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I'm not sure when I encountered Mary Chapin Carpenter. Some years back, I put out a call for country singers I might add to my collection, and I recall that desert_vixen recommended her album "Party Doll" at that time, but I'm pretty sure I already had her "Come On Come On" by then. In any event, those are the two albums of hers that I have.
Carpenter is probably my favorite country singer, for a variety of reasons; I'll focus on three of them here.
First, her songs are quite varied in emotional tone. "The Bug" is silly, "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" serious; "Down at the Twist and Shout" is raucous, "I Am a Town" subdued; "I Take My Chances" is defiant, "Only a Dream" sorrowful. She's certainly not the only singer with this variety, but one-note singers are not rare. Some of those do what they do very well, but don't do very much; Carpenter hits a range of emotional tones, and hits them well.
Second, perhaps part of the first: there is a particular range of emotions that she evokes that appeals to me. At one end, the gentle nostalgia of "I Am a Town"; in between, the lovely reminiscence of "This Shirt"; at the other end, the certain hope of "Almost Home". I see these as lying on a single spectrum, and they lift my heart.
Finally, she has a gift for lyrics. Some extracts that I particularly like:
From "I Take My Chances", this hubristic declaration:
"Some people say that you shouldn't tempt Fate, and for them I cannot disagree
But I never learned nothin' by playin' it safe; I say Fate should not tempt me!"
From "Stones in the Road" (like me, she was born in 1958):
"When I was ten, my father held me / On his shoulders above the crowd
To see a train all draped in mourning / Pass slowly through our town
The widow knelt with all her children / At the sacred burial ground
The TV glowed, that long hot summer / With all the cities burning down"
And from the oddly triumphant end of "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" ("she" is a recent divorcee):
"For fifteen years she had a job / And not one raise in pay.
Now she's in the typing pool at / Minimum wage!"
[NB: The version of "I Take My Chances" on "Party Doll" differs from that on "Come On Come On"; I can understand why she made the change, but I think it weakens the song.]
Carpenter is probably my favorite country singer, for a variety of reasons; I'll focus on three of them here.
First, her songs are quite varied in emotional tone. "The Bug" is silly, "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" serious; "Down at the Twist and Shout" is raucous, "I Am a Town" subdued; "I Take My Chances" is defiant, "Only a Dream" sorrowful. She's certainly not the only singer with this variety, but one-note singers are not rare. Some of those do what they do very well, but don't do very much; Carpenter hits a range of emotional tones, and hits them well.
Second, perhaps part of the first: there is a particular range of emotions that she evokes that appeals to me. At one end, the gentle nostalgia of "I Am a Town"; in between, the lovely reminiscence of "This Shirt"; at the other end, the certain hope of "Almost Home". I see these as lying on a single spectrum, and they lift my heart.
Finally, she has a gift for lyrics. Some extracts that I particularly like:
From "I Take My Chances", this hubristic declaration:
"Some people say that you shouldn't tempt Fate, and for them I cannot disagree
But I never learned nothin' by playin' it safe; I say Fate should not tempt me!"
From "Stones in the Road" (like me, she was born in 1958):
"When I was ten, my father held me / On his shoulders above the crowd
To see a train all draped in mourning / Pass slowly through our town
The widow knelt with all her children / At the sacred burial ground
The TV glowed, that long hot summer / With all the cities burning down"
And from the oddly triumphant end of "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" ("she" is a recent divorcee):
"For fifteen years she had a job / And not one raise in pay.
Now she's in the typing pool at / Minimum wage!"
[NB: The version of "I Take My Chances" on "Party Doll" differs from that on "Come On Come On"; I can understand why she made the change, but I think it weakens the song.]
