Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American country and folk music singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C.-area clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records. Although her first album, 1987's Hometown Girl, did not produce any charting singles, she broke through with 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark.
Carpenter's most successful album is 1992's Come On Come On, which accounted for seven singles and was certified quadruple platinum in the United States for shipments of four million copies. Follow-up Stones in the Road appeared two years later and won Carpenter the Grammy Award for Best Country Album, while certifying double platinum for shipments of two million copies. After a number of commercially unsuccessful albums throughout the first decade of the 21st century, she exited Columbia for Zoë Records. Her first album for this label was 2007's The Calling. Since leaving Zoë Records in 2015, Carpenter has recorded for her own Lambent Light label, distributed by Thirty Tigers.
Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards, from 18 nominations, including four consecutive wins in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance between 1992 and 1995. She has charted 27 times on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, with her 1994 single "Shut Up and Kiss Me" reaching number one. Her musical style takes influence from contemporary country and folk, with many of her songs including feminist themes. While largely composed of songs she wrote herself or with longtime producer John Jennings, her discography includes covers of Gene Vincent, Lucinda Williams, and Dire Straits.
Mary Chapin Carpenter was born February 21, 1958, in Princeton, New Jersey. Her father, Chapin Carpenter Jr., was an executive for Life magazine. When she was 12 years old, the family moved to Tokyo, Japan, and lived there for about two years, as her father was looking to begin an Asian edition of Life. Her mother, Mary Bowie Robertson, was a folk music singer and guitarist. As a child, Carpenter learned to play her mother's ukulele and classical guitar in addition to writing songs. She was also inspired by her seventh-grade science teacher, who was a guitarist as well. After her family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1974, Carpenter played folk venues in the area. She attended Brown University and graduated with a degree in American civilization. She began performing cover songs at the folk venues, but by 1981 she had added original material. She befriended John Jennings, a songwriter, instrumentalist, and record producer. The two began collaborating and put together a demo cassette of several of Carpenter's songs which she sold at concerts.
1987–1991: Early years with Columbia Records
Jennings had originally planned to sign Carpenter to an independent label, but the owner of a Washington, D.C. nightclub submitted some of Carpenter's demos to a representative of Columbia Records' Nashville division. This led to her signing with that label in 1987, only two days before she was slated to sign the contract with the other independent label. Columbia released her debut album Hometown Girl in 1987. The label hyphenated her first name as "Mary-Chapin" to indicate that it was a compound given name and lessen the possibility of her being referred to as just Mary. Her albums would continue to punctuate her name in this fashion until 1994. Of the ten songs on Hometown Girl, Carpenter wrote or co-wrote eight. The two exceptions were "Come On Home" and a cover of Tom Waits' "Downtown Train". She had also recorded John Stewart's "Runaway Train" with the intent of including it on the album, but Columbia removed this song because Rosanne Cash had also recorded it and wanted to issue it as a single. Jennings played guitar, synthesizer, piano, bass guitar, and mandolin on the album, while Mark O'Connor contributed on fiddle and Tony Rice on acoustic guitar. Musician Jon Carroll played piano and also provided percussion by shaking a Cream of Wheat can. While the album did not produce any charting singles, it received word of mouth attention in folk music circles, which led to her being booked to perform at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in addition to serving as an opening act for Emmylou Harris.
Because of her first album's commercial failure, Carpenter sought to make her next one more appealing to country radio. She charted for the first time in early 1989 with "How Do", which ascended to number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The song served as the lead single to her second Columbia album, State of the Heart. "Never Had It So Good", a song which Carpenter wrote with Jennings, became her first top-ten country hit by the end of 1989. After it were "Quittin' Time" (co-written by Robb Royer and Roger Linn) and "Something of a Dreamer", which Carpenter wrote by herself. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic thought that Carpenter was "still in transition" between the folk influences of her debut and the more mainstream country sounds of her later albums. She won Top New Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music in 1989. At the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1991, "Quittin' Time" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Her third Columbia album was 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark. Its first single release was her own composition "You Win Again". After it was a cover of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps' "Right Now". Both of these cuts achieved top-20 peaks on Hot Country Songs upon release. "Down at the Twist and Shout", which featured instrumentation from Cajun band BeauSoleil, peaked at number two in 1991. Released last from the album was the top-20 hit "Going Out Tonight". Folk singer Shawn Colvin, a frequent collaborative partner for Carpenter, sang duet vocals on the closing track "The Moon and St. Christopher". Don Dixon played bass guitar and sang backing vocals on the "Right Now" cover, and Matt Rollings contributed on piano. Jennings continued to serve as producer in addition to playing several instruments and contributing backing vocals. Jim Bohen of the Morristown, New Jersey, Daily Record thought that the album was more upbeat than its predecessors, citing "You Win Again" and "Down at the Twist and Shout" as examples. Mike DeGagne of AllMusic thought that the involvements of BeauSoleil and Colvin helped expand Carpenter's sound; he also praised her lyrics on "Halley Came to Jackson" and her vocal delivery on "What You Didn't Say". "Down at the Twist and Shout" accounted for Carpenter's first Grammy Award win in 1992, in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance; the song was also nominated that year for Best Country Song. The same year she won Top Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music. The Country Music Association (CMA) awarded her Female Vocalist of the Year in both 1992 and 1993.
1992–1995: Come On Come On and Stones in the Road
Come On Come On, Carpenter's fourth Columbia album, was also her most commercially successful. A decade after its 1992 release, it was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), honoring shipments of four million copies in the United States. It also charted a total of seven singles between 1992 and 1994. First among these was "I Feel Lucky". Upon its release to country radio, it achieved a peak of number four on Hot Country Songs. The song was also a crossover hit in Canada, reaching top five on the country charts and number sixteen on the Adult Contemporary charts (both then published by RPM). The next release from the album was "Not Too Much to Ask", a duet with Joe Diffie. Following this was a cover of Lucinda Williams' 1989 single "Passionate Kisses". In addition to becoming a top-five country hit, Carpenter's rendition of the song went to number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the Adult Contemporary charts, her first entry on either. In 1993, Carpenter joined other female country singers including Patty Loveless and Kathy Mattea for a television special on CBS titled The Women of Country.