The power of three.
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, and Karine Polwart have announced the release of their new album “Looking For The Thread” via Thirty Tigers on 24th January 2025, an exciting debut collaboration from the trio.
No one quite knew what to expect when multiple Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter sought a collaboration with two of the most versatile artists in Scottish music, Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart – least of all the three women themselves.
Conceived in the remote west of Scotland and recorded in Spring 2024 at the Real World studios, “Looking For The Thread” is a rich, resonant which supports and illuminates the core characteristics of each artist while forging a powerful collective identity.
The 10-track album is produced by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman and features Rob Burger (piano, organ, accordion, keys), Chris Vatalaro (drums, percussion), Cameron Ralston (bass) and Kaufman (guitar, keys) along contributions of Caoimhin O’Raghallaig on the hardanger d’amore, a ten-string fiddle.
The album is called “Looking For The Thread” because that is the quest the trio actively embarked upon. “You start to put particular things forward because there’s a resonance with something else,” says Polwart. “It’s not random. The way the songs have spun around each other has been very responsive. It felt very organic. It didn’t feel forced.”
You can pre-save / pre-order “Looking For The Thread” here.
In March 2025, the trio will play five UK shows, taking in Manchester, Birmingham, the London Palladium, Sunderland and Edinburgh. ‘An Evening With Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, and Karine Polwart’ will see them performing songs from their new album “Looking For The Thread” and from across their respective catalogues accompanied by their band.
The tour dates are listed below. Tickets are on sale from 29th November 2024 and be found via this link.
02 March – Manchester – Aviva Studios
03 March – Birmingham – Town Hall
05 March – London – London Palladium
06 March – Sunderland – The Fire Station
07 March – Edinburgh – Festival Theatre
The first single ‘Hold Everything’ has been released. Penned by Karine Polwart, the song gives a nod to the world, as it is, and to John Berger’s beautiful and devastating 2008 book “Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance”.
