She’s one of the most renowned (and talented, seeing as she’s picked up an impressive five Grammy Awards) country and folk musicians around, well known for the wide range of styles she’s played in her twenty years of making music professionally.
A singer, songwriter, and guitarist who’s now going on fifty years old, Mary Chapin Carpenter was born on February 21, 1958, in Princeton, New Jersey; although she spent two of her growing-up years in Japan, and then moved to Washington, D.C. Carpenter developed a strong love of music from an early age, playing guitar and piano and also singing, and she cites her early musical interests as The Beatles, Judy Collins, The Mamas & the Papas, and Woody Guthrie.
After high school, Carpenter got her first taste of performing while participating at a local bar open-mike session, during which she told Rolling Stone magazine she "wanted to throw up." So she decided to pursue academia instead, and in 1981 she graduated from Brown University with an American civilization degree. However, she did continue to pursue music as a hobby and on the side she did a few gigs at various bars, through which she developed a drinking problem which quickly escalated into alcoholism. The drinking led to her abandoning music, but soon she came back and resolved to perform only original material and quit drinking.
Eventually, Carpenter signed on with Columbia Records (after recording a successful demo tape), and in 1987 she released Hometown Girl, her debut album, with the collaboration of John Jennings. Carpenter didn’t consciously sing country music, but for some reason when Columbia Records promoted her music as country, she gained more popularity and public attention. In fact, there has been much dispute about whether her music is country, folk, a mix of the two, rock, or a mix of the three, but Carpenter says she has never wanted to categorize her music.
In 1989, Carpenter released her follow-up album, State of the Heart, which went gold, after which she released her famous Shooting Straight in the Dark in 1990, her platinum-selling album that garnered the singles "You Win Again" as well as "Down at the Twist and Shout," which earned her a Grammy. However, two years later, Carpenter released her most successful-to-date album, Come On Come On, which went triple platinum and produced the hits "Passionate Kisses," written by Lucinda Williams and "He Thinks He’ll Keep Her," co-written with Don Schlitz. Through Come On Come On's success, Carpenter began touring and performing in festivals and on TV programs, such as on Late Night with David Letterman. Come On Come On was followed by Stones in the Road in 1994 and A Place in the World in 1996, after which she took a bit of a break until the release of Time* Sex* Love* in 2001, which was characteristically and stylistically, and even lyrically, quite different from her earlier works, and thus not as popular.
Carpenter most recently released her ninth original (eleventh in total, including two compilations) album on March 6, 2007: The Calling, with songs about politics, Hurricane Katrina, and one dedicated to the Dixie Chicks. Throughout her interesting and diverse musical career, Carpenter has collaborated with artists such as Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, and Shawn Colvin, and written songs for other artists including Cyndi Lauper and Trisha Yearwood. Carpenter has been married to contractor Tim Smith since 2002, and is an active and avid supporter of many well-known charities.
YUDDY
