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Vol. LXI, No. 16
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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Vol. LXI, No. 16
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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Singer/songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter refers to her latest release, The Calling, as a musical depiction that "everything is connected" — songs that link topical and personal aspects of her life. Ms. Carpenter reconnected with her Princeton childhood last Tuesday night as she brought her "chamber band" to McCarter Theatre for a 90-minute un-intermissioned show. Although Ms. Carpenter has returned to McCarter periodically over the past 15 years (most notably for "Coming Around Again," the January 12, 1997 first benefit for the Christopher Reeve Foundation), this year's performance had a further connection to the community in that it served as a benefit for Corner House, a Princeton-based counseling center for adolescents, young adults and their families. The sold-out house at McCarter included patrons of Corner House, friends and family of Ms. Carpenter, and folk music junkies of all types.
In her remarks to the audience, Ms. Carpenter described her walk around Princeton the afternoon of her concert, checking out her old house on Cleveland Lane "like a stalker." Living on Cleveland Lane in the late 1960s put the Carpenters in good company; neighbors included actor Christopher Reeve (who became a life-long friend) and his parents Tristan and Barbara Johnson. Ms. Carpenter later wrote her Princeton childhood into one of her most well-known songs, "Stones in the Road," describing her life in 1968, including watching the Robert F. Kennedy funeral train make its way from New York to Washington, DC.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Ms. Carpenter's first recording, Hometown Girl. The Calling< is the 11th CD in a recording output that includes three Gold recordings (selling more than 500,000 copies) and three Platinum recordings (more than 1,000,000 copies); two of these were multi-Platinum. The early March 2007 release of The Calling initiated a spring tour that brought Ms. Carpenter back to Princeton.
Ms. Carpenter is traveling acoustically light these days, with only three players providing a variety of guitar, keyboard and vocal back-ups. Washington pianist and singer/songwriter Jon Carroll appeared on The Calling and joined Ms. Carpenter for this tour; Kevin Barry, a long-time collaborator, provided accompaniment on multiple types of guitars; and John Jennings, who has played with Ms. Carpenter longer than she can remember, played electric bass. Ms. Carpenter's own guitar playing (on two different instruments no doubt chosen for acoustic and tuning factors) was so free and easy that audience members could watch and feel that they, too, could play these songs. On one guitar in particularly, Ms. Carpenter fingered chords high on the fretboard, no doubt to accommodate the true alto voice she has cultivated over the past two decades.
Long-time collaborations lead to a sense of "in-synch" performing, and Ms. Carpenter clearly felt she could trust her players to provide exact back-up vocals and instrumentals. In addition to playing a baby grand piano, Mr. Carroll played an electric keyboard that simulated the unearthly sounds of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument favored by 20th century French composer Olivier Messiaen.
The atmosphere of the concert was down-home and friendly, with Ms. Carpenter doing a "shout out" with members of her family in the crowd and describing her present life living "out in the boonies" of south central Virginia. In addition to its reflective ballads and musical comments on some current events, her latest CD includes a gentle request of her listeners to "please support your local animal shelters and local animal rescue." Ms. Carpenter's portrayal of her own life with "five dogs, numerous cats and so many other critters" indicated that she is an artist who practices what she preaches.
Princeton's Corner House is celebrating 35 years of service to the community, roughly the same amount of time it has been since Ms. Carpenter and her family moved from Princeton. In its printed event program, Corner House cited its ability to connect "to the community through prevention, education, treatment, counseling, peer leadership, and peer modeling programs." Ms. Carpenter's ability to speak to her community, in particular to women, made this evening an especially successful connection between the arts and life.