Advertisement

Mary Chapin Carpenter talks revisiting old songs, connecting in a digital age and more

The '90s country icon plays the Capitol Theatre on Thursday.
 
Published Oct. 8, 2018

Mary Chapin Carpenter has something to say about the little black rectangle she calls "that tracking device in your back pocket." You might know it as your phone.

"You can find any song, any book, any movie, any television show, any painting, any poem — you can find anything that your heart desires," the country singer-songwriter said by phone recently. "The thing is, there's always going to be a screen between you and that thing that you're experiencing. And in my opinion, there's never going to be any substitute for all of us being together in a live situation, and what that makes us feel like as people, as human beings. It allows us to be connected, and there's nothing more important."

Connectivity has been on Carpenter's mind of late. In March, the 60-year-old singer-songwriter released a new album, Sometimes Just the Sky, on which she reimagines and rearranges one song apiece from each of her 12 studio albums. As she heads back on the road this fall, with a new tour kicking off Thursday at Clearwater's Capitol Theatre (click here for details), she wants to spread that feeling of unity to her crowds.

"I go to shows, too, and I sit in an audience, and when I feel that connection with what the artist is singing and playing, something is triggered inside me," she said. "It makes you feel seen in some way. It makes you feel like, 'I'm here, I'm part of this world, I'm on this earth.' Sometimes you need that so badly."

For more of our interview with Mary Chapin Carpenter, click here.