Mary Chapin Carpenter
The Age Of Miracles
Zoe Records
www.rounder.com
By George W. Harris

Singer/songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter has been around for quite
awhile on the folk and sdemi-country scene. The reason she’s being
covered here is simply because, like all great artists, she is able to
“tell a story.” This art is seemingly lost on many jazz musicians and
singers, and maybe a listen or two to an album like this
Grammy-nominated one will rekindle a return to one’s first love. Songs
such as “I Put My Ring Back On” deals with marital commitment in a
heart on sleeve manner, while “I Have A Need For Solitude” intimates
the need for exhaling as well as inhaling in a relationship. On a
different level, “4 June 1989” tugs at the need to be socially and
politically relevant, with all of these songs delivered in a plaintive
and vulnerable manner. A few songs such as these should be done by
today’s jazz singers, and maybe some of the tunes could end up
emanating from a tenor sax, hopefully with as much feeling.