MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER : PERSONAL HISTORY

MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER : PERSONAL HISTORY

What Did You Miss
Paint + Turpentine
New Religion
Girl And Her Dog
The Saving Things
Hello My Name Is
Bitter Ender
The Night We Never Met
Home Is A Song
Say It Anyway
Coda

Label : Lambent Light Records

Release Date : June 6, 2025

Length : 48:39

Review (Americana Highways) : My introduction to Mary Chapin Carpenter was with a song called “This Shirt.” There was something special about it. Maybe I’m sentimental, but it was a song that perfectly suited anyone who needed to relate to something. This certainly was relatable & very Mary Chapin Carpenter. The Princeton, NJ native has had other songs beginning in 1987 with similar heartstrings & she, like Carrie Newcomer, Nancy Griffith, Kris McKay (“If Ever You Need Me”) & New Zealand country singer Donna Dean (“What Am I Gonna Do?”) continues to hit all the reflective, reminiscing & sentimental notes that draw listeners like magnets. Mary Chapin Carpenter This latest LP from the multiple Grammy-winning artist is her 11-track, 17th album, Personal History (Drops June 6/Thirty Tigers) that begins with another “This Shirt” quite impressively. “What Did You Miss?” For some, it’s a 2-tissue song because her voice is soaked in sincerity & poignancy. It’s not something a vocal coach can teach an aspiring vocalist. You can learn vocal intonations, improve range, & apply the important tonalities, but that sincerity in the voice has to come from the soul. Mary Chapin’s been doing it for years. The album was recorded live at Peter Gabriel’s Real-World Studios in England & is more autobiographical than usual. Produced by Josh Kaufman (guitar/organ/harmonium/harmonica). The instrumentation is fairly spare, with little that is controversial. “Girl & Her Dog” is another poignant tune. The choice of words is far from the basic cliches of many singer-songwriters. Whereas “The Saving Things” is a nice song, with well-written lyrics, it does have shades of the melody from The Band’s “Book Faded Brown,” by Rick Danko. The tantalizing “Hello, My Name Is,” has a wonderful Herb Alpert-type trumpet with a Burt Bacharach-arrangement style. It enlivens the tune since we don’t hear that type of melodic trumpet as much as we did in the ‘60s. Mary Chapin certainly enjoys shuffling her musical surprises around. Following the previous trumpet-lite song is “Bitter Ender” with a Dylan-soft harmonica in a more energetic melody. Nice to hear Mary Chapin get a little saucy with her words, too. “The Night We Never Met” taps into a George Gershwin-Hoagy Carmichael-Cole Porter vein ingeniously. The tune is retro & has an easy-listening charm. Lovely tune. The album concludes with Mary Chapin’s signature emotional measure in “Say It Anyway” — another moving piece…until next time. Highlights – “What Did You Miss,” “Girl & Her Dog,” “The Saving Things,” “Hello, My Name Is,” “Bitter Ender,” “The Night We Never Met, & “Home Is a Song,” & “Say It Anyway.” Musicians – Matt Rollings (piano/Hammond organ/Phillips organ/accordion/xylophone), Duke Levine (electric guitar/hammer dulcimer), Chris Vatalaro (drums/percussion), Cameron Ralston (bass) & Anais Mitchell (harmony on “Home Is a Song”).

Review (Folk Alley) : Like the best of poets and storytellers, Mary Chapin Carpenter spins expansive webs of beauty, longing, and emotional depth. On each of the songs on her new album, Personal History, she meditates on chapters of her own life, and she invites us to walk with her on this labyrinthine journey as she shares the enduring wisdom gleaned from the life’s small moments. The album opens with the soulful meditation on time, “What Did You Miss?” Shimmering piano chords flow beneath Carpenter’s introspective musings about the craving to experience all life has to offer and wondering what we miss when we turn one way rather than another. The album takes its title from the song’s final refrain: “I’ve been walking in circles for so long/Unwinding the mystery/I’ve been writing it down song by song/As a personal history/A personal history.” Gently picked guitars weave around and under surging piano chords on “Paint + Turpentine,” an ode to Guy Clark. The spare cadences of “Girl and Her Dog” mimic the simple pleasures of walking the fields with her dog and “keeping it simple as it can be.” Cascading piano notes open “The Saving Things,” a meditation on the simple things—“the sound of rain on a roof that sings/first day in ages that feels like spring/don’t forget, don’t forget/the saving things”—that spirals into a wall of sound that celebrates the beauty all around us. On the percussive “Bitter Ender,” wailing harmonica and slide guitar propel reflections on our inclinations to hold onto love—or to hold on in any hopeless situation—until the “bitter end,” determined to make things right, no matter what. “The Night We Never Met” is a lilting waltz to ships passing in the night, while the exquisite ballad “Home is a Song” rings with the power of place and belonging. The album closes with “Coda,” tender paean to the quiet that’s left after the noisiness of life. On Personal History, Mary Chapin Carpenter weaves songs from lyrical filaments and layers of cinematic instrumentation, enfolding us in a rich rhythmic grandeur. It may be her best album yet, and it is certainly one of the best albums of the year so far.

Review (Entertainment Focus) : Mary Chapin Carpenter is an artist who has enjoyed incredible longevity across her career. Active since 1987, she’s released 16 albums and is known for her Country/folk blend. Carpenter found commercial success with her second album ‘State of Heart’ in 1989, which was certified RIAA Gold and that began a streak of success that peaked with 1992’s ‘Come On Come On’, which achieved 4x Platinum in the US. She’s continued to steadily release music since then, passionately supported by her fans across the globe. For her 17th studio album ‘Personal History’, Carpenter has worked with producer Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National) and she recorded the 11-tracks live at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath. Billed as her most autobiographical collection to date, the album is Carpenter’s first solo record since 2021’s ‘One Night Lonely (Live)’. All of the songs on the record were penned by Carpenter, and fans will be pleased to know that she’s lost none of her edge as a songwriter. The album opens with ‘What Did You Miss’, a gentle reflective song about looking back through life and documenting what happens. The album’s title is pulled from this song. On ‘Paint + Turpentine’, Carpenter ups the tempo slightly as she sings over an acoustic guitar riff. She looks back to when she was 25 and talks about how some things in life need time to mature before they can truly shine. It’s a story of perseverance and resilience, trusting the process that life takes you through without trying to rush things. On the poignant ‘New Religion’, Carpenter pays tribute to her songwriting and touches upon the ups and downs of life that have inspired her music. Her voices drips with wisdom and experience, delicately delvering her heartfelt lyrics. One of the standout moments on the record is the touching ‘Girl and Her Dog’. Carpenter addresses the pressure placed upon us when we’re young to have our entire life mapped out. She admits to not being able to visualise the future and adjusting to a life shared with another person. On ‘Hello My Name Is’, Carpenter fills out the song a little more in terms of instrumentation as she sings about needing to ‘trust the wait, for blessings in disguise’ – a theme that runs throughout the record. ‘Bitter Ender’ features a driving beat that will have you tapping your foot as Carpenter gets introspective and admits that she doesn’t always know when to call it quits. The piano-led ‘The Night We Never Met’, which has a jazz influence, frees Carpenter from the guitar sound of much of the record and serves up something different. Anaïs Mitchell features on ‘Home is a Song’, lending her voice and blending nicely with Carpenter. The album draws to a close with ‘Coda’, where Carpenter mulls about the eventuality of death and the unpredictable journey that takes us all to that end point. ‘Personal History’ is a record that Carpenter’s fans will absolutely love. It’s a deep dive into her life and 17 records in, it’s remarkable that she’s still able to deliver music of this calibre. If you’ve never really been a fan, it’s unlikely that this album will change your mind, but to those that have followed Carpenter’s long career, there will be plenty to unpack and enjoy. At a time when songwriting and artistry is questionable, having a real artist like Carpenter still making music is a real gift.