The Calling - Dark Publications

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Amazon.com
In recent years, Mary Chapin Carpenter--once among the most promising stars of the folkie infiltration of Nashville ("Down at the Twist and Shout," "I Feel Lucky")--abandoned all desire to dot the country music charts. Free of that ill-fitting yoke she returned to being what she really was all along: A literate acoustic singer-songwriter. In 2004, she released a tour de force, Between Here and Gone, which combined affecting social commentary on the events of 9/11 with personal meditations on her changed life as a married woman living in rural Virginia. The Calling picks up where that album left off, using the same co-producer, pianist Matt Rollings, and core musicians, including John Jennings, who helped Carpenter shape her sonic landscape some 20 years ago. If the new album goes farther in advocating a political conscience--"On with the Song" takes jabs at the jingoistic rubes who dissed the Dixie Chicks, while "Why Shouldn't We" insists we'll have worthy heroes in office again one day--it largely invokes the same quiet, warm, and conversational tone as its predecessor. On the whisper-soft "Twilight," which frames a perfect, peaceful evening with a nearly spiritual grace, a listener might easily imagine himself chatting with the artist about long-held secrets and shared experiences, the Blue Ridge Mountains looming in the background. That is part of Carpenter's gift--connecting with her audience's shadow self, using her deeply nuanced alto to fill even the simplest words with profound knowing. As a pure craftsman, however, she ranks with the giants of past generations in capturing the small, bruised hearts seemingly lost in the chaos of a catastrophic event. "Houston," one such song here, recalls Woody Guthrie's great "Deportee" in its power and the pathos of the Hurricane Katrina victims who were forced to evacuate their homes, leaving everything behind but fear and hope. "Mama's got her baby/Sleeping in a grocery cart," it begins, at once setting up a picture of wrenching desperation. Carpenter, no stranger to blue moods herself, knows how tough it is to emerge from a dark period of pained restlessness to find one's very self again. The album's soothing closer, "Bright Morning Star," like much of the record as a whole, offers a beacon of light and safe harbor for those shipwrecked on life's rocky shores. --Alanna Nash

Album Description
As a songwriter and performer, Mary Chapin Carpenter has long since transcended the traditional notions of genre and style, finding widespread acclaim for her poetic, elegantly - observed compositions. The Calling, her first release for ZoA/Rounder, is the most topical album she's made in her twenty-year career. While it unequivocally addresses issues both public and political - from the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina to religious zealotry to the trial-by-radio of the Dixie Chicks -- there is also something deeply personal about this extraordinary collection of songs. The album is a powerful, provocative meditation on the mysteries of fate and circumstance, which mingles timeless questions with contemporary issues. Introspective, defiant and deeply resonant, The Calling is a profound set from one of modern songwriting's most distinctive voices.

Featuring "It Must Have Happened," "We're All Right," and "On with the Song."

Customer Reviews: Read 74 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

MAY BE HER BEST YET March 6, 2007
69 out of 73 found this review helpful

Mary-Chapin Carpenter has always been a troubador in Nashville's clothing but there's no more chart room for her in Country Music now that they're looking for prefabricated pop stars with a twang. Their loss.

Freed from Nashville's constraints Mary-Chapin delivers possibly her best album ever. Eloquent, elegant and elegaic, she is a master of simplifying the most complicated truths and singing them in a melodious, sparse, straightforward manner.

Here she writes politically ("I'm the decider, like some kind of Messiah") on the brilliant "On With The Song" and a song about Hurricane Katrina refugees "Houston", as well as tenderly on "Closer And Closer Apart" about a disintegrating relationship and about just the opposite on "Here I Am." Other fantastic songs are the rocking "It Must Have Happened," "Twilight," "Why Shouldn't We," and the wonderful "Your Life Story" which asks the question "maybe love is all anybody should believe in?"

Something you can believe in is "The Calling" is an exquisite CD that is a must have for anyone who believes in clearheaded, intelligent songs lovingly delivered. Extra points for both the production and engineering which are pristine and flawless.

When you get The Calling - answer. Greatness awaits you.

5 out of 5 stars

Her best since Come On Come On March 14, 2007
40 out of 43 found this review helpful

Mary Chapin is one of my favorite artists, and her Between Here And Gone is a very good CD. But it really didn't show all her sides, as it was quite ballad-oriented. On The Calling, she rocks out harder than ever while retaining her talent for painting portraits of the human condition and producing beautiful, folky melodies. Check out the amazing slide guitar on "We're All Right." "Houston" is a deep and heart wrenching look at the plight of Katrina evacuees. The only slight faults are "It Must Have Happened" and "Your Life Story" having similar (but strong, especially on "Your Life Story") riffs, and there aren't any fun songs like "Shut Up And Kiss Me." Republicans might want to skip "On With The Song," but it is nice that she did a song in support of the Dixie Chicks. I fully expect this CD to be on my best of 2007 list!

5 out of 5 stars

Mary Chapin's True Calling March 29, 2007
28 out of 29 found this review helpful

Like Paul Simon, Mary Chapin Carpenter is not a particularly prolific songwriter. She crafts her songs with care, honing and perfecting them before she shares them with the listening public. But like Simon in his prime, when she does decide the songs are ready and releases an album of new material, the result is usually outstanding.

With The Calling, MCC leaves the major label world where she stood out for her literacy and honesty, and enters the land of the independents, recording for Zoe Records, an imprint of the folk-oriented Rounder family of labels. That being the case, one might expect an all-acoustic outing along the lines of her first record, 1987's Hometown Girl.

Surprise! While the opening title track begins with a Springsteen "Thunder Road" piano opening, it develops into an electric guitar driven modern country ballad. Except that the lyrics are much more intelligent than anything you're likely to hear on Eagle 97. When big-bam-boom drums kick off "We're All Right," you know Mary Chapin's been plugging in her Rickenbacker out in the rolling hills of central Virginia when the songwriting urge appears. This one is an ought-to-be hit single waiting for some open-eared radio programmer to risk expanding his playlist.

I'm guessing it won't be a country music one, though. "On with the Song," rockin' as hard as anything coming out of Nashville these days (atop a jangly Byrds/Tom Petty electric 12-string), stands her defiantly with the Dixie Chicks--"This isn't for the ones with their radio signal/Calling for bonfires and boycotts they rave"--and is her most blatantly political song to date: "This isn't for the man who can't count the bodies/Can't comfort the families, can't say when he's wrong/Claiming I'm the decider, like some sort of messiah/While another day passes and a hundred souls gone."

"It Must Have Happened" is an anthemic rocker built on a Stones-like lick that punches up personal, ultimately triumphal lyrics. She wrote "Why Shouldn't We" as an expression of hope on the eve of the 2004 elections. The album's centerpiece, "Houston," tells the tale of Hurricane Katrina refugees saying goodbye to New Orleans as they roll toward an uncertain future in Texas.

Carpenter's most touching songs are usually her intimate acoustic guitar pieces, either telling an imagined story of some semi-fictitious character or autobiographically revealing a snippet of her own life. There are several here: "Here I Am" is beautiful and touching; "Twilight" is the disc's prettiest song; "On and On It Goes" is sheer poetry. "Closer and Closer Apart," essentially a voice and piano duet, is heartbreaking in its evocation of a sad farewell.

It's interesting to note that Mary Chapin Carpenter never recorded in Nashville when she was topping the country charts in the early `90s. But now that she is in a musical class by herself, unfettered by anyone's hitmaking machinery and unbound by any constraints other than those imposed by her own muse, she has cut her second album in a row there. And she just gets better. She remains the class act of her generation. The Calling continues her remarkable string of masterful works.

copyright 2007 Port Folio Weekly. Used by Permission.

Originally published in Port Folio Weekly, 3/27/07.

2 out of 5 stars

most songs lacking what makes me a fan of MCC March 13, 2007
18 out of 40 found this review helpful

This collection lacks the mesmerizing quality of "Stones", my favorite MCC offering, and the poetic phrasing so typical of nearly every other one of her previous releases. Lines like "jingoistic bumper stickers" and "attention must be paid" clank loudly compared to past gems like "sienna shades of light", "halcyon days", and "lambent wind". The celeb solidarity anthem "On with the Song" is half-baked as well as disingenuous. This is political braying, not the thoughtful eloquence delivered in "Grand Central Station" or the title track of "Stones". Plus, who is being addressed with the line "So do what you want 'cuz I know that you can"? You can't feel a radio backlash when your songs aren't played there to begin with. Still, there are a few redeeming tracks, like "Twilight" and "It Must Have Happened", and MCC's talent for combining imagery and melodies resonates through them.

2 out of 5 stars

In the Minority May 11, 2007
18 out of 25 found this review helpful

You can see by my rating that I'm in the minority here. I was so disappointed with 'Between Here and Gone' I swore (and even wrote) I would think twice about purschasing another Chapin disk.

I did not take my own advice when it came to 'The Calling'. I purchased the disk site unheard. It starts off a lot more promising than her last one. The title song (and first cut) is the stand-out track, but for me, after that it just all goes downhill.

She is in fine voice, but the arrangements leave the songs to be bland and sounding mostly all the same.

I miss the MCC who was able able to mix up the introspective with the fun and funny...the country, the folk and the rock(ish). Even the 'controversial cut' of "On With The Song" seems forced. I can't help but think that the MCC of 15 years ago would have handled it better.

I'm all for maturing as an artist, but the last two disks I have been too similar and I have not even been able to play all the way through in one sitting. That's not a good sign.

I expect to get all negative feedback on this review, but I guess it is just something I'll have to live with.

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