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| Birth Name(s) : Mary Chapin Carpenter |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Single
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| Profession:
Musician |
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Full Mary Chapin Carpenter Biography
Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning American country/folk singer-songwriter and guitarist with a diverse musical style.
Carpenter graduated from Brown University in 1981 with a degree in American Civilization. She considered music a hobby at first, and, despite playing some summer sets in Washington's vibrant 80s music scene for extra money, kept on thinking she'd eventually get a "real job." At those gigs, most played in bars, Carpenter developed a serious drinking problem. "I had a big problem," she later recalled. "It was awful. I had to make a lifestyle change in a drastic way. It's still so painful to me to think about how I was."
Thinking that music was part of the problem, Carpenter stopped performing and began interviewing for regular work, though when someone offered her a position she "panicked," and became determined "to go back into music but change some things." She decided to play only original material, rather than covers, and she also quit drinking. Within a few years, Carpenter had landed a manager and recorded a demo tape that led to a deal with Columbia Records.
For a long time, Carpenter was ambivalent about this pigeonholing, saying she preferred the term "singer-songwriter" or "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."
In 2001, Carpenter herself addressed the question of her status as a country artist. She said, "Lots of times people ask me, 'Are you still a country artist?' I have to tell them I don't know the answer."
After 1989's State of the Heart, Carpenter released Shooting Straight in the Dark in 1990, which yielded two big hits, the Grammy Award-winning "Down at the Twist and Shout" and "You Win Again," which gained some adult contemporary airplay as a crossover. Two years later, Carpenter released the album that, to date, has been her biggest popular success, the triple-platinum Come On Come On (1992). The album was also met with critical acclaim, with The New York Times writing 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."
As a result of the success of Come On Come On, Carpenter began performing regularly on TV shows such as Late Night with David Letterman and Austin City Limits, and at musical events across the country, including the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado. She tours frequently and has remained very loyal to her hometown of Washington, DC, returning almost every summer to perform at the popular outdoor venue Wolf Trap. Carpenter's follow-ups to Come On Come On, 1994's Stones in the Road and 1996's A Place in the World, were commercial successes, though not on the earlier album's level. Also in 1996, her cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old With Me," from the Lennon tribute album Working Class Hero, became an Adult Contemporary chart hit.
After a five-year break from the music scene, the singer-songwriter returned with 2001's Time*Sex*Love, a departure that The New York Times described as "essentially a concept album about middle age." (The newspaper added, "Ms. Carpenter....is harder than ever to define stylistically.")
More recently, Carpenter has referred to her Come On Come On recording period as the time "when I was having songs on the airwaves," though, like the characters in her songs, that kind of goal-driven materialism does not seem to matter much to her anymore. (This is in stark contrast to the artist who, in 1991, was described by Rolling Stone as someone who "clearly wants broader pop success.") In 2001, she explained, "When I think of the artists I admire and seek out musically....It's not about where I find them on the radio dial, or how many records they're selling. It's more a sense that I've connected with what they have to say and it ends up being more than just a momentary connection; I want to continue to see what they have to say."
As of 2007, Carpenter has released nine albums of new material and two best-of compilations. In addition to her solo work, her career has included a number of collaborations with such artists as Joan Baez, Dolly Parton, and Shawn Colvin. Carpenter is also well-known as a songwriter, writing songs for a variety of artists including friend Trisha Yearwood ("Where Are You Now"), Cyndi Lauper (Carpenter co-wrote "Sally's Pigeons") and the song "Love Goes On" as a tribute to writer Marjorie Williams, who died of cancer in 2005.
Carpenter's new album , The Calling, released on March 6, 2007 by Rounder Records' rock/pop imprint Zoë, features commentary about contemporary politics, a reaction to the impact of Hurricane Katrina on a track entitled "Houston," and an incendiary track entitled "On With the Song," dedicated to the Dixie Chicks, and addressing the visceral reaction to the trio.In less than three months after its release, The Calling has sold more than 100,000 copies in the US. |
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