Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and performer Mary Chapin Carpenter will release her anticipated new album “Personal History” on June 6th via Lambent Light/Thirty Tigers. In advance of the release, the song ‘Bitter Ender’ is out today and available to watch below. The 17th album of Carpenter’s career was produced by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman (and indeed, Anais Mitchell appears on one track) and recorded live at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath and across the eleven tracks, she presents a set of songs that on first view appear way more autobiographical than any collection that has come before. The album can be pre-ordered here.
She says, “A novel that I’ve loved for years is ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’, written by Elizabeth Strout. There’s this moment where the main character is taking a creative writing course, and her teacher says to her, ‘You will only have one story. You will write your one story in many ways.’ I remember reading that line and taking an audible breath. In that moment, I said out loud to no one, ‘Oh, that’s what the songs are.’”
Carpenter has sold over 17 million records throughout her career, including hits like ‘Down At The Twist And Shout’ and ‘He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,’ she has won five Grammy Awards (with 18 nominations), two CMA Awards, two ACM Awards, is one of only twenty-two female members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the 2023 ACM Honors Poet’s Award. Her last solo recording, 2021’s “One Night Lonely (Live)”, was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards—exactly 30 years after her very first nomination. It featured a rare solo performance recorded at Virginia’s Wolf Trap venue and features songs from across her career, including from her last solo studio album, “The Dirt And The Stars”. More recently, Carpenter released “Looking For The Thread“, a collaborative album with legendary Scottish folk stars and songwriters Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis.
Being a very industrious artist indeed, in addition to being a musician, Carpenter hosts the podcast “Hope is a Muscle,” which finds her in conversation with people from all walks of life, including Joan Baez, Adriene Mishler, John Darnielle and U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin and on the heels of the album’s release, Carpenter will join forces with fellow Grammy Award-winning artist and songwriter, Brandy Clark, for a special tour this summer and autumn in the US. No European dates as yet but as ever, we will bring them to you as and when any are announced.
“Personal History” Tracklisting:
1. What Did You Miss
2. Paint + Turpentine
3. New Religion
4. Girl And Her Dog
5. The Saving Things
6. Hello My Name Is
7. Bitter Ender
8. The Night We Never Met
9. Home Is A Song (feat. Anäis Mitchell)
10. Say It Anyway
11. Coda
