Mary Chapin Carpenter

Mary Chapin Carpenter was born in Princeton, NJ. As a child, she lived in Japan, Washington D.C., New Jersey, and Connecticut. She performed music publicly for the first time shortly after graduating from high school in 1976, playing guitar at a bar in Washington D.C. Carpenter went on to study American civilization at Brown University. During the summer months, she began performing regularly around the D.C. area, hosting opening mic nights at local taverns, which she kept up with following her graduation from college in 1981. Her assimilation into the music circuit led her to a friendship with guitarist John Jennings, who ultimately became her producer. Around the same time, Carpenter earned the attention of Columbia Records, which released her debut album, Hometown Girl (1987). Per Columbia's urging, Carpenter retooled her sound to befit a country music style, releasing State of the Heart (1989) during this phase. She earned much greater success after broadening her appeal with Shooting Straight in the Dark (1990), which featured the Grammy-winning song "Down at the Twist and Shout," and Come On Come On (1992), which featured its own Grammy winners in "I Feel Lucky" and "Passionate Kisses." After releasing the likewise well-received Stones in the Road (1994) and A Place in the World, Carpenter took a brief hiatus before putting out her next album: Time* Sex* Love* (2001), which marked a stylistic departure, as well as a commercial downgrade, from her prior releases. She followed this album with the politically oriented Between Here and Gone (2004) and The Calling (2007). She dabbled in journalism briefly, writing a political column in The Washington Times between 2008 and 2009 before releasing The Age of Miracles (2010), which proved to be a greater commercial success than any of Carpenter's recent works. Next, she released Ashes and Roses (2012) and Songs from the Movie (2014).