hypersongs

Mary Chapin Carpenter

A singer-songwriter from Princeton, New Jersey, who rose in Washington, D.C. folk clubs to five Grammys on Columbia Nashville, and recorded "The Moon and St. Christopher" with Shawn Colvin in 1990 and again with Ethan Johns in 2018.

Washington and Columbia Nashville

Mary Chapin Carpenter was born on February 21, 1958 in Princeton, New Jersey, and has a degree in American civilization from Brown University. Her family moved to Tokyo when she was 12 and to Washington, D.C. in 1974, where she began performing in folk venues. She signed to Columbia Nashville in 1987 and made her debut, Hometown Girl, that year, followed by State of the Heart (1989). Her first albums were credited to Mary-Chapin until 1994.

Her long-time musical partner and co-producer is the guitarist John Jennings. Shooting Straight in the Dark (October 9, 1990) was produced by the two of them at Bias Studios in Springfield, Virginia, and its singles were "You Win Again", "Right Now", "Down at the Twist and Shout" (number 2 on the country chart in 1991) and "Going Out Tonight". Come On Come On (1992) went quadruple platinum in the US with seven singles, and Stones in the Road (1994) went double platinum and was her only number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. "Shut Up and Kiss Me" (1994) is her only number one on Hot Country Songs.

Later years

She won five Grammys from 18 nominations, four for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in consecutive years from 1992 ("Down at the Twist and Shout", "I Feel Lucky", "Passionate Kisses" and "Shut Up and Kiss Me") and one for Best Country Album for Stones in the Road, and was named the Country Music Association's Female Vocalist in 1992 and 1993. She moved to Zoe Records in 2006, launched her own label, Lambent Light, in 2015, and made The Things That We Are Made Of (2016), Sometimes Just the Sky (2018), The Dirt and the Stars (2020) and Personal History (2025). Looking for the Thread (2025) was made with Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart.

Sometimes Just the Sky (March 30, 2018) re-records one song from each of her earlier studio albums, plus a new title track, and was recorded live at Real World Studios in Wiltshire with the producer Ethan Johns. She avoided radio hits and dove down deeper into her catalog, and told Songwriter's Universe that the musicians made a point of not listening to the original versions. A tour marked 30 years of her career.

Albums

Songs

  • The Moon and St. Christopher Shooting Straight in the Dark · 1990

    The closing duet of Shooting Straight in the Dark, with Shawn Colvin, re-recorded as a band piece in 2018.

Sources

  1. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Wikipedia
  2. Shooting Straight in the Dark, Wikipedia
  3. Sometimes Just the Sky, Wikipedia
  4. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mary Chapin Carpenter official