Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Calling
I fell in love with Mary Chapin Carpenter on her album Stones In The Road. Something about that album and all of it’s songs just connected with me on some level that most music doesn’t often do. Thirteen years and three albums later, Mary Chapin Carpenter has returned with her latest effort, The Calling, and I think that I’m falling in love with her all over again.
On her ninth album, Mary Chapin Carpenter seems to have found that place where her writing, her playing and her singing all come together to build a collection of songs that are bigger than themselves to create an album that is as much full of songs as it is full of feeling and emotion. From gentle ballads to rolling country flavored rockers, The Calling manages to score with every track.
The overall sound of the album is crystal clear with each instrument and vocal performance existing in it’s own space and yet playing perfectly off each other giving the album both texture and space at the same time.
The instrumental performances on The Calling are all top notch, as anyone familiar with Carpenter’s previous albums would expect. Along with a host of other players, Mary Chapin Carpenter again turns to her long time collaborator John Jennings on all manner of stringed instruments as well as one of my favorite pianists, Matt Rollings and his remarkable talents with all things keyed.
For her fans and for anyone who’s not really familiar with her previous work, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s The Calling is a great way to get to know her…or get to know her again.
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