Mary Chapin Carpenter may be one of the most lauded singer/songwriters in Nashville, but she’s not one to rest on her laurels. Although the D.C.-area raised Carpenter reaped plenty of critical and popular acclaim for her 2010 album “The Age of Miracles,” she has already written a host of new songs that she’s road testing on her current tour.
“This has been a really fun summer. I had a new record out last summer that I’m still touring to promote … but I feel like now I can open up the set a bit more,” she said. “I will certainly still emphasize [songs from the “Age of Miracles”] but this year I can do a few new songs that I haven’t recorded yet and definitely the fan favorites.”
| Onstage |
| Mary Chapin Carpenter |
| When: 8 p.m. Saturdayy |
| Where: Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Art, Filene Center, 1645 Trap Road, Vienna |
| Info: $25 to $42; 1-877-WOLFTRAP; wolftrap.org |
The multiple Grammy Award winning artist who last year joined Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and other luminaries in receiving “Spirit of Americana” Free Speech in Music Award from the Americana Music Association and the Newseum’s First Amendment Center, said she can’t imagine a life when she’s not writing, recording and touring.
Although Carpenter is seemingly a songwriting veteran as proven by her hits that include “I Feel Lucky,” “Passionate Kisses,” “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” and “Shut Up and Kiss Me,” has a very precise way that she writes.
She talks about the yellow legal pads in her office that have “lots of scribbles about lots of things that remind me of something,” as the main tool she uses to craft her songs. Although she said she admires those who write on the road, she needs the solitude of home to bring her musical muse to life.
That has certainly been the case this year. Carpenter plans to finish writing for her upcoming items sometime in December and then begin recording in January. She dismisses the idea that she enters the recording studio with a strict blueprint for her albums. Instead, much of the process of song selection is intuitive.
“As you work, the larger themes tend to reveal themselves,” she said. That’s incredibly exciting.”
