Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Calling
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CD Details
Artist: Mary Chapin CarpenterEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Music Label: Zoe Records
Soundtracks:
- The 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: Carpenter Continues Crafting Classics
Rating: 4 Stars
Since she got her start in the late 80's, Mary Chapin-Carpenter has never been easy performer to pigeonhole, and she is not about to break a perfect record. Her new LP "The Calling" is a gorgeous, fully-realized mix of warm, twilight porch swing folk and whooping southern rock choruses that pack a wallop, propelled as always by her strong, honeyed voice and seamless ability to reveal each phrase she utters right to its core.
The opening title track is a definite pleasure. Her soaring vocals are self-assured over a rousing acoustic arrangement as she delivers as fine a melody as ever matched with stirring, picturesque lyrics that immediately inject the album with a life-affirming quality.
"Genius of Jesus, maybe he's seen us/But who would believe us?/I can't really say/Whatever the calling, the stumbling or falling/You follow it knowing/There's no other way, there's no other way."
The upbeat selections anchor the disc. The fluid, chugging "It Must Have Happened," for instance, is the perfect song to blast on a hot, sunny day with the top of the car down, and "We're All Right" rocks hard with its wish for a better kind of life. Carpenter truly blossoms on such moments, which serve to give the mellower tracks context. She has never sounded so uncensored and joyous on record.
Her chops as a lyricist are only becoming more fine-tuned, as the lilting, gorgeous "On and On It Goes" exemplifies.
"River starts with a drop of rain somewhere in the world, light years shape this arc of sky and sand, a precious pearl, And you will light a stranger's life, by letting yours unfurl/And on and on it goes/Sparks upon the wind."
Her penchant for storytelling comes out in the languid "Twilight" and "Houston," the latter of which paints a sympathetic portrait of a family's attempts to piece their lives back together upon the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Through she may be the consummate chronicler of the heartache of life, also seen on tracks like "Leaving Song" and "Closer and Closer Apart," Carpenter always finds a way to let a genuine glimmer of sunlight into her records that does not stem from sugary pretensions. This is shown prominently in selections like "Here I Am," an ode to inner strength in the face of life's tumult, and "Why Shouldn't We?," a brilliant if somewhat idealistic look at faith and inherent good.
"So come on darlin'/Feel your spirits rise/Come on children/Open up your eyes/God is all around/Buddha's at the gate/Allah hears your prayers/It's not too late."
Her starry-eyed self-assuredness in the likes of the resilient "Your Life Story" shimmers and sparkles with an electric kind of energy, and "On With the Song," a better-late-than-never tribute to the Dixie Chicks when they faced nationwide criticism 2003, has the most biting, intense lyrics of her career. Things close on a contemplative, elegant note with "Bright Little Star."
Carpenter is a certain gem in the tapestry of American singer/songwriters. She may have had only a brief moment in the pop spotlight in the early 90's with platinum records like "Come On, Come On," but she obviously cares more about the pure pleasure of songcraft, whether it be crafting a song or an album, than on getting mass airplay again. If "The Calling" is any indicator, that's exactly how it should be.
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 Zoë/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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