Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Calling
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CD Details
Artist: Mary Chapin CarpenterEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Music Label: Zoe Records
Soundtracks:
- Calling
- We're All Right
- Twilight
- It Must Have Happened
- On and on It Goes
- Your Life Story
- Houston
- Leaving Song
- On with the Song
- Closer and Closer Apart
- Here I Am
- Why Shouldn't We
- Bright Morning Star
Music reviews of The Calling
Music Review: Words and Music to Inspire
Rating: 5 Stars
I first really listened to Carpenter's music when I heard "Closer and Closer Apart" used as poignant background music for an episode in the television series "In Plain Sight." I had to have this magnificent song, and, of course, my pursuit led me to "The Calling." What a wonderful album. Carpenter's lyrics are so well crafted and so inspiring, I can not stop playing several of the songs every day. The beauty and clarity of her voice along with the fantastic accompaniment make this album a keeper. When she sings in "Leaving Song" of "the three greatest gifts of moving on are forgiveness, hope and the great beyond," I am encouraged to further step out into the world and take some chances. Her "Bright Morning Star" has become a touchstone in my life, and I have never been more serious when I say this. With her words, "But courage hears the sound of dawn approaching," I realize we can each find our own star and the light of discovery, safety and salvation. This is an incredible message from a great singer and lyricist.
Description of The Calling
As a songwriter and performer, Mary Chapin Carpenter has long since transcended the traditional notions of genre and style, finding widespread acclaim for her poetic, elegantly - observed compositions. The Calling, her first release for Zo??/Rounder, is the most topical album she's made in her twenty-year career. While it unequivocally addresses issues both public and political - from the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina to religious zealotry to the trial-by-radio of the Dixie Chicks -- there is also something deeply personal about this extraordinary collection of songs. The album is a powerful, provocative meditation on the mysteries of fate and circumstance, which mingles timeless questions with contemporary issues. Introspective, defiant and deeply resonant, The Calling is a profound set from one of modern songwriting's most distinctive voices.Featuring "It Must Have Happened," "We're All Right," and "On with the Song."
In recent years, Mary Chapin Carpenter--once among the most promising stars of the folkie infiltration of Nashville ("Down at the Twist and Shout," "I Feel Lucky")--abandoned all desire to dot the country music charts. Free of that ill-fitting yoke she returned to being what she really was all along: A literate acoustic singer-songwriter. In 2004, she released a tour de force, Between Here and Gone, which combined affecting social commentary on the events of 9/11 with personal meditations on her changed life as a married woman living in rural Virginia. The Calling picks up where that album left off, using the same co-producer, pianist Matt Rollings, and core musicians, including John Jennings, who helped Carpenter shape her sonic landscape some 20 years ago. If the new album goes farther in advocating a political conscience--"On with the Song" takes jabs at the jingoistic rubes who dissed the Dixie Chicks, while "Why Shouldn't We" insists we'll have worthy heroes in office again one day--it largely invokes the same quiet, warm, and conversational tone as its predecessor. On the whisper-soft "Twilight," which frames a perfect, peaceful evening with a nearly spiritual grace, a listener might easily imagine himself chatting with the artist about long-held secrets and shared experiences, the Blue Ridge Mountains looming in the background. That is part of Carpenter's gift--connecting with her audience's shadow self, using her deeply nuanced alto to fill even the simplest words with profound knowing. As a pure craftsman, however, she ranks with the giants of past generations in capturing the small, bruised hearts seemingly lost in the chaos of a catastrophic event. "Houston," one such song here, recalls Woody Guthrie's great "Deportee" in its power and the pathos of the Hurricane Katrina victims who were forced to evacuate their homes, leaving everything behind but fear and hope. "Mama's got her baby/Sleeping in a grocery cart," it begins, at once setting up a picture of wrenching desperation. Carpenter, no stranger to blue moods herself, knows how tough it is to emerge from a dark period of pained restlessness to find one's very self again. The album's soothing closer, "Bright Morning Star," like much of the record as a whole, offers a beacon of light and safe harbor for those shipwrecked on life's rocky shores. --Alanna Nash
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