I have been enjoying the genius of Mary Chapin Carpenter over the past several days. I own every album/CD she's ever made. I've attended all of her concerts at Wolf Trap since 1996. Some of those were in years of plenty, some others in times more sparse to the point of painful. She has no earthly idea who I am! But she's been like a friend to me, and her stories and songs have a place in my heart like few others.
"Come On, Come On" is a relatively early offering in terms of her popular appeal, and yet it's probably her zenith work. It was the album that took her away from her roots in DC and the Takoma Park, Maryland folk circuit and placed her on a more national stage. The songs cheer me, even if none of them effect me as powerfully as her later songs, more recent songs, like, "My Heaven" & Grand Central Station" from [Between Here And Gone], "What If We Went To Italy" & "Ideas Are Like Stars" from [A Place In The World], and "This Is Me Leaving You" & "The Long Way Home" from [Time*Sex*Love].
In the same way she is able to touch my heart and help me make sense of my desires and experiences, she crafts songs that also speak to the greater society and its asperations and realities.
Bless you Mary!
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