Hi Mary. Good to talk to you. Was it intimidating taking up songwriting again after your illness?
Well, I had to get back to something I hadn't done in a long time. I I had to stop working and touring for a long time, and going back to songwriting was certainly therapeutic, but also something of a leap of faith. I wasn't sure that I would be able to send those songs out into the world, to perform them or even put them on a record. I really wasn't sure what the end result would be, cause I was just basically trying to regain my health and my life.
How much were these new songs affected by what you had just been through?
I was certainly reflecting on my experiences. That's probably the most normal response to what had happened. It's a period of your life where you're looking inward trying to dissect and disseminate and try to make sense of your feelings. That's how I would describe it.
But how do you deal with something that intense and frightening in a song?
I honestly don't know. I don't have an answer for that. I think you just do it. Perhaps it's what resillience is about. If you're a songwriter, I think it's just a natural response, to deal with and try to address your feelings. But in terms of being more specific, I don't know. It's a good question, but I don't know how to answer it.
Did you ever at any point fear that you not had been able to go back to songwriting and doing what you had been doing for so many years?
I felt that, but again, it wasn't anything that imposed itself on me so strongly that I felt paralyzed. You just go through a period where you try to fight out the negative thoughts, and the positive, you try to work with.
The title of the album and the title track, Age of Miracles, deals with your illness and recovery. What are you essentially saying in that song?
The song is definitely about my experience, about feeling very lost, depressed and unable to connect with the world. It was a direct expression of my feelings after my illness. There was a lot of fear, terror and a sense of not being able to make sense of what had happened to me and my world. I was trying to describe what happens when you feel that way, and how you try to reach out and find faith and healing in the world around you. There are very specific things I allude to, from natural catastrophes that were going on to specific lessons of history. I remember writing the song during the munks' protests against the government in Burma. They were marching in the rain, and every day the world sort of held its breath waiting for the crackdown, and I just remember being so completely astonished and inspired by these acts of courage and bravery. When you're faced with that, you can't help but to put yourself next to it and realise that your own problems are so miniscule and that your lack of courage or motivation needs to be brought into perspective. So it was my trying to deal with what had happened and trying to come out of it.
This question might be difficult to answer, but what do you think this album says about the point where you are in your career right now?
I don't know if I have that perspective on it, or if I'm able to be that objective about it. I spent about three years writing the songs and it was quite simple actually. I felt I had a collection of songs that felt like something of a whole, like a completely sort of narrative. At that point it made me feel ready to make a new record. But where it lands in relation to everything else I've done, I don't know, but everytime you make a new record, I think it's something to be proud of. You hope it stands up to everything else you've done. And I'm deeply proud of Age of Miracles.
Do you go about the songwriting in a different way these days?
No. I don't feel I've changed in any real way concrete way, how I write songs or how I make records. I feel like I've been persistent, and like I said, it's about coming to terms with whether or not you're ready to make that record. It feels very familiar, yet still, it also feels tremendously exciting every time. It feels like a brand new experience every single time, and that feels like nothing else. When I got together with all the guys to make the record, I felt a great sense of creativity, fellowship and kinship during those weeks in the studio. It just felt wonderful.
And it still feels wonderful after ten albums?
Absolutely. I think you'd be in trouble if you felt blasé about it. Then you should probably go do something else.
You surrounded yourself with some of the best players in and around Nashville. Please tell us about the recording of the album.
You know, one of the first conversations we had when we got together to make this record, was how the actual process of making a record has changed so dramatically. Even in Nashville, which is clearly one of the world's great recording centres, there used to be a studio every 500 yards. I don't live there, so I'm not really aware of this, but they were saying how so many studios have closed. There are only about four or five major studios still left in Nashville, and it's sort of a blessing and a curse. One of the players was saying how this was the first time he had done an entire album in a studio, cause with all the home studios around, he was used to just emailing his part in. We were all relishing the old school opportunity we had to make an album the old fashioned way. It felt like a real priveledge given the norm now.
But even though you don't live in Nashville, you must have noticed this shift in how things are done these days?
Well, it's important to mention that it's not just Nashville, but also the rest of the music business. It's everything, it's the way people get their music and how they spend their dollars. So much has changed. But yes, I'm certainly aware of that.
Have you explored the endless possibilities of the internet yet?
I wish I could tell you that I have, but I live out in the country, so I don't have high-speed internet. It's a drag. I can never see YouTube, I can never download videos or get large files of music. It's bizarre. Technology has yet to extend its reach to us…
You worked with Vince Gill on this record, and he's worked on some of the best country and bluegrass records out there. How did this collaboration come about?
I was singing that song one day and I remember thinking, while I was singing it, how great this would sound with Vince Gill on it. I'm pretty shy, I don't like to call up people, but later that same day, a mutual friend of ours came into the studio and we played her the track. She just said ”we should get Vince to sing on that”, and I was like ”oh man!”. So we called him, and he came in and sang on it.
Do you still feel closely connected to country music?
As far as making the record in Nashville, for a long time we were going to make it in L.A. I just didn't feel like being so far away from home. So really, I didn't make the record in Nashville for any symbolic reason in any way, financially it just made sense recording it there. But my ties to country music are very deep and abiding. I have enormous respect and affection for so many artists I've had the fortune to meet and work with over the years. As far as where I am now as a recording artist, I feel I have a connection to country music simply my history, but like everything else, I think it's changed tremendously, and the artists who are now very succesful in country music, are very different from me. But I'll also have a biding affection for the element of country music that honors story songs and songwriters and things like that.
Mary Chapin Carpenter's Age of Miracles is out now on Rounder. Her tour of the UK and Ireland starts October 23, so go to Marychapincarpenter.com for more info on dates and tickets. Tift Merrit will be supporting.
