Mary Chapin Carpenter
Aug. 16th, 2005 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowI only have one album by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Come On, Come On. She may, though, be my favorite female country singer. Patsy Cline had a better voice, I think, and Suzy Bogguss can gut-wrench with the best of them, but I enjoy Carpenter more than either.
One theme extends through several of the songs, with varying stances being taken. "The Bug" ("sometimes you're the windshield...") irreverently looks at the ups and downs of life, chalking things up to fate. "I Feel Lucky", though, puts more of the responsibility on the individual; one after another, omens and signs warn that she's in for a bad day and should stay home, but she defies them because, of course, she "feels lucky" - and she is. "Passionate Kisses" and "The Hard Way" turn from focusing on fate to demanding what the singer deserves. (The former song is humorously intended, but the second includes in its chorus the words "Everything we got we got the hard way.") The pendulum swings yet further in the defiant "I Take My Chances"; she sings "some people say that you shouldn't tempt fate... I say fate should not tempt me." This isn't the passive, reactive position taken by Tammy Wynette; this lady is out for what she can get.
Speaking of Tammy Wynette, it's interesting to contrast her "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", which focuses tightly on the event itself and on its sorrows, with Carpenter's "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", tracing the entire history of a marriage to its breakup and ending, oddly triumphantly, with "Now she's in the typing pool at minimum wage".
But there's another side to Carpenter, and one which actually appeals to me even more. Several of the songs on the list are soft, slow, and melancholy. The elegiac "I Am a Town" nostalgically evokes the heart of the rural South (and it may be my favorite song on the album), and "Only a Dream" and "Rhythm of the Blues" are mournful laments on breakup, filled not with the misery typical of Wynette, but with a grim acceptance and determination. Unlike the songs I named earlier, these feature only the sparest instrumentation - a softly strummed guitar, a gentle piano - and the singer's voice sometimes approaches speaking rhythms.
Rounding out the album are "Not Too Much to Ask" (a duet with Joe Diffie), "Come On Come On", and "Walking Through Fire". The first two are slow-paced love songs, more content than sad; in the last, the singer warns her lover of danger to their relationship, though she still is determined to maintain it.
In an earlier post, I said that the difference between Lesley Gore and Tammy Wynette was, at least partly, one of maturity, with Gore adolescent and Wynette adult. I'm tempted to extend the comparison further: the majority of Carpenter's songs are more mature yet. Where the emotions of the moment seem to swamp the singer in many of Wynette's songs, Carpenter holds steady in the storm. She can take the long view (which also enhances her nostalgic pieces), and she is more responsible, more grounded. I think that's why I like her. (You may point to "I Feel Lucky" as a counterexample, but then, that's probably my least favorite track on the album.)
One theme extends through several of the songs, with varying stances being taken. "The Bug" ("sometimes you're the windshield...") irreverently looks at the ups and downs of life, chalking things up to fate. "I Feel Lucky", though, puts more of the responsibility on the individual; one after another, omens and signs warn that she's in for a bad day and should stay home, but she defies them because, of course, she "feels lucky" - and she is. "Passionate Kisses" and "The Hard Way" turn from focusing on fate to demanding what the singer deserves. (The former song is humorously intended, but the second includes in its chorus the words "Everything we got we got the hard way.") The pendulum swings yet further in the defiant "I Take My Chances"; she sings "some people say that you shouldn't tempt fate... I say fate should not tempt me." This isn't the passive, reactive position taken by Tammy Wynette; this lady is out for what she can get.
Speaking of Tammy Wynette, it's interesting to contrast her "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", which focuses tightly on the event itself and on its sorrows, with Carpenter's "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", tracing the entire history of a marriage to its breakup and ending, oddly triumphantly, with "Now she's in the typing pool at minimum wage".
But there's another side to Carpenter, and one which actually appeals to me even more. Several of the songs on the list are soft, slow, and melancholy. The elegiac "I Am a Town" nostalgically evokes the heart of the rural South (and it may be my favorite song on the album), and "Only a Dream" and "Rhythm of the Blues" are mournful laments on breakup, filled not with the misery typical of Wynette, but with a grim acceptance and determination. Unlike the songs I named earlier, these feature only the sparest instrumentation - a softly strummed guitar, a gentle piano - and the singer's voice sometimes approaches speaking rhythms.
Rounding out the album are "Not Too Much to Ask" (a duet with Joe Diffie), "Come On Come On", and "Walking Through Fire". The first two are slow-paced love songs, more content than sad; in the last, the singer warns her lover of danger to their relationship, though she still is determined to maintain it.
In an earlier post, I said that the difference between Lesley Gore and Tammy Wynette was, at least partly, one of maturity, with Gore adolescent and Wynette adult. I'm tempted to extend the comparison further: the majority of Carpenter's songs are more mature yet. Where the emotions of the moment seem to swamp the singer in many of Wynette's songs, Carpenter holds steady in the storm. She can take the long view (which also enhances her nostalgic pieces), and she is more responsible, more grounded. I think that's why I like her. (You may point to "I Feel Lucky" as a counterexample, but then, that's probably my least favorite track on the album.)
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Date: 2005-08-18 03:39 am (UTC)Yes.
My grandmother dated Buck Owens. Mom is eternally grateful that they didn't get hitched, as she got her looks from her father's side.
DV (who now has the Streets of Bakersfield stuck in her head)
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Date: 2005-08-18 11:10 am (UTC)Remember Miles' comment in Komarr? Ekaterin asked him if tv made him see his parents strangely, & he replied to the effect that they made him see tv strangely. :)