Mary Chapin Carpenter has pegged June 12 for the release date of her latest album, Ashes and Roses. The disc is available on the Zoe/Rounder Records label and Carpenter will set out on a North American tour this summer in support of it.
Carpenter has been writing lyrics for over 25 years. She has a keen eye for detail, which translates to songs that stimulate both the intellect and emotions. Her music bridges the boundaries between folk, pop and country. Ashes and Roses is the followup to Carpenter’s 2010 disc, The Age of Miracles, which went top 10 on the country charts and number one on the folk. The Age of Miracles was written in the shadow of a life-threatening pulmonary embolism that Carpenter has since recovered from. It was also nominated for a Grammy. Carpenter has received 15 Grammy nominations over the years and has won five. Her past hits include such songs as “Passionate Kisses,” “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” “I Feel Lucky” and “Shut Up and Kiss Me.”
Ashes and Roses was produced by Carpenter and Matt Rollings, her long-time collaborator. The disc was recorded in Nashville and features 13 songs. “They say that the worst, the most traumatic things that people can go through in their lives are a divorce, the loss of a parent and catastrophic illness,” Carpenter says on a site for her upcoming Taft Theatre (http://www.tafttheatre.org/) performance. “All of those things have happened to me in the last few years.
“So these are the songs that came about when I started to write. To try and push them away, or write about something else, wouldn’t have been authentic. Songwriting is what I do. This is how I make sense of things, it’s how I seek connection and make my way through the world.
“Ashes and Roses is a record about grief and loss, but it has an arc. It does go from night into day. I feel like it travels through some of the hardest, most difficult territory to a place of renewal. It speaks to that journey as it tries to describe what is seen and felt and experienced along the way. And one does get to the other side. I’m not entirely convinced that I’m through it all, but I am walking and talking and moving on with my life.”
In 2011, Carpenter’s father died. It was her father that propelled her career, when he suggested that Carpenter perform at an open mic competition. Carpenter references her dad in the song “Chasing What’s Already Gone:”
“Saw my father in a dream last night; He was smiling and said ‘You’re gonna be alright’;
And this morning I stared back at myself; Feeling as empty as I ever felt;
But I keep on going and I hope I’ve learned more of what’s right than what’s wrong;
It’s ashes and roses and time that burns when you’re chasing what’s already gone.”
“Chasing What’s Already Gone,” along with “Soul Companion” (a duet with James Taylor), are the first songs available from Ashes and Roses on iTunes. The complete tracklist is below.
Tracklist:
1. “Transcendental Reunion”
2. “What to Keep and What to Throw Away”
3. “The Swords We Carried”
4. “Another Home”
5. “Chasing What's Already Gone”
6. “Learning the World”
7. “I Tried Going West”
8. “Don't Need Much to Be Happy”
9. “Soul Companion”
10. “Old Love”
11. “New Year’s Day”
12. “Fading Away”
13. “Jericho”