Mary Chapin Carpenter Quotes
You know, that single girl life and that sense of isolation - that doesn't leave you just like that. And that's what that song is about. I remember that, and that is imprinted on me, that sense.
It's a marvelous feeling when someone says I want to do this song of yours because they've connected to it. That's what I'm after.
Emmy Lou Harris introduced me to the work of the Vietnam Veterans of America foundation and the Campaign for a Land Mine Free World.
Carry with you maps and string, flashlights, friends who make you sing, and stars to help you find your place, music, hope, and amazing grace.
Dreamland is a book, but it's my song in book form. It's translated itself into a different medium.
Life is never a straight line - it's peaks and valleys. Why would you want to be the same person every day of your life?
Every sleepy boy and girl in every bed around the world- Can hear the stars up in the sky whispering a lullaby
Some people say that you should not tempt fate and for them I cannot disagree, but I never learned anything from playing it safe. I say fate should not tempt me.
My sisters and I were fortunate to travel through Asia and Europe at very young ages. We confronted extraordinary beauty in Athens and unspeakable poverty in India.
I think topical songwriting is a real gift, and it's hard not to be pedantic and show up with the sledgehammer message.
I don't think you need to dumb down to a child, you merely have to be clear, you know?
The bedrock thing of country music is, it's about storytelling. I feel like I was able to find a niche because I connected to that in some way.
I grew up listening to everything, and when I got signed to a record deal out of Nashville, that was my introduction to what was happening in country music.
I was a liberal arts junkie and I figured, well, I'll go work for somebody somewhere. All I knew was that I was going to have to come home and figure it out.
I like to feel that every day or most days, I do a little bit of writing. I am a creature of habit in terms of the way I live.
You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way.
I love to write songs and sing them, and I didn't really know much more than that. Somehow it's gotten to the point where a friend can say, "It's very you," and that made me feel good.
When I started out, it was this sense of, "Let's put out a record and see what happens and see where you go and see how you feel and where we can take it." That was a very different world back then.
So I think that if I do feel more freedom right now in my career, it's not so much because I have less at stake but more a sense that I've learned more.
I don't remember a voice On a dark, lonesome road When I started this journey so long ago I was only just trying to outrun the noise There was never a question of having a choice
I've crossed lines of word and wire and both have cut me deep. I've been frozen out and I've been on fire, and the tears are mine to weep.
I certainly felt the desire to reach as many people as I could; I wanted to make the most of this opportunity, sure. But I wouldn't call it pressure the way we're thinking of it now.
You've gotta know happy. You've gotta know sad. 'Cause you're gonna know lonely and you're gonna know sad
There's two lanes running down this road which ever side your on, accounts for where you want to go or what you're running from.
In the late 80s, artists could be signed to labels and be nurtured. It wasn't, "We're going to give you one shot, and if you don't measure up, you're gone".
I think that every new record is a chance to... I think what it is for me is my heart and soul at that moment in time... I've always felt that just being able to make a record is a privilege.
I feel like politics have always informed what I do. If you know anything about my music, you know I've never been shy about stating how I vote.
The joy of being in the studio is having people being utterly free to throw out their ideas.
I found Elvis on the Internet, I went camping with a young cadet, he showed me his bayonet.
I was really young, but I can't say that I wrote much of anything. I liked to scribble; I thought of it as that. But I was playing guitar and ukulele when I was in second grade.
I feel that it's nothing if not an incredible privilege to be able to get up on stage and play for people, and I don't ever take it for granted.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I want to try it again and again, and a lot of times my fellow musicians have to hold me back and say, "Nah, I think we got it."
