Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Biography

Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American folk and country music artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records , who marketed her as a country singer. Carpenter's first album, 1987's Hometown Girl , did not produce any singles, although 1989's State of the Heart (Mary Chapin Carpenter album)|State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark 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 Music recording sales certification|quadruple platinum in the U.S. for sales exceeding four million copies. She followed it with Stones in the Road (1994) and A Place in the World (album)|A Place in the World (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 Calling (Mary Chapin Carpenter album)|The Calling , was released in March 2007. She followed that with The Age of Miracles in April 2010.

Carpenter has won five Grammy Award s and is the only artist to have won four consecutive Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance , which she received from 1992 to 1995.Harrington, Richard. "Mary Chapin Carpenter, Taking Her Time," The Washington Post , 1994-05-25. As of 2005, she had sold more than 12 million records.Lehndorff, John. , Chicago Sun-Times , 2005-05-13. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.

Carpenter has performed on television shows such as Late Night with David Letterman and Austin City Limits and on radio shows such as The Diane Rehm Show . She also tours frequently, returning to Washington almost every summer to perform at the popular outdoor venue Wolftrap .

Biography

Early life

Carpenter was born in Princeton, New Jersey , to Chapin Carpenter Jr., a Life Magazine executive, and Mary Bowie Robertson. Carpenter lived in Japan from 1969 to 1971 before moving to Washington, D.C. Zimmerman, David. "Carpenter’s foundation: Country star true to her folk roots," USA Today , 1994-10-05. She attended Princeton Day School , a private coeducational University-preparatory school|prep school ,Kallas, Anna. , Dayton Daily News , June 1, 1997. Accessed December 3, 2007. "Chris and I went to the same private school in New Jersey - Princeton Day School - as did Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Menendez brothers, but more about them later." before graduating from The Taft School in 1976.Schoemer, Karen. , The New York Times , August 1, 1993. Accessed December 3, 2007. "Born and reared in Princeton, N.J., one of four sisters whose father, Chapin Carpenter, worked for Life magazine, Carpenter is suburban to the core. What's more, she attended private schools, including the Taft School in Connecticut, and graduated from Brown University."

Carpenter described her childhood as "pretty typical suburban," with her musical interests defined chiefly by her sisters' albums of artists such as The Mamas & the Papas , the Beatles , and Judy Collins .Wing, Eliza. "Country’s Unlikely Star: Bending the genre, Mary-Chapin Carpenter shoots straight for the top," Rolling Stone , 1991-03-21. 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 " one more time."Duncan, Petie Oliphant, and Stuart Duncan. "100 Years of Theatre," speech given at the Princeton Day School Centennial Follies , October 1999. Reprinted in Princeton Day School Mame playbill, February 2000. 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."Harrington, Richard. "Carpenter, Building a Name: The Washington Area’s Singer-Songwriter & Her Label of Success," The Washington Post , 1989-06-11.

Carpenter graduated from Brown University in 1981 with a degree in American studies|American Civilization . Carpenter played some summer sets in Washington's music scene, where she met guitarist John Jennings (musician)|John Jennings , 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 Records .

Early records and "country" label

Carpenter's first album, Hometown Girl , 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-songwriter " or " Slash (punctuation)|slash rocker" (as in country/folk/rock). She told Rolling Stone 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." Time (magazine)|Time critic Richard Corliss described the songs in her album A Place in the World (album)|A Place in the World 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,Abbott, Jim. "Chapin Carpenter is no longer sure if she can be called ‘country’." The Orlando Sentinel , 2001-08-03. all elements not commonly found on a country or folk album.

After 1989's State of the Heart (Mary Chapin Carpenter album)|State of the Heart , Carpenter released Shooting Straight in the Dark in 1990, which yielded her biggest single up to that point, the Grammy Award -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 Billboard charts#Top Country Albums|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 Times '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.Joyce, Mike. "Even After 10 Years, Surprises Remain; A Fond Look Back With Mary Chapin Carpenter," The Washington Post , 1999-05-31. Retrieved on 2007-11-29. " Passionate Kisses ", a cover of fellow singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams 's 1988 song, was the album's third single. Carpenter's version peaked on the Hot Country Songs|U.S. Country 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 100 and at #11 on Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks|Adult Contemporary .Chart numbers are based on information from the online databases , the , and .

The sixth single on Come On Come On , " He Thinks He'll Keep Her ", was Carpenter's biggest hit off the album, charting at #2 on Billboard's Country chart and at #1 on Radio & Records 's Country chart. Written by Carpenter and Don Schlitz , the fast-paced song follows a 36-year-old homemaker who leaves her husband, and was inspired by a 1970s series of Geritol 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."Staff of WomaNews . "Smart Talk: Shortcuts," Chicago Tribune , 1992-09-06. The single received a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year .

Continued 1990s success

In the wake of Come On Come On 's success, Carpenter wrote songs for a variety of artists, including Joan Baez , who recorded "Stones in the Road" for her 1992 album Play Me Backwards after hearing Carpenter sing it live. Pop singer Cyndi Lauper co-wrote " Sally's Pigeons " with Carpenter and released it on her 1993 album Hat Full of Stars . Country singer Wynonna Judd recorded Carpenter's composition "Girls With Guitars" on her 1993 album Tell Me Why (Wynonna Judd album)|Tell Me Why . 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 Hot Country Songs|U.S. Country chart at #10., Billboard.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-28. Later, Carpenter co-wrote "Where Are You Now," which Trisha Yearwood recorded on her 2000 album Real Live Woman ; the song peaked on the Country chart at #45. In the 1990s, Carpenter also duetted with Shawn Colvin , a "longtime recording pal", and sang backup in Radney Foster's "Nobody Wins,"Morse, Steve. "A Better Place: Mary Chapin Carpenter’s new CD presents her eclectic philosophy," The Boston Globe , 1996-11-29. Dolly Parton (on Parton's 1993 single "Romeo"), and Joan Baez on a 1995 live recording of " Diamonds & Rust (song)|Diamonds & Rust ." Carpenter also performed a number of concerts with Baez and the Indigo Girls as The Four Voices, during the mid- to late-1990s.

Carpenter followed Come On Come On with 1994's Stones in the Road , at which point USA Today wrote that "without sounding anything like a country star was previously expected to sound, '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 AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization . Carpenter's sixth album, A Place in the World (album)|A Place in the World , was released in 1996 to "raves" from publications as varied as Time (magazine)|Time , People (magazine)|People , Elle (magazine)|Elle , the New York Post , and USA Today . The Boston Globe found the album more "philosophical heady" than her previous work, and quoted Carpenter as saying, "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 Lennon song " Grow Old With Me ," 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 Home .

In 1998, Carpenter was signed to write the music and lyrics for a planned Broadway theatre|Broadway musical adaptation of the 1953 western film Shane (film)|Shane ., BBC News , 1998-11-11. Retrieved on 2007-11-28. Producers proposed Shane to Carpenter after Dolly Parton , and then Garth Brooks , 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."Davis, John. T. "She's back -- without ever leaving", Austin American-Statesman , 1999-06-22. Carpenter left the project in 2000. http://www.playbill.com/news/article/50770-Little_Jo_Team_Sought_to_Pen_New_Shane_Musical

2000s work

In 2001, Carpenter released her first studio album in five years, Time*Sex*Love . The New York Times 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 Hot Country Songs|U.S. Country 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 Gone , a somber album that addressed events such as the September 11, 2001 attacks|events of September 11 and the death of singer-songwriter Dave Carter ., National Public Radio|NPR All Things Considered , 2004-11-25. (Carpenter states: "Actually, I wrote this song after I learned about the passing of an extraordinary musician by the name of Dave Carter . He was a visionary songwriter, he was part of a duo called, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer|Carter and Grammer ...") The album received some of the best reviews of Carpenter's career.

Carpenter's ninth studio album, The Calling (Mary Chapin Carpenter album)|The Calling , was released in 2007 by Rounder Records ' rock/pop imprint Zoë Records|Zoë and featured commentary about contemporary politics, including reactions to the impact of Hurricane Katrina ("Houston") and the agreement with the Dixie Chicks ("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 music|Christmas album , Come Darkness, Come Light , which mixed original and traditional material, also on the Zoë label., CMT News

Carpenter's latest studio album, The Age of Miracles was released on April 27, 2010. http://www.rounder.com/artist/news/detail.aspx? nid=4011& aid=25505 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 Jennings (musician)|John Jennings , the media made much of Carpenter's single status throughout the nineties; in a 1994 profile, Entertainment Weekly even dubbed her "a spokes-singer for the thirtysomething single woman." Carpenter has since married contractor Timmy Smith.Belcher, David. "A Storyteller Back at Her Craft," The New York Times , 2010-05-08. Throughout her career, she has actively supported various charities, including CARE (relief)|CARE and Habitat for Humanity , and has conducted fundraising concerts for such causes as the elimination of land mine|landmines .

Carpenter has struggled with periods of Clinical depression|depression since childhood., Fox News , 2006-05-02. Retrieved on 2007-11-27. 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 emergency department|ER , where she learned she had suffered a pulmonary embolism . Cancelling her summer tour to recover, Carpenter "felt that had let everyone down" and fell into a depression before rediscovering "the learning curve of gratitude."Carpenter, Mary Chapin. , Weekend Edition , National Public Radio , 24 June 2007. Retrieved on 27 November 2007. Carpenter spoke about the experience on National Public Radio 's This I Believe 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 Music

Academy of Country Music|1990 Top New Female Vocalist

Academy of Country Music|1992 Top Female Vocalist

Country Music Association

Country Music Association Awards|1992 Female Vocalist of the Year

Country Music Association Awards|1993 Female Vocalist of the Year

Grammy Awards

Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance|1992 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female - " Down at the Twist and Shout "

Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance|1993 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female - " I Feel Lucky "

Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance|1994 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female - " Passionate Kisses "

Grammy Award for Best Country Album|1995 Best Country Album - "Stones in the Road"

Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance|1995 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female - " Shut Up and Kiss Me (song)|Shut Up and Kiss Me "

Discography

Copyright Citations

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Country Music Artists

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Biography

Biography

Early life

Early records and "country" label

Continued 1990s success

2000s work

Personal life

Awards

Discography

References

External links

Copyright Citations