Latest news with #PersonalHistory
-Lewis-McClay-2025.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1200%26auto%3Dwebp%26quality%3D75%26trim%3D0%2C0%2C0%2C0%26crop%3D&w=3840&q=100)
Scotsman
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Album reviews: Van Morrison Mary Chapin Carpenter Marianne Faithfull
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Van Morrison: Remembering Now (Exile Productions/Virgin Records) ★★★★ Mary Chapin Carpenter: Personal History (Lambent Light/Thirty Tigers) ★★★ Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Marianne Faithfull: Burning Moonlight EP (Decca Records) ★★★★ Mike McKenzie: I'd Wait Again (Metro 13 Music) ★★★★ Such is his prolific flow that it seems barely a week goes by without a new album by Van Morrison. In fact, Remembering Now is only his first album of new material in three years, following collections of skiffle and rock'n'roll covers. Van Morrison | Lewis McClay The past and present ebb and flow across its 14 tracks, as Morrison continues to pay tribute to his musical and geographical roots. Down to Joy is already familiar from the soundtrack to Kenneth Branagh's Belfast while If It Wasn't For Ray ('I wouldn't be where I am today') is a lightly exultant ode to Mr Charles' rocking R&B. The self-soothing hymn Haven't Lost My Sense of Wonder features warm, brooding Hammond organ and gospel reassurance and, as if to prove the point, Back to Writing Love Songs sounds like the burden of grievance has been lifted off his shoulders. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He backs up his claims with the spiritual southern soul of Love, Lover and Beloved and makes light weather of the hard work needed to hold down a relationship on The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours. Stomping Ground crosses over into whimsical nostalgia but the low-slung title track is a more intriguing exploration of what shapes us. Best of all, closing track Stretching Out is a soul jazz saunter which does indeed stretch out to a luxurious nine minutes and is a pleasure all the way. Mary Chapin Carpenter | Contributed Mary Chapin Carpenter also looks back in languor on her latest album. Arriving on the heels of her Looking for the Thread collaboration with Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis, Personal History was recorded live at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios and produced by Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufmann, with his bandmate Anais Mitchell providing sweet support on the yearning Home is a Song. Telling life stories through song is a running theme, introduced on What Did You Miss and refined on Paint + Turpentine, which ponders the mysteries of creativity. New Religion deals with finding her tribe while The Saving Things is Carpenter's spin on a favourite things list song. Musically, she moves from uncluttered acoustic confessionals to the rootsier rock of Bitter Ender and limpid piano waltz The Night We Never Met with her usual restrained mastery. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Marianne Faithfull | James Robjant Marianne Faithfull's swansong EP comprises four songs recorded in the last year of her life. Like Morrison and Carpenter, she drew inspiration from her own past, specifically her first two albums, Marianne Faithfull and Come My Way, which were released simultaneously in April 1965 on Decca Records. The opening lines of her debut hit As Tears Go By provided a jumping off point for Burning Moonlight, on which Faithfull's commanding voice is accompanied by sonorous strummed guitar. The fuller sound of classy cocktail pop track Love Is, written with her grandson Oscar Dunbar, incorporates spoken word samples of the younger Marianne and the EP is rounded off with two traditional songs attesting to her lifelong love of folk music. Three Kinsmen Bold was originally learned from her father Glynn, while She Moves Thru The Fair is a song she has turned to throughout her career, rendered here as a ghostly a capella. Edinburgh singer/songwriter Mike McKenzie is the spring chicken of the bunch but has lived enough of a life as a musician and frontman to present a sophisticated debut solo album, I'd Wait Again, recorded at Granton's Metro 13 studios. His natural pop voice hits the spot across the ebullient Mr Bang!, big brassy number Control the Tide and the easy, rootsy pop of Sunshine, while the light dusting of Bacharach brass, strings and plangent guitar on Mourn You and Breathe You In are effortlessly but elegantly arranged. Sign up to our FREE Arts & Culture newsletter at CLASSICAL Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Heinrich Biber: Complete Violin Sonatas - 1681 (Delphian) ★★★★★
The Irish Sun
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter
IN the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia lies the isolated farm where Mary Chapin Carpenter has made her home. 'I go for days without seeing people or talking to anyone,' says the singer, whose dusky, soulful tones and eloquent songwriting put her in such high regard. Advertisement 6 Mary Chapin Carpenter with her 'dear' Angus Credit: Aaron Farrington 6 Mary Chapin says her songs tell the story of her life Credit: supplied 'It's not for everyone but I love it. I've been training for this my whole life.' Yet she's not really alone. 'I have my dog and my cat for company,' she continues. Mary Chapin's 'dear' four-legged friends are her Advertisement READ MORE MUSIC NEWS So, I ask, does she ever get lonely? 'Oh for sure, who wouldn't?' she replies. 'But I've lived on the farm a really long time now. 'When I'm working on a project and I'm all in, I don't even notice that I didn't talk to anybody except when I went out to buy groceries.' Advertisement Most read in Music Her rural idyll has four distinct seasons — scorching-hot summers, freezing-cold winters 'with lots of snow', beautiful budding springs and glorious golden autumns. 'I couldn't ever live somewhere that didn't have four seasons,' she decides. 'I need them to help me mark the passage of time.' It was in these surroundings that she sat at her kitchen table — Angus at her feet, coffee cup beside her, acoustic guitar within easy reach — and wrote her new album, Personal History . Advertisement At 67, it was her chance to reflect on her life, think about who she is and tell her stories. I'm meeting Mary Chapin (it's a double forename, like Mary Beth) at a swish London hotel, a stone's throw from the hubbub of Oxford Circus. A stark contrast to the wilds of Virginia, she calls the dimly lit conference room 'rather bleak' but adds with a smile: 'It'll have to do.' Engaging and thought-provoking, she soon lights up the place by backing Bruce Springsteen's fervent stance Advertisement Like The Boss, Mary Chapin is unafraid to speak her mind. 'When people say, 'You're just an entertainer, be quiet', it's always offensive to me. 'Just because I've decided to write songs doesn't mean I've abdicated my role as a citizen. When I have something to say, I say it. 'But it can be very perilous so I'm proud that Springsteen has his platform. He's a kind, compassionate and smart person.' As for Donald Trump's angry riposte, she adds: 'I think he was rattled by it — and good!' Advertisement We turn to Personal History's first song, the 'mission statement' What Did You Miss. (In case you're wondering, there's more about Angus to come). Pondering life She draws my attention to the last verse with its lines, '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.' Mary Chapin had been 'pondering life' just as one of her favourite authors provided her with a dawning realisation. 'There's this moment in Elizabeth Strout's novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, when the main character's creative-writing instructor says, 'You only have one story to tell but you will write it so many different ways'. Advertisement 'When I read that, I took an audible breath and said out loud to no one, 'That's what my songs are!' ' Mary Chapin's recording career stretches back nearly four decades with efforts such as He Thinks He'll Keep Her and I Feel Lucky among her best-loved songs. She was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart in the Nineties, a period that yielded big-selling albums Come On Come On (1992) and Stones In The Road (1994). I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers. You get stuck on one breed. 'I think back to that time and it was like a white-hot light shining on my head,' she says. Advertisement 'I've always had an uneasy relationship with that kind of attention. 'I was also incredibly ill-equipped to handle it. It was so overwhelming. 'Going to therapy gave me the help I needed to navigate it. Luckily, thankfully, I was surrounded by lovely people.' Underneath it all today is the same Mary Chapin Carpenter, an artist who stays true to herself yet more comfortable in her own skin. Advertisement Returning to her new album, she says: 'It struck me that after all these years, however many songs I've written, they all come from the same place. 'It makes so much sense to me to think of them as my personal history.' Part of that history is Mary Chapin's abiding love of animals. 'I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers,' she says. 'You get stuck on one breed. 'I believe they know what we're feeling — and who are we to say that they don't?' Advertisement Thanks to his forebears' sperm being frozen and stored, Angus is a direct descendant of his owner's other dear departed retriever chums. He could be seen at Mary Chapin's side during the pandemic when she, like many musicians in lockdown, shared songs via YouTube from her home. 6 The singer pictured in 1992 - a decade in which she was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart Credit: Getty 6 Mary Chapin performing at the 2023 Stagecoach Festival in 2023 Credit: Getty Advertisement This helps explain new track Girl And Her Dog, which finds Mary Chapin intoning, 'Now the older I get the less I need/Just a good old dog underneath the trees.' It was inspired by an early-morning walk with Angus and comes with an intriguing backstory, which she describes. 'I love to walk in the fields near my farm but in summer, when it's tick season and it's full of them - ugh! 'So, before it's too hot, we head to these beautiful gravel roads that stretch for miles. Advertisement 'Doing her own thing' 'It must have been around 6am when a vintage pick-up truck came up behind us so we stepped off the road to let it pass by. 'Through the cab window, I could see an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair tied into a long braid down her back. And two dogs.' At this point, Mary Chapin's imagination took over. 'As the woman drove by, I started making up a life for her. 'OK, so maybe she's a poet or a painter or a writer. Maybe when she's finished walking her dogs, she's going back to her house. Advertisement 'Maybe she'll have another cup of coffee in the garden before it's hot and then she'll go back to working on a book.' The fleeting encounter got Mary Chapin thinking of her place in our uncertain world. It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things, She says: 'I'd just had a birthday — I'm in my sixties now — and I asked myself, 'Who am I? What am I doing?' ' First, she decided she wanted to be THAT woman on the gravel road 'doing her own thing'. Advertisement Then she realised 'in the next breath' that, in a way, she already was much like her. 'After my walk with Angus, I knew I'd get back in my truck, go home, sit at my kitchen table and write. 'I love my home, I love the big trees in the yard (we'd say garden) — and my dog and my cat.' Things brings us to Coda, the elegiac album finale, which neatly sums up Mary Chapin's feelings. Advertisement She says: 'I've lived through all these different chapters. 'The big noise of my life is not so loud as it was but there's still a rich vein to be mined. 'It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things. 'It's that moment in the morning at the arboretum. Advertisement "It's the way the light falls against the back of the house. 'It's seeing my dog. 'Not everything has to announce itself in a huge way. 'But the last 40 years have been quite extraordinary and I'm so grateful for where I am. Advertisement 'I wanted that song to express my gratitude.' Another new one, Paint + Turpentine is also about gratitude — but tinged with regret. It reflects on one of Mary Chapin's chief inspirations, the late, great Texan singer/songwriter Guy Clark, loved for songs like LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A Train. When she was just starting out as a twenty-something hopeful, Mary Chapin would go to The Birchmere club, not far from The Pentagon, just across the Potomac river from Washington DC. Advertisement 'They were very kind to me there and I started to open for nationally known artists,' she says. 'The proprietor, Gary Oelze, knew I didn't have any money and he'd say, 'If you want to come down and see anybody, just call me and we'll sneak you in'. 'I saw Guy quite often. He would give a masterclass. 'One time. he invited me up to sing with him. Advertisement 'There I was, spending time with this person whose art I revered. 'He was so kind to me.' Mary Chapin sighs and adds: 'Years later, when I had a record deal and was spending more time in Nashville, I heard from Guy, who said, 'Let's sit down and co-write'. 'Co-writing is something I've always been very poor at and I gave a reason why I couldn't make it. Advertisement 'It's one of the greatest regrets of my life.' That said, she is tempted to 'let her younger self off the hook'. Perhaps with Paint + Turpentine, she has laid her regret to rest even if one of the lines is a direct reference to Clark's bittersweet The Randall Knife. 'Memory cut like a Randall knife/Felt like it went right through me.' Advertisement It's important to note that Mary Chapin returned to a familiar stomping ground in the UK to record Personal History — 'I have always loved coming over here,' she says. 'Years ago, I dated a wonderful man who lived in London, so I'd come back and forth. 'It's been a happy place for me.' Advertisement 'Know thyself, right?' It may come as no surprise, therefore, that she brought her latest compositions to full bloom at the 'beautiful old mill' in the Wiltshire countryside, under the watchful eye of Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufman. She first worked with him on her other record of 2025, Looking For The Thread, a gorgeous hook-up with Scottish folk singers Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis. From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. And thanks to her connection to Josh, Anaïs Mitchell, feted for her album and stage musical Hadestown, joins Mary Chapin on Home Is A Song. 'I'm such a fan. My head exploded when Anaïs said yes,' she says. Advertisement Before we go our separate ways, I ask Mary Chapin about the harmonica-fuelled Bitter Ender and what the tantalising song title means. 6 Mary Chapin has found peace and inspiration on her Virginia farm, drawing on life's quiet moments and loyal companions to create new album, Personal History Credit: supplied In response, she admits that she's not great at dealing with the end of relationships — including her only marriage, which lasted for ten years. Of the song, she says: 'That's me. Know thyself, right? Even when I know something has no future , I'll be clinging on. Advertisement 'From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. 'It makes me laugh now when people say, 'I'm a bitter ender, too!' We finally have a term for it.' One thing's for certain though — Angus will be waiting for Mary Chapin when she gets back to her farm in Virginia. That loving relationship will never have a bitter end. Advertisement 6 Personal History by Mary Chapin Carpenter is out on June 6 Credit: Aaron Farrington PERSONAL HISTORY Mary Chapin Carpenter ★★★★☆
Scottish Sun
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter
Read on to find out what keeps the singer going through days of solitude on her Virginia farm QUIET LIFE I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter IN the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia lies the isolated farm where Mary Chapin Carpenter has made her home. 'I go for days without seeing people or talking to anyone,' says the singer, whose dusky, soulful tones and eloquent songwriting put her in such high regard. Advertisement 6 Mary Chapin Carpenter with her 'dear' Angus Credit: Aaron Farrington 6 Mary Chapin says her songs tell the story of her life Credit: supplied 'It's not for everyone but I love it. I've been training for this my whole life.' Yet she's not really alone. 'I have my dog and my cat for company,' she continues. Mary Chapin's 'dear' four-legged friends are her golden retriever Angus and her grey and white rescue moggy Big Kitty. Advertisement So, I ask, does she ever get lonely? 'Oh for sure, who wouldn't?' she replies. 'But I've lived on the farm a really long time now. 'When I'm working on a project and I'm all in, I don't even notice that I didn't talk to anybody except when I went out to buy groceries.' Advertisement Her rural idyll has four distinct seasons — scorching-hot summers, freezing-cold winters 'with lots of snow', beautiful budding springs and glorious golden autumns. 'I couldn't ever live somewhere that didn't have four seasons,' she decides. 'I need them to help me mark the passage of time.' It was in these surroundings that she sat at her kitchen table — Angus at her feet, coffee cup beside her, acoustic guitar within easy reach — and wrote her new album, Personal History. Advertisement At 67, it was her chance to reflect on her life, think about who she is and tell her stories. I'm meeting Mary Chapin (it's a double forename, like Mary Beth) at a swish London hotel, a stone's throw from the hubbub of Oxford Circus. A stark contrast to the wilds of Virginia, she calls the dimly lit conference room 'rather bleak' but adds with a smile: 'It'll have to do.' Engaging and thought-provoking, she soon lights up the place by backing Bruce Springsteen's fervent stance against the noisy incumbent at The White House. Advertisement Like The Boss, Mary Chapin is unafraid to speak her mind. 'When people say, 'You're just an entertainer, be quiet', it's always offensive to me. 'Just because I've decided to write songs doesn't mean I've abdicated my role as a citizen. When I have something to say, I say it. 'But it can be very perilous so I'm proud that Springsteen has his platform. He's a kind, compassionate and smart person.' As for Donald Trump's angry riposte, she adds: 'I think he was rattled by it — and good!' Advertisement We turn to Personal History's first song, the 'mission statement' What Did You Miss. (In case you're wondering, there's more about Angus to come). Pondering life She draws my attention to the last verse with its lines, '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.' Mary Chapin had been 'pondering life' just as one of her favourite authors provided her with a dawning realisation. 'There's this moment in Elizabeth Strout's novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, when the main character's creative-writing instructor says, 'You only have one story to tell but you will write it so many different ways'. Advertisement 'When I read that, I took an audible breath and said out loud to no one, 'That's what my songs are!' ' Mary Chapin's recording career stretches back nearly four decades with efforts such as He Thinks He'll Keep Her and I Feel Lucky among her best-loved songs. She was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart in the Nineties, a period that yielded big-selling albums Come On Come On (1992) and Stones In The Road (1994). I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers. You get stuck on one breed. 'I think back to that time and it was like a white-hot light shining on my head,' she says. Advertisement 'I've always had an uneasy relationship with that kind of attention. 'I was also incredibly ill-equipped to handle it. It was so overwhelming. 'Going to therapy gave me the help I needed to navigate it. Luckily, thankfully, I was surrounded by lovely people.' Underneath it all today is the same Mary Chapin Carpenter, an artist who stays true to herself yet more comfortable in her own skin. Advertisement Returning to her new album, she says: 'It struck me that after all these years, however many songs I've written, they all come from the same place. 'It makes so much sense to me to think of them as my personal history.' Part of that history is Mary Chapin's abiding love of animals. 'I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers,' she says. 'You get stuck on one breed. 'I believe they know what we're feeling — and who are we to say that they don't?' Advertisement Thanks to his forebears' sperm being frozen and stored, Angus is a direct descendant of his owner's other dear departed retriever chums. He could be seen at Mary Chapin's side during the pandemic when she, like many musicians in lockdown, shared songs via YouTube from her home. 6 The singer pictured in 1992 - a decade in which she was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart Credit: Getty 6 Mary Chapin performing at the 2023 Stagecoach Festival in 2023 Credit: Getty Advertisement This helps explain new track Girl And Her Dog, which finds Mary Chapin intoning, 'Now the older I get the less I need/Just a good old dog underneath the trees.' It was inspired by an early-morning walk with Angus and comes with an intriguing backstory, which she describes. 'I love to walk in the fields near my farm but in summer, when it's tick season and it's full of them - ugh! 'So, before it's too hot, we head to these beautiful gravel roads that stretch for miles. Advertisement 'Doing her own thing' 'It must have been around 6am when a vintage pick-up truck came up behind us so we stepped off the road to let it pass by. 'Through the cab window, I could see an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair tied into a long braid down her back. And two dogs.' At this point, Mary Chapin's imagination took over. 'As the woman drove by, I started making up a life for her. 'OK, so maybe she's a poet or a painter or a writer. Maybe when she's finished walking her dogs, she's going back to her house. Advertisement 'Maybe she'll have another cup of coffee in the garden before it's hot and then she'll go back to working on a book.' The fleeting encounter got Mary Chapin thinking of her place in our uncertain world. It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things, She says: 'I'd just had a birthday — I'm in my sixties now — and I asked myself, 'Who am I? What am I doing?' ' First, she decided she wanted to be THAT woman on the gravel road 'doing her own thing'. Advertisement Then she realised 'in the next breath' that, in a way, she already was much like her. 'After my walk with Angus, I knew I'd get back in my truck, go home, sit at my kitchen table and write. 'I love my home, I love the big trees in the yard (we'd say garden) — and my dog and my cat.' Things brings us to Coda, the elegiac album finale, which neatly sums up Mary Chapin's feelings. Advertisement She says: 'I've lived through all these different chapters. 'The big noise of my life is not so loud as it was but there's still a rich vein to be mined. 'It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things. 'It's that moment in the morning at the arboretum. Advertisement "It's the way the light falls against the back of the house. 'It's seeing my dog. 'Not everything has to announce itself in a huge way. 'But the last 40 years have been quite extraordinary and I'm so grateful for where I am. Advertisement 'I wanted that song to express my gratitude.' Another new one, Paint + Turpentine is also about gratitude — but tinged with regret. It reflects on one of Mary Chapin's chief inspirations, the late, great Texan singer/songwriter Guy Clark, loved for songs like LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A Train. When she was just starting out as a twenty-something hopeful, Mary Chapin would go to The Birchmere club, not far from The Pentagon, just across the Potomac river from Washington DC. Advertisement 'They were very kind to me there and I started to open for nationally known artists,' she says. 'The proprietor, Gary Oelze, knew I didn't have any money and he'd say, 'If you want to come down and see anybody, just call me and we'll sneak you in'. 'I saw Guy quite often. He would give a masterclass. 'One time. he invited me up to sing with him. Advertisement 'There I was, spending time with this person whose art I revered. 'He was so kind to me.' Mary Chapin sighs and adds: 'Years later, when I had a record deal and was spending more time in Nashville, I heard from Guy, who said, 'Let's sit down and co-write'. 'Co-writing is something I've always been very poor at and I gave a reason why I couldn't make it. Advertisement 'It's one of the greatest regrets of my life.' That said, she is tempted to 'let her younger self off the hook'. Perhaps with Paint + Turpentine, she has laid her regret to rest even if one of the lines is a direct reference to Clark's bittersweet The Randall Knife. 'Memory cut like a Randall knife/Felt like it went right through me.' Advertisement It's important to note that Mary Chapin returned to a familiar stomping ground in the UK to record Personal History — Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios near Bath. 'I have always loved coming over here,' she says. 'Years ago, I dated a wonderful man who lived in London, so I'd come back and forth. 'It's been a happy place for me.' Advertisement 'Know thyself, right?' It may come as no surprise, therefore, that she brought her latest compositions to full bloom at the 'beautiful old mill' in the Wiltshire countryside, under the watchful eye of Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufman. She first worked with him on her other record of 2025, Looking For The Thread, a gorgeous hook-up with Scottish folk singers Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis. From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. And thanks to her connection to Josh, Anaïs Mitchell, feted for her album and stage musical Hadestown, joins Mary Chapin on Home Is A Song. 'I'm such a fan. My head exploded when Anaïs said yes,' she says. Advertisement Before we go our separate ways, I ask Mary Chapin about the harmonica-fuelled Bitter Ender and what the tantalising song title means. 6 Mary Chapin has found peace and inspiration on her Virginia farm, drawing on life's quiet moments and loyal companions to create new album, Personal History Credit: supplied In response, she admits that she's not great at dealing with the end of relationships — including her only marriage, which lasted for ten years. Of the song, she says: 'That's me. Know thyself, right? Even when I know something has no future, I'll be clinging on. Advertisement 'From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. 'It makes me laugh now when people say, 'I'm a bitter ender, too!' We finally have a term for it.' One thing's for certain though — Angus will be waiting for Mary Chapin when she gets back to her farm in Virginia. That loving relationship will never have a bitter end. Advertisement 6 Personal History by Mary Chapin Carpenter is out on June 6 Credit: Aaron Farrington PERSONAL HISTORY Mary Chapin Carpenter
The Sun
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter
IN the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia lies the isolated farm where Mary Chapin Carpenter has made her home. 'I go for days without seeing people or talking to anyone,' says the singer, whose dusky, soulful tones and eloquent songwriting put her in such high regard. 6 6 'It's not for everyone but I love it. I've been training for this my whole life.' Yet she's not really alone. 'I have my dog and my cat for company,' she continues. Mary Chapin's 'dear' four-legged friends are her golden retriever Angus and her grey and white rescue moggy Big Kitty. So, I ask, does she ever get lonely? 'Oh for sure, who wouldn't?' she replies. 'But I've lived on the farm a really long time now. 'When I'm working on a project and I'm all in, I don't even notice that I didn't talk to anybody except when I went out to buy groceries.' Her rural idyll has four distinct seasons — scorching-hot summers, freezing-cold winters 'with lots of snow', beautiful budding springs and glorious golden autumns. 'I couldn't ever live somewhere that didn't have four seasons,' she decides. 'I need them to help me mark the passage of time.' It was in these surroundings that she sat at her kitchen table — Angus at her feet, coffee cup beside her, acoustic guitar within easy reach — and wrote her new album, Personal History. At 67, it was her chance to reflect on her life, think about who she is and tell her stories. I'm meeting Mary Chapin (it's a double forename, like Mary Beth) at a swish London hotel, a stone's throw from the hubbub of Oxford Circus. A stark contrast to the wilds of Virginia, she calls the dimly lit conference room 'rather bleak' but adds with a smile: 'It'll have to do.' Engaging and thought-provoking, she soon lights up the place by backing Bruce Springsteen 's fervent stance against the noisy incumbent at The White House. Like The Boss, Mary Chapin is unafraid to speak her mind. 'When people say, 'You're just an entertainer, be quiet', it's always offensive to me. 'Just because I've decided to write songs doesn't mean I've abdicated my role as a citizen. When I have something to say, I say it. 'But it can be very perilous so I'm proud that Springsteen has his platform. He's a kind, compassionate and smart person.' As for Donald Trump 's angry riposte, she adds: 'I think he was rattled by it — and good!' We turn to Personal History's first song, the 'mission statement' What Did You Miss. (In case you're wondering, there's more about Angus to come). Pondering life She draws my attention to the last verse with its lines, '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.' Mary Chapin had been 'pondering life' just as one of her favourite authors provided her with a dawning realisation. 'There's this moment in Elizabeth Strout's novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, when the main character's creative-writing instructor says, 'You only have one story to tell but you will write it so many different ways'. 'When I read that, I took an audible breath and said out loud to no one, 'That's what my songs are!' ' Mary Chapin's recording career stretches back nearly four decades with efforts such as He Thinks He'll Keep Her and I Feel Lucky among her best-loved songs. She was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart in the Nineties, a period that yielded big-selling albums Come On Come On (1992) and Stones In The Road (1994). I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers. You get stuck on one breed. 'I think back to that time and it was like a white-hot light shining on my head,' she says. 'I've always had an uneasy relationship with that kind of attention. 'I was also incredibly ill-equipped to handle it. It was so overwhelming. 'Going to therapy gave me the help I needed to navigate it. Luckily, thankfully, I was surrounded by lovely people.' Underneath it all today is the same Mary Chapin Carpenter, an artist who stays true to herself yet more comfortable in her own skin. Returning to her new album, she says: 'It struck me that after all these years, however many songs I've written, they all come from the same place. 'It makes so much sense to me to think of them as my personal history.' Part of that history is Mary Chapin's abiding love of animals. 'I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers,' she says. 'You get stuck on one breed. 'I believe they know what we're feeling — and who are we to say that they don't?' Thanks to his forebears' sperm being frozen and stored, Angus is a direct descendant of his owner's other dear departed retriever chums. He could be seen at Mary Chapin's side during the pandemic when she, like many musicians in lockdown, shared songs via YouTube from her home. 6 6 This helps explain new track Girl And Her Dog, which finds Mary Chapin intoning, 'Now the older I get the less I need/Just a good old dog underneath the trees.' It was inspired by an early-morning walk with Angus and comes with an intriguing backstory, which she describes. 'I love to walk in the fields near my farm but in summer, when it's tick season and it's full of them - ugh! 'So, before it's too hot, we head to these beautiful gravel roads that stretch for miles. 'Doing her own thing' 'It must have been around 6am when a vintage pick-up truck came up behind us so we stepped off the road to let it pass by. 'Through the cab window, I could see an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair tied into a long braid down her back. And two dogs.' At this point, Mary Chapin's imagination took over. 'As the woman drove by, I started making up a life for her. 'OK, so maybe she's a poet or a painter or a writer. Maybe when she's finished walking her dogs, she's going back to her house. 'Maybe she'll have another cup of coffee in the garden before it's hot and then she'll go back to working on a book.' The fleeting encounter got Mary Chapin thinking of her place in our uncertain world. It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things, She says: 'I'd just had a birthday — I'm in my sixties now — and I asked myself, 'Who am I? What am I doing?' ' First, she decided she wanted to be THAT woman on the gravel road 'doing her own thing'. Then she realised 'in the next breath' that, in a way, she already was much like her. 'After my walk with Angus, I knew I'd get back in my truck, go home, sit at my kitchen table and write. 'I love my home, I love the big trees in the yard (we'd say garden) — and my dog and my cat.' Things brings us to Coda, the elegiac album finale, which neatly sums up Mary Chapin's feelings. She says: 'I've lived through all these different chapters. 'The big noise of my life is not so loud as it was but there's still a rich vein to be mined. 'It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things. 'It's that moment in the morning at the arboretum. "It's the way the light falls against the back of the house. 'It's seeing my dog. 'Not everything has to announce itself in a huge way. 'But the last 40 years have been quite extraordinary and I'm so grateful for where I am. 'I wanted that song to express my gratitude.' Another new one, Paint + Turpentine is also about gratitude — but tinged with regret. It reflects on one of Mary Chapin's chief inspirations, the late, great Texan singer/songwriter Guy Clark, loved for songs like LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A Train. When she was just starting out as a twenty-something hopeful, Mary Chapin would go to The Birchmere club, not far from The Pentagon, just across the Potomac river from Washington DC. 'They were very kind to me there and I started to open for nationally known artists,' she says. 'The proprietor, Gary Oelze, knew I didn't have any money and he'd say, 'If you want to come down and see anybody, just call me and we'll sneak you in'. 'I saw Guy quite often. He would give a masterclass. 'One time. he invited me up to sing with him. 'There I was, spending time with this person whose art I revered. 'He was so kind to me.' Mary Chapin sighs and adds: 'Years later, when I had a record deal and was spending more time in Nashville, I heard from Guy, who said, 'Let's sit down and co-write'. 'Co-writing is something I've always been very poor at and I gave a reason why I couldn't make it. 'It's one of the greatest regrets of my life.' That said, she is tempted to 'let her younger self off the hook'. Perhaps with Paint + Turpentine, she has laid her regret to rest even if one of the lines is a direct reference to Clark's bittersweet The Randall Knife. 'Memory cut like a Randall knife/Felt like it went right through me.' It's important to note that Mary Chapin returned to a familiar stomping ground in the UK to record Personal History — Peter Gabriel 's Real World Studios near Bath. 'I have always loved coming over here,' she says. 'Years ago, I dated a wonderful man who lived in London, so I'd come back and forth. 'It's been a happy place for me.' 'Know thyself, right?' It may come as no surprise, therefore, that she brought her latest compositions to full bloom at the 'beautiful old mill' in the Wiltshire countryside, under the watchful eye of Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufman. She first worked with him on her other record of 2025, Looking For The Thread, a gorgeous hook-up with Scottish folk singers Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis. From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. And thanks to her connection to Josh, Anaïs Mitchell, feted for her album and stage musical Hadestown, joins Mary Chapin on Home Is A Song. 'I'm such a fan. My head exploded when Anaïs said yes,' she says. Before we go our separate ways, I ask Mary Chapin about the harmonica-fuelled Bitter Ender and what the tantalising song title means. 6 In response, she admits that she's not great at dealing with the end of relationships — including her only marriage, which lasted for ten years. Of the song, she says: 'That's me. Know thyself, right? Even when I know something has no future, I'll be clinging on. 'From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. 'It makes me laugh now when people say, 'I'm a bitter ender, too!' We finally have a term for it.' One thing's for certain though — Angus will be waiting for Mary Chapin when she gets back to her farm in Virginia. That loving relationship will never have a bitter end. 6 ★★★★☆
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wants you to read these five books this summer
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has revealed his summer reading list, recommending five memoirs that offer personal insights, leadership lessons and inspiring life stories. Bill Gates also published his own memoir "Source Code" earlier this year. He said that these books helped him shape his understanding of storytelling and self-reflection. 'Writing my memoir Source Code, which came out earlier this year, was no different: I thought about what I could draw on from the best memoirs I've read,' said Bill Gates. This summer's picks promise a journey through different worlds and challenges, seen through the eyes of remarkable individuals. Gates describes memoirs as a window into extraordinary lives, offering valuable lessons on resilience, leadership, and personal growth. He hopes readers will find inspiration and perspective in these selections. 'In any case, I hope you can find something that interests you on this list. Memoirs are a good reminder that people have countless interesting stories to tell about their lives,' added Gates. Here are the five books Bill Gates wants you to add to your summer reading list: "Personal History" by Katharine Graham: This Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography by the former publisher of The Washington Post offers an intimate look at a pivotal period in American journalism and politics, including the Watergate scandal. Gates often praises books that provide historical context and insights into leadership. "Chasing Hope" by Nicholas Kristof: While details on this specific memoir are emerging, Kristof, a renowned journalist and author, is known for his work on global issues and human rights. This book likely delves into his experiences and the challenges he has witnessed, reflecting Gates' interest in understanding complex global problems. "Educated" by Tara Westover: This powerful memoir recounts Westover's journey from a strict, fundamentalist upbringing in rural Idaho to earning a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Gates has previously lauded this book for its themes of self-invention, resilience, and the transformative power of education. "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah: The former host of The Daily Show shares his compelling and often humorous story of growing up in apartheid-era South Africa. Gates has expressed his admiration for Noah's ability to blend personal narrative with sharp social commentary, making this a thought-provoking yet entertaining read. "Surrender" by Bono: The U2 frontman's memoir offers a look into his life, career, and activism. Given Bono's global influence and dedication to various causes, this book aligns with Gates' own philanthropic endeavours and his appreciation for individuals who drive positive change in the world. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
