she would continue to work throughout most of the '90s...
after hearing Carpenter sing it live. Pop singer
Cyndi LauperCynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
co-wrote "
Sally's Pigeons"Sally's Pigeons" is a pop song by Cyndi Lauper that was featured on her 1993 album Hat Full of Stars. It was released as the album's second single in some countries, and as its third in others....
" with Carpenter and released it on her 1993 album
Hat Full of Stars-Album information:Issued in 1993 it deviated from her pop-rock sound of previous projects and delved heavily into alternative music. It also furthered Lauper's growing penchant for writing topical songs about social issues....
. Country singer
Wynonna JuddWynonna Ellen Judd is an American country music singer. Her solo albums and singles are all credited to the singular name Wynonna. Wynonna first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in the country music duo The Judds...
recorded Carpenter's composition "Girls With Guitars" on her 1993 album
Tell Me WhyTell Me Why is a 1993 album by American country music artist Wynonna. Released on MCA/Curb Records in 1993, the album produced the hit singles "Only Love", "Is It Over Yet", "Rock Bottom", and "Girls with Guitars", all Top Ten hits on the Billboard country music charts...
. Judd released the song as a single in 1994, in what Carpenter called "the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me as a songwriter," and it peaked on the
U.S. CountryHot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
chart at #10. Later, Carpenter co-wrote "Where Are You Now," which
Trisha YearwoodPatricia Lynn Yearwood, professionally known as Trisha Yearwood , is an American country music artist. She is best known for her ballads about vulnerable young women from a female perspective that have been described by some music critics as "strong" and "confident."Trisha Yearwood signed with MCA...
recorded on her 2000 album
Real Live WomanReal Live Woman is the eighth album by country singer Trisha Yearwood.The album reached #4 on the Billboard country albums chart. It produced a #16 hit on the Billboard country music charts in "Real Live Woman" and a #45 hit in "Where Are You Now"...
; the song peaked on the Country chart at #45. In the 1990s, Carpenter also duetted with
Shawn ColvinShawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
, a "longtime recording pal", and sang backup in Radney Foster's "Nobody Wins,"
Dolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
(on Parton's 1993 single "Romeo"), and
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
on a 1995 live recording of "
Diamonds & Rust"Diamonds & Rust" is a song written and performed by Joan Baez - it was released in 1975, but had been written the previous November.In the song, Baez recounts an out-of-the-blue phone call from an old lover, which sends her a decade back in time, to a "crummy" hotel in Greenwich Village; she...
." Carpenter also performed a number of concerts with Baez and the
Indigo GirlsThe Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
as The Four Voices, during the mid- to late-1990s.
Carpenter followed
Come On Come On with 1994's
Stones in the Road-Personnel:As listed in liner notes.*Kenny Aronoff – drums*Paul Brady – tin whistles, background vocals*J. T. Brown – fretless bass, bass guitar*Mary Chapin Carpenter – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar*Jon Carroll – piano, accordion...
, at which point
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
wrote that "without sounding anything like a country star was previously expected to sound, [Carpenter]'s one of the genre's biggest stars."
Stones in the Road sold only around two million copies, but was a crossover success with non-country audiences. Also in 1994, Carpenter contributed the song "Willie Short" to the
AIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
benefit album
Red Hot + CountryRed Hot + Country was the follow-up to No Alternative in the Red Hot Series of compilation albums, a series produced to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues...
produced by the
Red Hot OrganizationRed Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
. Carpenter's sixth album,
A Place in the WorldA Place in the World is the sixth album by Mary Chapin Carpenter, and was a #3 Country Album on the Billboard charts. Album tracks that entered the Hot Country Singles chart were "Let Me into Your Heart" at #11, "I Want to Be Your Girlfriend" at #35, and "Keeping the Faith" at #58...
, was released in 1996 to "raves" from publications as varied as
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
,
PeopleIn 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
,
ElleElle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
, the
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, and
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
.
The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
found the album more "philosophical [and] heady" than her previous work, and quoted Carpenter as saying, "[A]ll I've wanted to get out of songwriting is a sense of growth....I'm not shying away from any issues or subjects. I don't feel there's anything I can't address."
In 1996, Carpenter's cover of the
John LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
song "
Grow Old With Me"Grow Old With Me" is one of the final songs written by John Lennon. It was recorded by Lennon as a demo at his home in the Dakota Building in 1980, and later appeared on the posthumous album, Milk and Honey in 1984. It was also considered as a possible reunion single by his former bandmates during...
," from the Lennon tribute album
Working Class Hero, became an Adult Contemporary chart hit. The song "10,000 Miles" was the signature track in the 1996 family film
Fly Away HomeFly Away Home is a 1996 drama and comedy film directed by Carroll Ballard, the director of The Black Stallion . The film stars Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels and Dana Delany. The story follows a young girl from New Zealand who survives a car crash that results in the death of her mother...
.
In 1998, Carpenter was signed to write the music and lyrics for a planned
Broadway musicalBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
adaptation of the 1953 western film
Shane. Producers proposed
Shane to Carpenter after
Dolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
, and then
Garth BrooksTroyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...
, left the project. According to Carpenter, the producers singled out "songs like 'I Am a Town' and 'John Doe No. 24,' songs that are story songs, very character driven, as the key that made them want to see if this was something I was interested in. I was surprised by that, and intrigued." Carpenter left the project in 2000.
2000s work
In 2001, Carpenter released her first studio album in five years,
Time*Sex*Love.
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that Carpenter was "harder than ever to define stylistically," and described the album as a departure, "essentially a concept album about middle age." In songs such as "The Long Way Home," Carpenter espoused taking life at one's own pace, rather than indulging in rampant goal-driven materialism.
Time*Sex*Love sold fewer copies than Carpenter's earlier work, and yielded only one charting single, "Simple Life," which peaked on the
U.S. CountryHot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
chart at #53. Carpenter explained that, "When the record was released, I really believed there were several radio-friendly songs...it has been since proven to me that is not exactly the case."
In 2004, Carpenter released
Between Here and GoneBetween Here and Gone is the ninth studio album by Mary Chapin Carpenter. It was released April 27, 2004. The album reached number five on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, although the album itself produced no chart singles...
, a somber album that addressed events such as the
events of September 11The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
and the death of singer-songwriter
Dave CarterDave Carter was an American folk singer-songwriter who described his style as "post-modern mythic American folk music." He was one half of the duo Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, who were heralded as the new "voice of modern folk music" in the months before Carter's unexpected death in July 2002...
. The album received some of the best reviews of Carpenter's career.
Carpenter's ninth studio album,
The CallingThe Calling is the ninth studio album released from country music singer Mary Chapin Carpenter. It is the follow-up album to her 2004 album, Between Here and Gone. The Calling was released on March 6, 2007 on Zoe Records. Carpenter had previously been on Columbia Nashville, this being her first...
, was released in 2007 by
Rounder RecordsRounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
' rock/pop imprint
ZoëZoë Records is an independent record label in the United States. It is a part of the Rounder Records group.Zoë predominantly distributes albums by folk rock and alternative pop artists...
and featured commentary about contemporary politics, including reactions to the impact of
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
("Houston") and the agreement with the
Dixie ChicksThe Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
("On With the Song"). In less than three months after its release,
The Calling sold more than 100,000 copies in the US, without benefit of any substantial airplay on commercial country radio. This was followed by a
Christmas albumChristmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks shortly thereafter.-Early:...
,
Come Darkness, Come Light, which mixed original and traditional material, also on the Zoë label.
Carpenter's latest studio album,
The Age of MiraclesThe Age of Miracles is the tenth studio album released by American music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. The album was released on April 27, 2010 on Zoë Records and was produced by Carpenter and Matt Rollings....
was released on April 27, 2010. It debuted at #28, her highest peak since 1996.
In late 2011, Carpenter announced via Facebook and Twitter that she is hard at work on a follow-up album to "Age of Miracles." The beginning recording sessions were recorded at AIR Studios in London, England. The new album is rumoured to mimic her "Time*Sex*Love" album, a favorite amongst fans. The album is set to drop in 2012.
Personal life
Despite a series of relationships, including one with
John JenningsJohn Jennings is an American musician: a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and music producer.Among his producer work are 8 albums by Mary Chapin Carpenter, as well as releases by Beausoleil, John Gorka, and Janis Ian...
, the media made much of Carpenter's single status throughout the nineties; in a 1994 profile,
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
even dubbed her "a spokes-singer for the thirtysomething single woman." Carpenter has since married contractor Timmy Smith. Throughout her career, she has actively supported various charities, including
CARECARE is a broad-spectrum secular relief, humanitarian, and development non-governmental organization fighting global poverty. It is non-political, non-sectarian and operates annually in more than 70 countries across the globe.One of the organization’s primary focuses in its fight to eradicate...
and Habitat for Humanity, and has conducted fundraising concerts for such causes as the elimination of
landminesA land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
.
Carpenter has struggled with periods of
depressionMajor depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
since childhood. While on tour with her album
The Calling in spring 2007, Carpenter experienced severe chest and back pain. She continued to perform until a bout of breathlessness took her to the
ERAn emergency department , also known as accident & emergency , emergency room , emergency ward , or casualty department is a medical treatment facility specialising in acute care of patients who present without prior appointment, either by their own means or by ambulance...
, where she learned she had suffered a
pulmonary embolismPulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
. Cancelling her summer tour to recover, Carpenter "felt that [she] had let everyone down" and fell into a depression before rediscovering "the learning curve of gratitude." Carpenter spoke about the experience on National Public Radio's
This I BelieveThis I Believe was a five-minute CBS Radio Network program hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow from 1951 to 1955. A half-hour European version of This I Believe ran from 1956 to 1958 over Radio Luxembourg....
program in June 2007.
Carpenter was the author of a biweekly column in the
Washington Times from December 2008 to March 2009 in which she discussed topics related to music and politics.
Awards
Academy of Country MusicThe Academy of Country Music was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Whereas the Country Music Association, founded in 1958, was based in Nashville, the Academy sought to promote country music in the western states. Among those involved in the...
- 1990 Top New Female Vocalist
The Academy of Country Music was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Whereas the Country Music Association, founded in 1958, was based in Nashville, the Academy sought to promote country music in the western states. Among those involved in the...
- 1992 Top Female Vocalist
The Academy of Country Music was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Whereas the Country Music Association, founded in 1958, was based in Nashville, the Academy sought to promote country music in the western states. Among those involved in the...
Country Music AssociationThe Country Music Association was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of only 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre...
- 1992 Female Vocalist of the Year
The Country Music Association Awards, also known as the CMA Awards, or the CMAs, and not to be confused with the ACM Awards, are voted on by business members of the Country Music Association. The first CMA awards were presented at an untelevised ceremony in Nashville's Municipal Auditorium in 1967...
- 1993 Female Vocalist of the Year
The Country Music Association Awards, also known as the CMA Awards, or the CMAs, and not to be confused with the ACM Awards, are voted on by business members of the Country Music Association. The first CMA awards were presented at an untelevised ceremony in Nashville's Municipal Auditorium in 1967...
Grammy Awards
- 1992 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female
The Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance was first awarded in 1965, to Dottie West. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1965 to 1967 the award was known as Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female...
- "Down at the Twist and Shout"Down at the Twist and Shout" is a single written and recorded by American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. Released in June 1991, it was the third single from the album Shooting Straight in the Dark...
"
- 1993 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female
The Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance was first awarded in 1965, to Dottie West. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1965 to 1967 the award was known as Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female...
- "I Feel Lucky"I Feel Lucky" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American country artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. Released in May 1992, it was the first single from the album Come On Come On. The song reached #4 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart...
"
- 1994 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female
The Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance was first awarded in 1965, to Dottie West. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1965 to 1967 the award was known as Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female...
- "Passionate Kisses"Passionate Kisses" is a Grammy winning song penned by the American Alt Country performer Lucinda Williams and made famous by the 1993 single version by Mary Chapin Carpenter.-Original Release:...
"
- 1995 Best Country Album
The Grammy Award for Best Country Album has been awarded since 1994. The equivalent award, the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Album was presented in 1965 and 1966...
- "Stones in the Road"
- 1995 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female
The Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance was first awarded in 1965, to Dottie West. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1965 to 1967 the award was known as Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female...
- "Shut Up and Kiss Me"Shut Up and Kiss Me" is the title of a song recorded by American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter on her 1994 studio album Stones in the Road. The song served as that album's lead-off single, and became her only Number One hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts; it...
"
External links