SOMETHING Tamed, Something Wild, the first track on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s magnificent new album, beautifully sets the scene for a poetic journey deep into her sensitive soul.
Gazing into a shoebox full of old letters, she is both transported back into the past and forced to confront the present, examining those eternal themes of the fragility of life, the abyss of loneliness and the fleeting nature of happiness.
Mary Chapin Carpenter: "A seductive mixture of velvet and honey"
For the past decade, this hugely-talented singer songwriter has been moving away from the radio-friendly country pop of He Thinks He’ll Keep Her and Passionate Kisses towards more introspective contemporary folk songs and The Things We Are Made Of continues this progression.
Her warm and intimate voice, a seductive mixture of velvet and honey, has never sounded better than on the uplifting Map Of My Heart, The Middle Ages, What Does It Mean To Travel and the sublime Oh, Rosetta, in which, ever so gently, she wonders why our world is its own worst enemy. These songs not only address her hopes and fears, but ours too.
Mary Chapin Carpenter plays York Barbican on July 22 at 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 854 2757 or yorkbarbican@co.uk
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