Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Calling
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Free Music Notes for The Calling
Free Music Review: Thanks for sharing your political views.
Hit: 5 Stars
Unlike the reviewer Gilchrist, I'm glad artists like Carpenter, Springsteen, The Dixie Chicks and many others aren't shy about sharing their political views. Those who want to control our speech and political perspectives would prefer that people just ignore politics, or advance a politics of happy talk and god-blessing ourselves. Fortunately, most people refuse to be mind-numbed dittoheads and can deal with critical thought. Carpenter's politics are of the sort that are promoted in the Bible, which include working for social justice Yes!. There are plenty of right-wingers in this country who choose silence and complicity with America's corporate-military matrix The Corporation, and there are 'artists' like Lee Greenwood to entertain them. Other people prefer that artists mix their craft with awareness of the realities of the world, such as the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina When the Levees Broke - A Requiem In Four Acts (Documentary). Regarding 9/11, it was a horrific attack, but the death toll was small compared to what U.S. state terrorists have been inflicting on other countries for generations Rogue State, 3rd Edition: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower.
Carpenter was prescient in suggesting that the U.S. could have decent people in elected office again, as the Obama revolution has proven; but there is another revolution that is taking place in places like Venezuela and Brazil. That movement is based on grassroots power, not the power of politicians Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas, and it is advanced by musicians who don't care about the voices who threaten them with lost sales.
Here are a few other artists who have been raising consciousness, much to the dismay of authoritarian thought police:
Come on Now Social
Stay Human
Sonic Jihad
Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran
Free Music Review: She's back
Hit: 5 Stars
I first saw MCC at the Telluride Bluegrass festival in 1991. She had just quit
her day job as a secretary in the DC area. After her main stage act she and
John Jennings did a workshop at the local theater to about twelve people. Sitting
about six feet away from her I became entranced with not only the genius of
her poetry, but the magic of her old-soul delivery. I knew I was seeing a new American
treasure in the making. Towards the end I asked her to play "John Wilkes Booth,"
the song she wrote for Tony Rice. She did so graciously. So not only is she a genius,
I thought, she's a nice person. When I got back to Iowa I wrote her the only
fan letter I've ever written. And I'm by nature a pretty cynical guy.
So it was with great joy and almost parental glee as I watched her meteoric,
albeit brief career as the new thing in "country" and the darling of Nashville.
And it was with great sadness as I watched her apparently fall from grace
in that carnivorous world. And it was with even more sadness as I watched
her apparently try to cling to those glory days by trying to write "hits"
instead of sticking to her true craft - poetry put to acoustic music.
Thus over the past several years I lost track of her. I don't think I even
bought her last three records.
I then by chance saw a blurb on The Calling and bought it. Upon listening
I was incredibly moved, not only because of the genius of nearly all the songs
thereon, but because MCC has rediscovered her roots. I feel reborn.
Obviously so has she.
Free Music Review: Her best album in 13 years!
Hit: 5 Stars
Although I agree with most of the reviewers' comments, I thought I'd add my two cents here. I've been a big MCC fan for a while, so every time a new CD is released I get excited. Frankly, I usually am disappointed a bit, but not with this album! I like MCC for a lot of the same reasons others do: her captivating lyrics, her velvety voice, and the musicians she surrounds herself with.
Like a lot of her work, MCC has a number of up-heat and catchy tunes thrown in with a number of slower ballads. "Houston" is one her best ballads because it really paints a picture that anyone can grieve over. To me, it connotes "I Am a Town" from "Come On, Come On" in its ability to show an outsider what it's like in someone else's world.
As always, I enjoy more the up-beat rock songs like "We're All Right" and "Your Life Story." These are the tunes that not only send a message of hope and general love about the world, but make you groove and think at the same time.
The second to last song, "Why Shouldn't We," is one I've heard her perform live at the beginning of a concert, though I feel it's more appropriate at the end of a disc, as it's placed here. Leave with a message of hope and a "love thy neighbor" attitude. It may be too hippie for some, but I personally believe that this is as good a time as any to show the world at large a little love, and that is what our Lady Carpenter is precisely doing with this album.
Free Music Review: MAY BE HER BEST YET
Hit: 5 Stars
Mary-Chapin Carpenter has always been a troubador in Nashville's clothing but there's no more chart room for her in Country Music now that they're looking for prefabricated pop stars with a twang. Their loss.
Freed from Nashville's constraints Mary-Chapin delivers possibly her best album ever. Eloquent, elegant and elegaic, she is a master of simplifying the most complicated truths and singing them in a melodious, sparse, straightforward manner.
Here she writes politically ("I'm the decider, like some kind of Messiah") on the brilliant "On With The Song" and a song about Hurricane Katrina refugees "Houston", as well as tenderly on "Closer And Closer Apart" about a disintegrating relationship and about just the opposite on "Here I Am." Other fantastic songs are the rocking "It Must Have Happened," "Twilight," "Why Shouldn't We," and the wonderful "Your Life Story" which asks the question "maybe love is all anybody should believe in?"
Something you can believe in is "The Calling" is an exquisite CD that is a must have for anyone who believes in clearheaded, intelligent songs lovingly delivered. Extra points for both the production and engineering which are pristine and flawless.
When you get The Calling - answer. Greatness awaits you.
Free Music Review: Amazing Recording! This will no doubt be a lasting favorite of mine.
Hit: 5 Stars
I absolutely love this album! I was not a MCC fan up until recent chance--a friend offered me two tickets to a MCC show that he was unable to go to. In my head I mmediately connected MCC to the country hits of years ago. She only performed a couple of her old "hits" that evening, but I was anything but disappointed! Her showcase of this new album at the concert blew me away! Her voice, the lyricism and the simple, but moving, musicianship of this batch of songs was refreshing, meaningful and inspiring. The concert review in our paper the next day raved on the quality of her performance, but commented that she may have relied a bit too heavily on her new music--I couldn't have disagreed more! The next morning I was online buying this CD and it has remained in my player since.
It's difficult to select favorites, as I honestly have found something endearing in them all. Houston is amazing overall, but I personally love Here I Am, the song she played to open her show. I have since purchased "Between Here and Gone" and "The Essential Hits", but this CD easily outshines them both. The songs on "The Calling" possess everything that today's music seems to be missing--heart.