Live Review: Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis & Karine Polwart, London Palladium – 5th March 2025

The London Palladium is certainly a very nice venue, not one that the music fan might immediately think of but there are upcoming gigs from Patti Smith and Graham Nash and the last gig I caught there was Bob Dylan – so it certainly attracts names.  On this evening there was certainly a good measure of names as the trio of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, and Karine Polwart brought their recent collaborative album ‘Looking for the Thread‘ to the stage – along with, naturally enough, choice cuts from their own individual releases.  The three were backed by a four-piece band, sadly not including the album’s producer, Josh Kaufman, on guitar, but he is becoming an increasingly busy man these days.

The show opened with ‘Gràdh Geal Mo Chridhe‘ which should surprise no-one is a Julie Fowlis lead. It’s maybe a Gaelic contractual thing but it is achingly sad and achingly beautiful – even more so when Mary Chapin Carpenter and Karine Polwart add harmony vocals.  It goes to prove, once again, that sorrow can be beautiful in song, whatever the language.

Continuing the running order of the album, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s ‘A Heart That Never Closes‘ is hopeful in love and life and carries it all with a catchy folk-rock tune.  It’s a complete sidestep in style and tempo compared to the opener, but with the harmony vocals once more taking it to a higher level.

Things should have followed their natural progression at this point to a Karine Polwart-led song, and the odds would have been on ‘Rebecca‘ – and the odds would have been right – however there was first an opportunity to introduce some of the backstage crew as a monitor problem required resolution otherwise Polwart would be singing sans guitar.  Clearly somewhat frustrating on stage  although no one in the audience appeared to mind all that much.  ‘Rebecca‘, it was revealed, draws on a youthful act of vandalism which saw a tree in a community forest marked forever with the name of the guilty party.  A song seemingly from the point of view of the tree, but which also feels like a metaphor for a broken love story.  It’s something of a theme for the album, as explanations of several of the songs reveal them to be drawn from natural imagery.

Yet more issues with cables and monitors allowed space for questions from the audience requested by Carpenter.  Through these we learnt that the three had met at various shared events – such as Transatlantic Sessions –  and that more specifically the trio album had been a COVID lockdown idea with Carpenter contacting Fowlis who coolly agreed, nonchalantly, that it sounded like a good idea and that she’d try and get Polwart on the ‘phone while all the while secretly bursting with excitement at the prospect.  The secret is out now.  As is the motivation for Carpenter to work with Fowlis and Polwart, “I’m a harmony slut” she reveals, adding that it’s “not a delicate thing to say but it’s the truth” – the meaning made evident on the marching pace of ‘Traveller’s Prayer‘ given an additional sprinkling of a folky feeling by Fowlis’ addition of whistle.

There’s more aching folkery when Polwart leads on the shimmering ‘Ophelia‘ with delicate percussion adding a poignant note to this very gentle song about the power of nature, inspired by the effects of a huge storm that hit Scotland almost a decade ago and capturing a feeling of standing in the aftermath of the impact of a force of nature – and maybe that’s a metaphor as well.  There may have been a poignancy competition as Carpenter certainly hits a vein of loneliness and loss on ‘The Things That We Are Made Of‘, although there was unanswered optimism in encouraging the audience to sing along with “Oh my darling, oh my love” – it’s the kind of thing that a large London audience always seems to struggle with.  Their loss – how often do you get to sing harmony with three such singers as these?  The first set played out with Polwart’s ‘Daisy‘, a very country song with lyrics that seem very topical: “I know you’ll only say a thing that you believe to be true / but there are people in this world who don’t think like you do / and they don’t think like you do…and some don’t think at all“.  And yes, a song that compares generosity of spirit against a meanness, and fair pay for all against squeezing what you can from a person is likely to always be topical, but it bears repeating and maybe never more so than now.

The second set got underway with four songs from the new album in quick succession – ‘Hold Everything‘ with its selection from the myriad ways of dying is more upbeat than the topic would suggest. Fowlis unravelled the mystery of ‘Silver In The Blue‘ explaining that it was inspired by the lifecycle of the Atlantic Salmon and its ability to navigate huge distances to return to its spawning rivers.  It’s a natural mystery, and here it’s conveyed as an almost spiritual ritual – truly beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful on the album.  It’s matched by the electro-folk of ‘Satellite‘ – personalising the tale of an attempt by retired NASA engineers to revive ISEE-3  (which, you’ll recall, was put into orbit at the first Lagrangian point) and giving the faithful spacecraft a yearning spirit to return home but it’s also possible though that the prize for song beauty should go to Polwart’s ‘You Know Where You Are‘ – another nature-inspired song drawn from the migratory patterns of the Indigo Bunting which could also act as a metaphor for finding one’s way to home – wherever that is.  It’s another song enlivened by Fowlis’ whistle playing, and that tugs at the heart along with Polwart’s lead vocals.

Just in case things were getting too sad, Carpenter lifted the tempo with a song for “anyone who feels overwhelmed by the current darkness.” ‘The Hard Way‘ doesn’t suggest that things will get easier, but does suggest that good things can be achieved through efforts and actions.  Clearly the gig end was approaching as thoughts turned to what the evening meant to the three singers. Introducing ‘Buidheann Mo Chridhe Clann Ualrig‘ as a very sad Gaelic song, Fowlis also noted that her fourteen year old self would have been amazed to be told that one day she’d be singing a Gaelic song at the London Palladium, straight after Carpenter had sung ‘The Hard Way.’ Polwart though went for a more political choice. ‘Sorry‘ was, she said, written about a particular event which in its unspelt out righteous and angry condemnation remains applicable as the years go by.  It’s a strong and strident song, and showed the range of the songwriting abilities on the stage.  Then it was back to the new album as Carpenter led on the soothing balm of ‘Send Love‘ which makes the radical suggestion that love is a better thing to strive for.

The two song encore began with ‘The Lost Words of Blessing‘ from the Spell Songs project that both Polwart and Fowlis are part of and then,  pulling all the tangled topics of the evening together, the last song was the title track of the new album, ‘Looking for the Thread‘, which shows off Carpenter’s gentle questioning vocals before blossoming once more into those rich harmony vocals.  And whilst clearly Carpenter is the most well-known name amidst this folk supergroup, this is an equal partnership with all three contributing songs of note.  Even for the non-Gaelic speaker Julie Fowlis’ songs have an austere grandeur, enveloped in age whilst still proclaiming continuing relevance, Carpenter demonstrated her undeniable song craft and Polwart is there to rip your heart into tiny shreds – albeit tenderly, as if that’s any consolation.  It made for a memorable evening.