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She feels lucky
After waiting five years to record time*sex*love, Mary Chapin Carpenter is touring to promote an album full of songs she's wild about.
By DAVE SCHEIBER
© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 9, 2001
[Photo: AP]
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Mary Chapin Carpenter, performing here on the Today show in June, will play Friday at Ruth Eckerd with songs from a new album that she describes as "a dream come true."
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When Mary Chapin Carpenter hit the studio to make her acclaimed new album, time* sex* love*, she found a place in the world she could truly enjoy.
There was none of the anxiety that accompanied her last studio effort five years ago -- an eternity by record-business standards. Caught in the throes of a difficult management situation, she was keenly aware of external pressures to produce a commercially viable effort.
The resulting album, A Place in the World, left Carpenter with bad memories of the recording process and the constraints she felt on her creative spirit. The artist who helped bring so much depth to country -- with some of the format's biggest hits from the '90s boom -- was shaken. "My sense of well-being took a hit," says Carpenter, a five-time Grammy winner, during a recent tour stop in Reno, Nev. "I can't say, 'Oh my gosh, I have to blame everybody but myself.' It's not like that. But I allowed the business and the pressures and all that kind of thing to come in the door with me. And when I finished making that record, I remember this sadness that the experience wasn't as wonderful as all the other records I've had a chance to make."
She turned to her longtime guitarist-producer-pal John Jennings. "I said, 'That's it. We can never let that happen again.' And he said, 'You're right.' "
So Carpenter switched managers, signing on Ron Fierstein, the man guiding the career of her good friend Shawn Colvin. He counseled her not to even think about heading into a studio until she had songs she loved and was ready to record.
She followed his advice, writing at her own pace, touring nationally without a new record -- a rarity for established acts -- and regaining her equilibrium.
When the time came to record again last fall, Carpenter felt revitalized. But rather than head to Nashville, she opted for London's Air Studios, owned by legendary Beatles producer George Martin.
It was a magical time for Carpenter, who summed up her guiding vision for the album early on with Jennings and fellow co-producer Blake Chancey.
"We were sitting around, and they were saying, 'Do you have a goal besides obviously being in love with the material and trying to be as inventive as possible?' And I said, 'You guys, I just want to laugh my a- off. I just want to have a great time making this record.' And we did. It was a dream come true."
The outcome is an 15-track album that has received consistently high marks from critics since its May release. The record got its name as Carpenter discussed with Jennings her songs' various themes: time, sex and love. "Well, there's your title," was his reply. He promptly fleshed out the album's official long-form title with an off-the-cuff quote: "Time is the great gift; sex is the great equalizer; love is the great mystery."
With Carpenter's usual poetic craftsmanship and knack for exploring emotions, the album examines sentiments common to baby boomers -- growing older, trying not to dwell on regrets, taking chances and enjoying life. The record begins with a carefree, groove-heavy invitation to let go in Whenever You're Ready and winds to a close with a gentle reminder in Late for Your Life not to get too caught up searching for the right choice and waiting too long to act.
Carpenter embraces new sound textures for her seventh studio album (she also released a compilation of live tracks, re-interpreted hits and other tunes in 1999's Party Doll). There are french horns, strings, synthesizers -- even some fun Beatlesque harmonies powering Simple Life and Maybe World.
[Publicity photo]
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Maybe World "sort of cried out for this horn, and the Mamas and the Papas meet Travis meets the Beach Boys meets the Beatles," she says.
The album ends with an unlisted track -- an outtake of Carpenter cracking up and an old-timey farewell, Going Home. "That laughter just captures the loose, fun atmosphere we had," she says.
Carpenter says she has been pleasantly surprised by the reaction to the new material at her concerts. There have only been two downers. One is a lingering knee problem that forced her to fly home to Washington, D.C., from Vancouver, B.C., in between shows to have arthroscopic surgery. She had to sit in a chair on stage during subsequent concerts. "I milk it for all it's worth, you know, and try to get people's sympathy," she says. "But it's healing well."
What has hurt more is the lack of airplay. That has been a problem for Carpenter since the spectacular success of 1992's Come On, Come On. She hoped this album might crack country's narrow, youth-driven playlists. But radio isn't biting.
"It's out of my control," she says. "I can be disappointed, that's my choice, and I am. But at the same time, I have to put it in perspective. When I get really down about it, I try to think: 'You know, it's never been something I could count on.' When we did some have airplay on radio, it was always like this aberration, like 'Oh my God, it's amazing. Savor it!' Because it's not going to happen again."
Carpenter is at a loss when people ask her if she's still a country artist. "I don't know how to answer that, other than to say, 'Well, I guess I'm an artist without a format.' If I'm not on the radio, what does that make me? I don't know."
She was recently in a book and music store and noticed that the soundtrack to Oh, Brother Where Are Thou was No. 1. "That speaks to me of a great disconnect between what people are interested in, and what's being played on the radio," she says. "So I just wish there was a better way to bridge that disconnect. It's all in the consultants' hands."
Carpenter, 43, is proud that her CD has been described as "an album for grown-ups."
"After I got over the shock of realizing that maybe I was grown up, I liked that notion," she says. "At least in the sense that people almost feel disenfranchised with the way pop music is nowadays, with bands for kids and little girls. I'm not dissing Britney Spears or somebody like that, but there should be something for everybody."
Still, Carpenter can keep making records, packing in deeply loyal crowds -- and feeling fulfilled.
"The way I see it, I'm in this really good spot," she says. "I also know it's a life of checks and balances, and tomorrow I could have a really bad day. But I feel very keen to appreciate the place this career has brought me to. And that is a place where I can take five years to make a record.
"And even though radio may not be there, you take every opportunity to let people know your music is out there. And you just sing from your heart."
PREVIEW
Mary Chapin Carpenter with Steve Earle, Friday at 8 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall. $39.75-$60. (727) 791-7400.
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