By Isaiah Trost
Guitar World Acoustic magazine.
February 1997

Mary Chapin Carpenter, the onetime Brown University undergrad who majored in American Civilization, has herself been a potent civilizing force in pop and country music since arriving on the recording scene a decade ago. Her recently released sixth album, A Place in the World, is another filler-free showcase for the literate, witty, and sensitive songwriting skills that in the past have produced such hugely successful tunes as "Down at the Twist and Shout", "I Feel Lucky", "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", and "Shut Up and Kiss Me".

Even with all her chart triumphs, the New Jersey native is a most unlikely recipient of the country music accolades she has accumulated, which include best female vocalist Grammys(4) and Country Music Association awards(2). She affects no accent, never panders to her country audience, and records all her albums far from Nashville, near her home in the Washington, D.C. area. On top of everything else, she is a wicked acoustic guitarist who relies on her own fine fingerpicking, odd tunings and pungent rhythm playing to drive her songs.

A bit of a throwback to the 1970's heyday of introspective female singer-songwriters, Chapin, as she likes to be called, does them one better-her songs look within, certainly, but her writing contemplates the world outside, too, with the eye of a populist poet. Whether it's about a love gone wrong (or right), creativity or daily life, a Mary Chapin Carpenter song is smart, but easily understood and presented in a polished, but absolutely homey setting.

Nobody had to teach you?

No, I just learned chords out of books to get started, and ever since then I've relied pretty heavily on my ear for things. I've never had any formal lessons. If you know certain fundamentals and basic things, every time you go to a concert, especially in an intimate setting, you can watch people's hands and pick things up that way. You listen to them tuning and that sort of thing, and it's a lesson unto itself.

Did you start to write songs early on?

Yeah, but not in any serious way. I wasn't really thinking about trying to become a songwriter, or a better songwriter, shall we say, until I was an older teenager. When I was really little, I remember scribbling but I can't really think of that as serious songwriting. But when I was a teenager, I spent a lot of "quality time" trying to write songs. [laughs] I really started to enjoy it.

When did you start performing your own songs for people?

When I was a senior in college, we put on a little concert and I included some original songs in that. I really didn't play a lot of original music until I met up with John Jennings [Carpenter's long-time co-producer, guitarist, and bandleader] who's been my pal for many years now. I had a lot of songs, but I just wouldn't play them for people. He really encouraged me to be more forthright about playing my own music. I was already playing in bars and clubs at the time. I would just sort of sneak one of my own into the set and hope nobody would notice. And sure enough, they didn't!

You've been working with John for a long time. I guess you understand each other quite well, musically.

We've known each other for a very long time, and he's just wonderful to work with. He's a real genius.

Obviously, a lot of people have inspired your songwriting and guitar playing over the years. Could you name some of them?

Well, I'm always afraid to say, "Oh, well so-and-so inspired me," because if I can't give you an example of one of my songs that shows a kinship to that person, I feel like I'm not forthcoming enough. I'm not sure exactly how they inspired me, but I just know I loved to listen to people like [bluegrass guitarist] Tony Rice, Norman Blake and [Irish singer-songwriter] Paul Brady. One of the albums I played constantly in high school was Jorma Kaukonen's Quah. Also Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, Motown and [Texas singer-songwriter] Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark-people like that who transcend genres of music.

How is it that someone like you, who really doesn't play by country music rules or Nashville rules, is so successful on the country scene?

Well, I never really felt aware of there being rules. I don't mean to be disingenuous with that. No one ever handed me a set of rules or intimated that they existed. And maybe ignorance is bliss in that way. But with every record that John Jennings and I have made, we've just felt like, "Here's a batch of songs that I feel really good about, now let's serve these songs." As far as them finding their way to commercial radio, it's been a crapshoot every time. Often, it's a matter of timing and, in my case, there were a lot of things coming together about 10 years ago, when I got signed. In a way, if it was today, I don't know if I would get a record deal at all. I probably wouldn't be able to.

What were some of the factors that helped you at that time?

At the time there was an opening up on the part of the labels, sort of an embracing of a lot of different things that perhaps weren't considered viable in country music 10 years prior to that. Specifically, I mean a welcoming of singer-songwriters, of people who, while they might not have on paper a hardcore country music pedigree, have a kinship with lyric-driven songs, story songs, who reflected a diversity of the listening audience as much as anything. So in other words, I feel like the audience is as much a reflection of the artists that are getting played as anything else. The audience started to expand and that fueled a diversity of artists, as well.
Right now, country radio is going through a real soul-searching time. The playlists have shrunk, have become very tight, and that's because there are so many new labels and so many artists now vying for a shot. And people are playing it real safe, in that way. If I was just coming out with my first record, I might have been left behind, because it's a very conservative environment right now.

But here you are with your sixth album.

Yeah-and boy, I'm happy. It's so depressing to me to see careers that last for two minutes. And so I realize how fortunate I am.

And you've also got a base of fans that exists outside the lines of the country radio audience.

Yeah, that's always been happily the case. And I think that's allowed me to continue to work. It's nice to feel that I'm not just appealing to one type of person, one demographic, one age group, one whatever. It's nice to look out into the audience every night and see a real diverse group of people, and to hear from them via letters and meeting them in person. It's variety that makes the world go 'round, and I'm glad to see it in my audience.

Let's talk about some of the songs on the new album. "I Want to Be Your Girlfriend" has kind of an Everly Brothers/Buddy Holly sort of feeling.

Or like early Marshall Crenshaw. I've always loved jangly guitar and all of that. And then something like "Hero in Your Own Hometown" to me is a real muscular song, just a real straight-ahead rocker. I definitely feel like, from my first record to this record, there's been a growing up. As to how that has taken place, I just assume that's a matter of time and experience, and sort of finessing your tastes. It really has to do with the song. To me, the song has always dictated its treatment. I'd like to do a very acoustic-oriented album in the future. But if I do, some people might say in a real sort of simplistic way, "Oh, that's a return to her first album," but it's not, really. It's simply what the songs are dictating.

Are you a disciplined songwriter-do you sit down to write for a certain number of hours every day?

Well, I like the idea and the reality of sitting down for at least a couple of hours every day and working. And that's the way it used to be, before I started traveling so much. Obviously, the travel really cut into that. And when I'm out on the road, I find it virtually impossible to write. So it ends up sort of waiting until I'm home for a period of time. It's not something that I think of as a discipline, but rather just a really good and important part of my day. It fulfills me in a really important way.

Do you practice any arts other than music?

No, I don't do anything else.[laughs] I don't do anything! I love to read. I like to go to art exhibits. I love to hang out with my dogs and my boyfriend, when I have one. You know, I lead a pretty nondescript life.

Did you study music when you were in school?

No, I didn't. As a matter of fact, I took only one course in college that was part of the music department, but it was a bit to the left of formal music training. It was an ethnomusicology course about distinguishing the southern and the northern Kenyan drum beats, and so forth. I nearly failed that course; it was awful. I just did a terrible job in it. And this past year, lo and behold, I received an honorary doctorate from my alma mater, Brown University. I was afraid that they would find out that I was such a waste in that music course, and that they would say, "Sorry, we changed our minds."[laughs] So, while I now have in my possession a doctorate of music from Brown, I can't say that I know anything!

Fine Tunings: The Guitar Styles of
Mary Chapin Carpenter

By Robert Burns

"I spent a lot of time and energy wanting to be a very good guitarist as well as songwriter," says Mary Chapin Carpenter, one of the few country stars who features her own playing on her recordings. "I remember one time, someone from the record label came to the studio while I was recording my guitar part. He said to the engineer, 'What's she doing?' The engineer answered, 'Recording her part!' And the label guy said, 'I didn't know she played!' Stuff like that annoys me. I've always thought of myself as a musician more than anything else."

Besides being an excellent fingerstylist and rhythm player, Carpenter regularly uses alternate tunings, sometimes of her own devising, when composing and in performance. She mostly comes up with the tunings by ear, turning the pegs to different pitches until she achieves her desired sound. "I don't know what the tunings are actually called, so I refer to them by the song title," she laughs. "So there is 'The Hard Way' tuning, which is the one I use most, or the 'I Am a Town' tuning.

According to JP Reali, her guitar tech, Carpenter employs a total of 10 "custom" tunings-some of which she uses for one song exclusively, while others she returns to in later songs(see inset below).

Some of these tunings enable Carpenter to use modified standard tuning first position chords to create unusual voicings. For example, a standard G chord played in the "The Hard Way" tuning, with the high E open, becomes an E chord.

Carpenter's acoustic equipment consists of two John Greven guitars, two Gibson J-185's, a Martin D-28 herringbone (which she uses only at home), a Lowden L27FC and a Lowden SE. "The John Greven guitars are handmade in Bloomington, Indiana. I found one in Washington, D.C. and fell in love with it. I tracked Greven down and he made me another one. They're my workhorse guitars." One of the Grevens is equipped with an Andy Adams pickup system while the other has a Fishman Matrix in it.

Carpenter uses D'Addario light gauge strings and a Shure Wireless system. Key accessories to her sound are her Schubb and Kyser capos. "The Schubb is my main capo and I use the Kyser because I can easily take it off and change positions during the middle of a song."