
I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter
Read on to find out what keeps the singer going through days of solitude on her Virginia farm
QUIET LIFE I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter
IN the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia lies the isolated farm where Mary Chapin Carpenter has made her home.
'I go for days without seeing people or talking to anyone,' says the singer, whose dusky, soulful tones and eloquent songwriting put her in such high regard.
Advertisement
6
Mary Chapin Carpenter with her 'dear' Angus
Credit: Aaron Farrington
6
Mary Chapin says her songs tell the story of her life
Credit: supplied
'It's not for everyone but I love it. I've been training for this my whole life.'
Yet she's not really alone.
'I have my dog and my cat for company,' she continues.
Mary Chapin's 'dear' four-legged friends are her golden retriever Angus and her grey and white rescue moggy Big Kitty.
Advertisement
So, I ask, does she ever get lonely?
'Oh for sure, who wouldn't?' she replies.
'But I've lived on the farm a really long time now.
'When I'm working on a project and I'm all in, I don't even notice that I didn't talk to anybody except when I went out to buy groceries.'
Advertisement
Her rural idyll has four distinct seasons — scorching-hot summers, freezing-cold winters 'with lots of snow', beautiful budding springs and glorious golden autumns.
'I couldn't ever live somewhere that didn't have four seasons,' she decides.
'I need them to help me mark the passage of time.'
It was in these surroundings that she sat at her kitchen table — Angus at her feet, coffee cup beside her, acoustic guitar within easy reach — and wrote her new album, Personal History.
Advertisement
At 67, it was her chance to reflect on her life, think about who she is and tell her stories.
I'm meeting Mary Chapin (it's a double forename, like Mary Beth) at a swish London hotel, a stone's throw from the hubbub of Oxford Circus.
A stark contrast to the wilds of Virginia, she calls the dimly lit conference room 'rather bleak' but adds with a smile: 'It'll have to do.'
Engaging and thought-provoking, she soon lights up the place by backing Bruce Springsteen's fervent stance against the noisy incumbent at The White House.
Advertisement
Like The Boss, Mary Chapin is unafraid to speak her mind. 'When people say, 'You're just an entertainer, be quiet', it's always offensive to me.
'Just because I've decided to write songs doesn't mean I've abdicated my role as a citizen. When I have something to say, I say it.
'But it can be very perilous so I'm proud that Springsteen has his platform. He's a kind, compassionate and smart person.'
As for Donald Trump's angry riposte, she adds: 'I think he was rattled by it — and good!'
Advertisement
We turn to Personal History's first song, the 'mission statement' What Did You Miss. (In case you're wondering, there's more about Angus to come).
Pondering life
She draws my attention to the last verse with its lines, 'I've been walking in circles for so long/Unwinding the mystery/I've been writing it down song by song/As a personal history.'
Mary Chapin had been 'pondering life' just as one of her favourite authors provided her with a dawning realisation.
'There's this moment in Elizabeth Strout's novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, when the main character's creative-writing instructor says, 'You only have one story to tell but you will write it so many different ways'.
Advertisement
'When I read that, I took an audible breath and said out loud to no one, 'That's what my songs are!' '
Mary Chapin's recording career stretches back nearly four decades with efforts such as He Thinks He'll Keep Her and I Feel Lucky among her best-loved songs.
She was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart in the Nineties, a period that yielded big-selling albums Come On Come On (1992) and Stones In The Road (1994).
I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers. You get stuck on one breed.
'I think back to that time and it was like a white-hot light shining on my head,' she says.
Advertisement
'I've always had an uneasy relationship with that kind of attention.
'I was also incredibly ill-equipped to handle it. It was so overwhelming.
'Going to therapy gave me the help I needed to navigate it. Luckily, thankfully, I was surrounded by lovely people.'
Underneath it all today is the same Mary Chapin Carpenter, an artist who stays true to herself yet more comfortable in her own skin.
Advertisement
Returning to her new album, she says: 'It struck me that after all these years, however many songs I've written, they all come from the same place.
'It makes so much sense to me to think of them as my personal history.'
Part of that history is Mary Chapin's abiding love of animals. 'I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers,' she says. 'You get stuck on one breed.
'I believe they know what we're feeling — and who are we to say that they don't?'
Advertisement
Thanks to his forebears' sperm being frozen and stored, Angus is a direct descendant of his owner's other dear departed retriever chums.
He could be seen at Mary Chapin's side during the pandemic when she, like many musicians in lockdown, shared songs via YouTube from her home.
6
The singer pictured in 1992 - a decade in which she was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart
Credit: Getty
6
Mary Chapin performing at the 2023 Stagecoach Festival in 2023
Credit: Getty
Advertisement
This helps explain new track Girl And Her Dog, which finds Mary Chapin intoning, 'Now the older I get the less I need/Just a good old dog underneath the trees.'
It was inspired by an early-morning walk with Angus and comes with an intriguing backstory, which she describes.
'I love to walk in the fields near my farm but in summer, when it's tick season and it's full of them - ugh!
'So, before it's too hot, we head to these beautiful gravel roads that stretch for miles.
Advertisement
'Doing her own thing'
'It must have been around 6am when a vintage pick-up truck came up behind us so we stepped off the road to let it pass by.
'Through the cab window, I could see an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair tied into a long braid down her back. And two dogs.'
At this point, Mary Chapin's imagination took over. 'As the woman drove by, I started making up a life for her.
'OK, so maybe she's a poet or a painter or a writer. Maybe when she's finished walking her dogs, she's going back to her house.
Advertisement
'Maybe she'll have another cup of coffee in the garden before it's hot and then she'll go back to working on a book.'
The fleeting encounter got Mary Chapin thinking of her place in our uncertain world.
It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things,
She says: 'I'd just had a birthday — I'm in my sixties now — and I asked myself, 'Who am I? What am I doing?' '
First, she decided she wanted to be THAT woman on the gravel road 'doing her own thing'.
Advertisement
Then she realised 'in the next breath' that, in a way, she already was much like her.
'After my walk with Angus, I knew I'd get back in my truck, go home, sit at my kitchen table and write.
'I love my home, I love the big trees in the yard (we'd say garden) — and my dog and my cat.'
Things brings us to Coda, the elegiac album finale, which neatly sums up Mary Chapin's feelings.
Advertisement
She says: 'I've lived through all these different chapters.
'The big noise of my life is not so loud as it was but there's still a rich vein to be mined.
'It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things.
'It's that moment in the morning at the arboretum.
Advertisement
"It's the way the light falls against the back of the house.
'It's seeing my dog.
'Not everything has to announce itself in a huge way.
'But the last 40 years have been quite extraordinary and I'm so grateful for where I am.
Advertisement
'I wanted that song to express my gratitude.'
Another new one, Paint + Turpentine is also about gratitude — but tinged with regret.
It reflects on one of Mary Chapin's chief inspirations, the late, great Texan singer/songwriter Guy Clark, loved for songs like LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A Train.
When she was just starting out as a twenty-something hopeful, Mary Chapin would go to The Birchmere club, not far from The Pentagon, just across the Potomac river from Washington DC.
Advertisement
'They were very kind to me there and I started to open for nationally known artists,' she says.
'The proprietor, Gary Oelze, knew I didn't have any money and he'd say, 'If you want to come down and see anybody, just call me and we'll sneak you in'.
'I saw Guy quite often. He would give a masterclass.
'One time. he invited me up to sing with him.
Advertisement
'There I was, spending time with this person whose art I revered.
'He was so kind to me.'
Mary Chapin sighs and adds: 'Years later, when I had a record deal and was spending more time in Nashville, I heard from Guy, who said, 'Let's sit down and co-write'.
'Co-writing is something I've always been very poor at and I gave a reason why I couldn't make it.
Advertisement
'It's one of the greatest regrets of my life.'
That said, she is tempted to 'let her younger self off the hook'.
Perhaps with Paint + Turpentine, she has laid her regret to rest even if one of the lines is a direct reference to Clark's bittersweet The Randall Knife.
'Memory cut like a Randall knife/Felt like it went right through me.'
Advertisement
It's important to note that Mary Chapin returned to a familiar stomping ground in the UK to record Personal History — Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios near Bath.
'I have always loved coming over here,' she says.
'Years ago, I dated a wonderful man who lived in London, so I'd come back and forth.
'It's been a happy place for me.'
Advertisement
'Know thyself, right?'
It may come as no surprise, therefore, that she brought her latest compositions to full bloom at the 'beautiful old mill' in the Wiltshire countryside, under the watchful eye of Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufman.
She first worked with him on her other record of 2025, Looking For The Thread, a gorgeous hook-up with Scottish folk singers Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis.
From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender.
And thanks to her connection to Josh, Anaïs Mitchell, feted for her album and stage musical Hadestown, joins Mary Chapin on Home Is A Song.
'I'm such a fan. My head exploded when Anaïs said yes,' she says.
Advertisement
Before we go our separate ways, I ask Mary Chapin about the harmonica-fuelled Bitter Ender and what the tantalising song title means.
6
Mary Chapin has found peace and inspiration on her Virginia farm, drawing on life's quiet moments and loyal companions to create new album, Personal History
Credit: supplied
In response, she admits that she's not great at dealing with the end of relationships — including her only marriage, which lasted for ten years.
Of the song, she says: 'That's me. Know thyself, right? Even when I know something has no future, I'll be clinging on.
Advertisement
'From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender.
'It makes me laugh now when people say, 'I'm a bitter ender, too!' We finally have a term for it.'
One thing's for certain though — Angus will be waiting for Mary Chapin when she gets back to her farm in Virginia.
That loving relationship will never have a bitter end.
Advertisement
6
Personal History by Mary Chapin Carpenter is out on June 6
Credit: Aaron Farrington
PERSONAL HISTORY
Mary Chapin Carpenter

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The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Inside a Bearsden home that's been housing an art gallery for 25 years
This year's Big Summer Show, featuring more than 600 paintings from around 110 artists runs until June 15. 'I see the gallery as the Scottish equivalent of the Royal Academy of Arts in London – without the vast space and hanging committee, of course,' says Ken, smiling. 'At its heart, though, that is what we are trying to do – to make a broad mix of art, of real quality, accessible to as many people as possible.' In 2000, the era of the dot com boom, Ken and Susan took a leap of faith into the online art world, driven by their own passion for and knowledge of the Scottish art scene. Ken's grandson Angus helps with some paintings (Image: ken lemond) 'I have three degrees, none of them in art,' says Ken, smiling. 'I was an accountant before I gave it up to run the gallery full time. 'My interest in art comes from my passion for reading about it and collecting it.' He adds: 'Neither Susan nor I could ever have imagined how it would take off, or that we'd still be doing this 25 years later.' Having a gallery in their home happened 'accidentally', says Ken, with a laugh. 'We brought the artworks into the house to have them photographed for the website, but our friends, who were always popping in, would stop to admire and ask questions, and end up buying them,' he says. READ MORE 'For the first three years of the business we didn't open to the public, we just sold through word of mouth. It was very organic, and it just kept growing.' In 2003, the gallery opened four days a year, prompting the birth of its hugely successful summer and Christmas shows, and in 2010, the couple added an extension to their home to expand the space and allow for more solo and two- or three-person shows. The couple's daughter, Kate Fleming, has joined her parents in the running of the business – unsurprising, she laughs, considering how much it surrounded her growing up. 'My sister Kirsty and I were always yelling, 'can you PLEASE move these paintings' because they were everywhere when we were little - on the floor, on the sofa, and we just wanted to watch television,' says Kate, smiling. Ken with his daughter Kate (Image: ken lemond) 'I didn't appreciate art then, but I realise now how lucky we were to grow up in that world, and to be given such an understanding of it at a young age.' Kate is mother to three-year-old Angus and one-year-old Anna, who make regular appearances at the shows to the delight of their proud grandparents, and the customers. She adds: 'I think Angus's first words, honestly, were 'grandpa' and 'painting'….It is lovely, to see them so excited. And I know I will always be very grateful to have had a gallery in my childhood home.' The Scottish art scene is strong, says Ken, and it has changed considerably even in the years since The Lemond Gallery opened. 'I remember the Glasgow artist George Devlin saying to me that when he left art school 'no gallery wants to look at students or graduates, they just want work by dead artists',' he says. 'Today, I think art is more democratic, less elitist. It is more affordable, and accessible. We have watched that change, and I believe, have been part of it too.' One of the joys of the last 25 years, says Ken, has been gently guiding customers as they grow their collections, filling their homes with beautiful artworks. 'We try to be the scaffolding around them, supporting them, pushing them out of their comfort zone when necessary," he says, smiling. "We have also loved spending time with artists, especially those coming out of art school where they don't really teach you how to run a business. 'We cultivate and nurture them, helping them understand how to work with galleries, how to be realistic with pricing, for example, and that has been extremely rewarding too.' The Big Summer Show, like its winter counterpart, is extensively researched and carefully curated, giving art-lovers both new and established the chance to see a broad cross-section of work. Kate has been a great asset to the business already, says her father. 'She presses me to look at new artists – we have seven in this year's summer show, for example,' says Ken. 'It's really important to keep opening up our reach.' Those new artists, such as Glasgow School of Art graduate Euan McGregor, whose paintings and printworks have been celebrated across the UK, and urban landscape painter Cate Inglis, will exhibit alongside Lemond Gallery regulars such as Kathryn Arthur, Alison McWhirter, Stephen Mangan, Gordon Wilson and Jennifer Irvine. As final preparations continue, it is all hands on deck, says Ken. 'It is really exciting for us – we are a bridge between the public and the artist,' he adds, smiling. 'As all the paintings start to arrive, and we unpack and prepare to hang them, I'm like a child in a sweetie shop.'


Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Scottish Sun
I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter
Read on to find out what keeps the singer going through days of solitude on her Virginia farm QUIET LIFE I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter IN the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia lies the isolated farm where Mary Chapin Carpenter has made her home. 'I go for days without seeing people or talking to anyone,' says the singer, whose dusky, soulful tones and eloquent songwriting put her in such high regard. Advertisement 6 Mary Chapin Carpenter with her 'dear' Angus Credit: Aaron Farrington 6 Mary Chapin says her songs tell the story of her life Credit: supplied 'It's not for everyone but I love it. I've been training for this my whole life.' Yet she's not really alone. 'I have my dog and my cat for company,' she continues. Mary Chapin's 'dear' four-legged friends are her golden retriever Angus and her grey and white rescue moggy Big Kitty. Advertisement So, I ask, does she ever get lonely? 'Oh for sure, who wouldn't?' she replies. 'But I've lived on the farm a really long time now. 'When I'm working on a project and I'm all in, I don't even notice that I didn't talk to anybody except when I went out to buy groceries.' Advertisement Her rural idyll has four distinct seasons — scorching-hot summers, freezing-cold winters 'with lots of snow', beautiful budding springs and glorious golden autumns. 'I couldn't ever live somewhere that didn't have four seasons,' she decides. 'I need them to help me mark the passage of time.' It was in these surroundings that she sat at her kitchen table — Angus at her feet, coffee cup beside her, acoustic guitar within easy reach — and wrote her new album, Personal History. Advertisement At 67, it was her chance to reflect on her life, think about who she is and tell her stories. I'm meeting Mary Chapin (it's a double forename, like Mary Beth) at a swish London hotel, a stone's throw from the hubbub of Oxford Circus. A stark contrast to the wilds of Virginia, she calls the dimly lit conference room 'rather bleak' but adds with a smile: 'It'll have to do.' Engaging and thought-provoking, she soon lights up the place by backing Bruce Springsteen's fervent stance against the noisy incumbent at The White House. Advertisement Like The Boss, Mary Chapin is unafraid to speak her mind. 'When people say, 'You're just an entertainer, be quiet', it's always offensive to me. 'Just because I've decided to write songs doesn't mean I've abdicated my role as a citizen. When I have something to say, I say it. 'But it can be very perilous so I'm proud that Springsteen has his platform. He's a kind, compassionate and smart person.' As for Donald Trump's angry riposte, she adds: 'I think he was rattled by it — and good!' Advertisement We turn to Personal History's first song, the 'mission statement' What Did You Miss. (In case you're wondering, there's more about Angus to come). Pondering life She draws my attention to the last verse with its lines, 'I've been walking in circles for so long/Unwinding the mystery/I've been writing it down song by song/As a personal history.' Mary Chapin had been 'pondering life' just as one of her favourite authors provided her with a dawning realisation. 'There's this moment in Elizabeth Strout's novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, when the main character's creative-writing instructor says, 'You only have one story to tell but you will write it so many different ways'. Advertisement 'When I read that, I took an audible breath and said out loud to no one, 'That's what my songs are!' ' Mary Chapin's recording career stretches back nearly four decades with efforts such as He Thinks He'll Keep Her and I Feel Lucky among her best-loved songs. She was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart in the Nineties, a period that yielded big-selling albums Come On Come On (1992) and Stones In The Road (1994). I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers. You get stuck on one breed. 'I think back to that time and it was like a white-hot light shining on my head,' she says. Advertisement 'I've always had an uneasy relationship with that kind of attention. 'I was also incredibly ill-equipped to handle it. It was so overwhelming. 'Going to therapy gave me the help I needed to navigate it. Luckily, thankfully, I was surrounded by lovely people.' Underneath it all today is the same Mary Chapin Carpenter, an artist who stays true to herself yet more comfortable in her own skin. Advertisement Returning to her new album, she says: 'It struck me that after all these years, however many songs I've written, they all come from the same place. 'It makes so much sense to me to think of them as my personal history.' Part of that history is Mary Chapin's abiding love of animals. 'I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers,' she says. 'You get stuck on one breed. 'I believe they know what we're feeling — and who are we to say that they don't?' Advertisement Thanks to his forebears' sperm being frozen and stored, Angus is a direct descendant of his owner's other dear departed retriever chums. He could be seen at Mary Chapin's side during the pandemic when she, like many musicians in lockdown, shared songs via YouTube from her home. 6 The singer pictured in 1992 - a decade in which she was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart Credit: Getty 6 Mary Chapin performing at the 2023 Stagecoach Festival in 2023 Credit: Getty Advertisement This helps explain new track Girl And Her Dog, which finds Mary Chapin intoning, 'Now the older I get the less I need/Just a good old dog underneath the trees.' It was inspired by an early-morning walk with Angus and comes with an intriguing backstory, which she describes. 'I love to walk in the fields near my farm but in summer, when it's tick season and it's full of them - ugh! 'So, before it's too hot, we head to these beautiful gravel roads that stretch for miles. Advertisement 'Doing her own thing' 'It must have been around 6am when a vintage pick-up truck came up behind us so we stepped off the road to let it pass by. 'Through the cab window, I could see an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair tied into a long braid down her back. And two dogs.' At this point, Mary Chapin's imagination took over. 'As the woman drove by, I started making up a life for her. 'OK, so maybe she's a poet or a painter or a writer. Maybe when she's finished walking her dogs, she's going back to her house. Advertisement 'Maybe she'll have another cup of coffee in the garden before it's hot and then she'll go back to working on a book.' The fleeting encounter got Mary Chapin thinking of her place in our uncertain world. It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things, She says: 'I'd just had a birthday — I'm in my sixties now — and I asked myself, 'Who am I? What am I doing?' ' First, she decided she wanted to be THAT woman on the gravel road 'doing her own thing'. Advertisement Then she realised 'in the next breath' that, in a way, she already was much like her. 'After my walk with Angus, I knew I'd get back in my truck, go home, sit at my kitchen table and write. 'I love my home, I love the big trees in the yard (we'd say garden) — and my dog and my cat.' Things brings us to Coda, the elegiac album finale, which neatly sums up Mary Chapin's feelings. Advertisement She says: 'I've lived through all these different chapters. 'The big noise of my life is not so loud as it was but there's still a rich vein to be mined. 'It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things. 'It's that moment in the morning at the arboretum. Advertisement "It's the way the light falls against the back of the house. 'It's seeing my dog. 'Not everything has to announce itself in a huge way. 'But the last 40 years have been quite extraordinary and I'm so grateful for where I am. Advertisement 'I wanted that song to express my gratitude.' Another new one, Paint + Turpentine is also about gratitude — but tinged with regret. It reflects on one of Mary Chapin's chief inspirations, the late, great Texan singer/songwriter Guy Clark, loved for songs like LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A Train. When she was just starting out as a twenty-something hopeful, Mary Chapin would go to The Birchmere club, not far from The Pentagon, just across the Potomac river from Washington DC. Advertisement 'They were very kind to me there and I started to open for nationally known artists,' she says. 'The proprietor, Gary Oelze, knew I didn't have any money and he'd say, 'If you want to come down and see anybody, just call me and we'll sneak you in'. 'I saw Guy quite often. He would give a masterclass. 'One time. he invited me up to sing with him. Advertisement 'There I was, spending time with this person whose art I revered. 'He was so kind to me.' Mary Chapin sighs and adds: 'Years later, when I had a record deal and was spending more time in Nashville, I heard from Guy, who said, 'Let's sit down and co-write'. 'Co-writing is something I've always been very poor at and I gave a reason why I couldn't make it. Advertisement 'It's one of the greatest regrets of my life.' That said, she is tempted to 'let her younger self off the hook'. Perhaps with Paint + Turpentine, she has laid her regret to rest even if one of the lines is a direct reference to Clark's bittersweet The Randall Knife. 'Memory cut like a Randall knife/Felt like it went right through me.' Advertisement It's important to note that Mary Chapin returned to a familiar stomping ground in the UK to record Personal History — Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios near Bath. 'I have always loved coming over here,' she says. 'Years ago, I dated a wonderful man who lived in London, so I'd come back and forth. 'It's been a happy place for me.' Advertisement 'Know thyself, right?' It may come as no surprise, therefore, that she brought her latest compositions to full bloom at the 'beautiful old mill' in the Wiltshire countryside, under the watchful eye of Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufman. She first worked with him on her other record of 2025, Looking For The Thread, a gorgeous hook-up with Scottish folk singers Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis. From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. And thanks to her connection to Josh, Anaïs Mitchell, feted for her album and stage musical Hadestown, joins Mary Chapin on Home Is A Song. 'I'm such a fan. My head exploded when Anaïs said yes,' she says. Advertisement Before we go our separate ways, I ask Mary Chapin about the harmonica-fuelled Bitter Ender and what the tantalising song title means. 6 Mary Chapin has found peace and inspiration on her Virginia farm, drawing on life's quiet moments and loyal companions to create new album, Personal History Credit: supplied In response, she admits that she's not great at dealing with the end of relationships — including her only marriage, which lasted for ten years. Of the song, she says: 'That's me. Know thyself, right? Even when I know something has no future, I'll be clinging on. Advertisement 'From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. 'It makes me laugh now when people say, 'I'm a bitter ender, too!' We finally have a term for it.' One thing's for certain though — Angus will be waiting for Mary Chapin when she gets back to her farm in Virginia. That loving relationship will never have a bitter end. Advertisement 6 Personal History by Mary Chapin Carpenter is out on June 6 Credit: Aaron Farrington PERSONAL HISTORY Mary Chapin Carpenter


The Sun
4 days ago
- The Sun
I go for days without seeing people….but I have my dog and cat for company, says Mary Chapin Carpenter
IN the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia lies the isolated farm where Mary Chapin Carpenter has made her home. 'I go for days without seeing people or talking to anyone,' says the singer, whose dusky, soulful tones and eloquent songwriting put her in such high regard. 6 6 'It's not for everyone but I love it. I've been training for this my whole life.' Yet she's not really alone. 'I have my dog and my cat for company,' she continues. Mary Chapin's 'dear' four-legged friends are her golden retriever Angus and her grey and white rescue moggy Big Kitty. So, I ask, does she ever get lonely? 'Oh for sure, who wouldn't?' she replies. 'But I've lived on the farm a really long time now. 'When I'm working on a project and I'm all in, I don't even notice that I didn't talk to anybody except when I went out to buy groceries.' Her rural idyll has four distinct seasons — scorching-hot summers, freezing-cold winters 'with lots of snow', beautiful budding springs and glorious golden autumns. 'I couldn't ever live somewhere that didn't have four seasons,' she decides. 'I need them to help me mark the passage of time.' It was in these surroundings that she sat at her kitchen table — Angus at her feet, coffee cup beside her, acoustic guitar within easy reach — and wrote her new album, Personal History. At 67, it was her chance to reflect on her life, think about who she is and tell her stories. I'm meeting Mary Chapin (it's a double forename, like Mary Beth) at a swish London hotel, a stone's throw from the hubbub of Oxford Circus. A stark contrast to the wilds of Virginia, she calls the dimly lit conference room 'rather bleak' but adds with a smile: 'It'll have to do.' Engaging and thought-provoking, she soon lights up the place by backing Bruce Springsteen 's fervent stance against the noisy incumbent at The White House. Like The Boss, Mary Chapin is unafraid to speak her mind. 'When people say, 'You're just an entertainer, be quiet', it's always offensive to me. 'Just because I've decided to write songs doesn't mean I've abdicated my role as a citizen. When I have something to say, I say it. 'But it can be very perilous so I'm proud that Springsteen has his platform. He's a kind, compassionate and smart person.' As for Donald Trump 's angry riposte, she adds: 'I think he was rattled by it — and good!' We turn to Personal History's first song, the 'mission statement' What Did You Miss. (In case you're wondering, there's more about Angus to come). Pondering life She draws my attention to the last verse with its lines, 'I've been walking in circles for so long/Unwinding the mystery/I've been writing it down song by song/As a personal history.' Mary Chapin had been 'pondering life' just as one of her favourite authors provided her with a dawning realisation. 'There's this moment in Elizabeth Strout's novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, when the main character's creative-writing instructor says, 'You only have one story to tell but you will write it so many different ways'. 'When I read that, I took an audible breath and said out loud to no one, 'That's what my songs are!' ' Mary Chapin's recording career stretches back nearly four decades with efforts such as He Thinks He'll Keep Her and I Feel Lucky among her best-loved songs. She was a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart in the Nineties, a period that yielded big-selling albums Come On Come On (1992) and Stones In The Road (1994). I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers. You get stuck on one breed. 'I think back to that time and it was like a white-hot light shining on my head,' she says. 'I've always had an uneasy relationship with that kind of attention. 'I was also incredibly ill-equipped to handle it. It was so overwhelming. 'Going to therapy gave me the help I needed to navigate it. Luckily, thankfully, I was surrounded by lovely people.' Underneath it all today is the same Mary Chapin Carpenter, an artist who stays true to herself yet more comfortable in her own skin. Returning to her new album, she says: 'It struck me that after all these years, however many songs I've written, they all come from the same place. 'It makes so much sense to me to think of them as my personal history.' Part of that history is Mary Chapin's abiding love of animals. 'I've had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers,' she says. 'You get stuck on one breed. 'I believe they know what we're feeling — and who are we to say that they don't?' Thanks to his forebears' sperm being frozen and stored, Angus is a direct descendant of his owner's other dear departed retriever chums. He could be seen at Mary Chapin's side during the pandemic when she, like many musicians in lockdown, shared songs via YouTube from her home. 6 6 This helps explain new track Girl And Her Dog, which finds Mary Chapin intoning, 'Now the older I get the less I need/Just a good old dog underneath the trees.' It was inspired by an early-morning walk with Angus and comes with an intriguing backstory, which she describes. 'I love to walk in the fields near my farm but in summer, when it's tick season and it's full of them - ugh! 'So, before it's too hot, we head to these beautiful gravel roads that stretch for miles. 'Doing her own thing' 'It must have been around 6am when a vintage pick-up truck came up behind us so we stepped off the road to let it pass by. 'Through the cab window, I could see an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair tied into a long braid down her back. And two dogs.' At this point, Mary Chapin's imagination took over. 'As the woman drove by, I started making up a life for her. 'OK, so maybe she's a poet or a painter or a writer. Maybe when she's finished walking her dogs, she's going back to her house. 'Maybe she'll have another cup of coffee in the garden before it's hot and then she'll go back to working on a book.' The fleeting encounter got Mary Chapin thinking of her place in our uncertain world. It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things, She says: 'I'd just had a birthday — I'm in my sixties now — and I asked myself, 'Who am I? What am I doing?' ' First, she decided she wanted to be THAT woman on the gravel road 'doing her own thing'. Then she realised 'in the next breath' that, in a way, she already was much like her. 'After my walk with Angus, I knew I'd get back in my truck, go home, sit at my kitchen table and write. 'I love my home, I love the big trees in the yard (we'd say garden) — and my dog and my cat.' Things brings us to Coda, the elegiac album finale, which neatly sums up Mary Chapin's feelings. She says: 'I've lived through all these different chapters. 'The big noise of my life is not so loud as it was but there's still a rich vein to be mined. 'It's such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things. 'It's that moment in the morning at the arboretum. "It's the way the light falls against the back of the house. 'It's seeing my dog. 'Not everything has to announce itself in a huge way. 'But the last 40 years have been quite extraordinary and I'm so grateful for where I am. 'I wanted that song to express my gratitude.' Another new one, Paint + Turpentine is also about gratitude — but tinged with regret. It reflects on one of Mary Chapin's chief inspirations, the late, great Texan singer/songwriter Guy Clark, loved for songs like LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A Train. When she was just starting out as a twenty-something hopeful, Mary Chapin would go to The Birchmere club, not far from The Pentagon, just across the Potomac river from Washington DC. 'They were very kind to me there and I started to open for nationally known artists,' she says. 'The proprietor, Gary Oelze, knew I didn't have any money and he'd say, 'If you want to come down and see anybody, just call me and we'll sneak you in'. 'I saw Guy quite often. He would give a masterclass. 'One time. he invited me up to sing with him. 'There I was, spending time with this person whose art I revered. 'He was so kind to me.' Mary Chapin sighs and adds: 'Years later, when I had a record deal and was spending more time in Nashville, I heard from Guy, who said, 'Let's sit down and co-write'. 'Co-writing is something I've always been very poor at and I gave a reason why I couldn't make it. 'It's one of the greatest regrets of my life.' That said, she is tempted to 'let her younger self off the hook'. Perhaps with Paint + Turpentine, she has laid her regret to rest even if one of the lines is a direct reference to Clark's bittersweet The Randall Knife. 'Memory cut like a Randall knife/Felt like it went right through me.' It's important to note that Mary Chapin returned to a familiar stomping ground in the UK to record Personal History — Peter Gabriel 's Real World Studios near Bath. 'I have always loved coming over here,' she says. 'Years ago, I dated a wonderful man who lived in London, so I'd come back and forth. 'It's been a happy place for me.' 'Know thyself, right?' It may come as no surprise, therefore, that she brought her latest compositions to full bloom at the 'beautiful old mill' in the Wiltshire countryside, under the watchful eye of Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufman. She first worked with him on her other record of 2025, Looking For The Thread, a gorgeous hook-up with Scottish folk singers Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis. From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. And thanks to her connection to Josh, Anaïs Mitchell, feted for her album and stage musical Hadestown, joins Mary Chapin on Home Is A Song. 'I'm such a fan. My head exploded when Anaïs said yes,' she says. Before we go our separate ways, I ask Mary Chapin about the harmonica-fuelled Bitter Ender and what the tantalising song title means. 6 In response, she admits that she's not great at dealing with the end of relationships — including her only marriage, which lasted for ten years. Of the song, she says: 'That's me. Know thyself, right? Even when I know something has no future, I'll be clinging on. 'From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I've been a bitter ender. 'It makes me laugh now when people say, 'I'm a bitter ender, too!' We finally have a term for it.' One thing's for certain though — Angus will be waiting for Mary Chapin when she gets back to her farm in Virginia. That loving relationship will never have a bitter end. 6 ★★★★☆