Customer Reviews

Between Here And Gone

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Just listening to this album (as I've done repeatedly for the past few days) reveals that Mary Chapin Carpenter has put miles on since the times when she was considered just another talented country singer. While the musical roots are still there, in the rhythms and instrumental choices, 'Between Here and There' is clearly something else entirely. Is it popular music? Is it folk music? I honestly don't know, but it is earnest, beautifully musical, and deeply touching.

The three years since her last album have been times of change, not just for Carpenter, but for all of us, and this album captures much of the poignancy of a traveler through life who understands that sometimes the changes aren't for the good, but that sometimes they are. Sometimes they are deeply affecting, an sometimes they are swirls on the surface of something much deeper. Here we will find the nostalgia of 'Elysium' and the hope of 'My Heaven.' The abiding concern of 'Goodby America' and the deep grief of 'Grand Central Station.'

This is intensely introspective music - yet it is an introspection that comes to all of us at the way stations of our lives. The production, amplified by the addition of Matt Rollings, presents a much broader spectrum than her previous work with John Jennings. It hints at more greatness to come while managing to be perfect in and of itself. If you are like me, you will find yourself returning to this album repeatedly, listening to the music and musing on the words. A genuinely wonderful album.

then this MCC CD, her first since 2001, and only her second collection since 1996, is not for you.

Old fans want MCC to give them more of "Down at the Twist and Shout"...country fans want her to give them country. People want MCC to declare her style. Well, she doesn't have just one style, and "Between Here and Gone" is evidence of that.

There will probably not be any big "hit" from "Between Here and Gone"....MCC should be able to get play time as Sheryl Crow does, between country and pop, but because she doesn't present as a rocker chick, or stay on the pages of People magazine, MCC will, thankfully, get to do just exactly what she wants with her music. And "Between Here and Gone" demonstrates that. It is a poetic collection, a demonstration of the wisdom that MCC has gathered by being a spectator of this world, and by writing songs about what she loves. It may not "hit" you, as a listener, right away. In fact, the opening tune, "What Would You Say to Me"...which may have been included so that MCC had a chance at a country single hit, well, it's not worthy of the rest of the CD, but it does add the uptempo that many of her fans seem to want. The remaining songs are interwoven with wisdom and some sadness. I'm only lukewarm about "My Heaven" - MCC's song about moving between life and afterlife (her reaction to the novel "The Lovely Bones") although I do love that line about Eva Cassidy..."when Eva's singing 'Fields of Gold')...lukewarm was my reaction to the novel, as well.

In the remaining songs, MCC implants her poetry and her tunes, with help from acoustic genius John Jennings and capable producer Matt Rollings, in your head, and you can't get them out of there once they're in.

"Grand Central Station" stands out as MCC's tribute to 9/11, from an odd angle, of a construction worker waiting in the vaunted old station and seeing what we've all seen, from a new and more sad perspective. The voices of those who died that day keep resounding in the aftermath of his day's toil to clean up the madness.

"Beautiful Racket" and "Girls Like Me" find their wisdom in Mary's new and married life...what it is like now, and what it was like before she found the person she was seeking. "Beautiful Racket" could succeed as a video on CMT -- there are millions of married women out there who can relate to the craziness of the days...all worthwhile.

"Luna's Gone" wakes up the CD for me, in second place on the list -- otherwise I'm sort of numb until song 5. "Luna's Gone" is sim[ply a collection of beautiful memories about someone who has left the family...

"Little wild child we loved so true,... Guess the wind in the trees is all she left behind her...Guess it's part of the plan to know we'll never find her"....

But the intensity of the CD is on the remaining songs. MCC wrote "Goodnight America" as her tribute song to the days that were and the days that now are, as America wakes up from its naivete. It's not a Toby Keith bleed red white and blue ballad, but it does encompass the way many of us feel as we look forward into the world we've created for our country.

"Between Here and Gone" is MCC's tribute to " all the splendid ones gone too soon"...including the greats Dave Carter, Jim Croce and Tom Mader. It's a poignant and sad song that leaves us no doubt that MCC sometimes finds her muse in the way others would have given us music today, if they were still with us. Then too, it capitalizes on her feelings left over from "The Lovely Bones":

"Could I have felt the brush of a soul that's passing on......
Somewhere in between here and gone..."

Other reviewers here have praised the songs "River" and "Elysium", certainly two of MCC's all time best. Both are love songs of the most poetic, and the melodies and arrangements outstanding. To give you a flavor for two of the other fine songs that have gone without much recognition, I keep returning to "One Small Heart" and "The Shelter of Storms".
Again, lyrically and rhythmically, instrumentally, these are
incredibly poignant.

In "One Small Heart"...MCC is taking off and traveling the open road. Perhaps her singer is the girl that left in "Luna's Gone"...in any event, she's captured the lonely wanderlust of anyone who's gone on the road to escape the life they lead.

"They lost you to the open road, one small heart and a great big soul that's driving".....and a signature line:

"The key to traveling light is to not need very much.". There's some beautiful keyboards and steel guitar in this cut, and this one is hard to shake from your head, once its implanted.

Finally, "The Shelter of Storms"...is a bittersweet song of lost love and the wisdom that comes of looking back on it. MCC is truly introspective here, and the lush arrangement and low timbre of her voice, along with a poignant echoing of a french horn in the arrangement help present the pain to the lover who has left her. Not at all radio friendly, "The Shelter of Storms" is one of those jewels you will need to discover for yourself as you listen to this CD with your ears wide open.

Sad and angst ridden? Perhaps that is the tone that some listeners hear...for me, MCC gives us the outlines of her view of life, looking back and forward. Too talented to be just a poet, Carpenter continues to demonstate that she is her own musician, and one who has grown into a classic purveyor of songs that have meaning.

If you were impatient with Norah Jones jumping around genres on her newest release...if you think her music is boring and puts you to sleep...you won't like MCC's new CD, either. But if you're able to listen with both ears and heart, you'll realize it is one of her classics.

Highly recommended.

I've been a fan of Mary Chapin Carpenter for fourteen years now. I have all of her albums (rather, CD's...I'm dating myself). I know each line from every lyric she's ever written. I can tell you what instruments are played in each arrangement. Her lyrics and music have inspired me musically and personally. I could sing her songs word for word in my sleep! In other words, I know her stuff!

Between Here and Gone is one of her best (as if any of her albums are not worthy of being her best). I remember the first time I heard the album, Come On, Come On, or, Stones in the Road. You know, when you instantly realize that you are listening to a Classic. How the words and music just sink into your soul. Well, when I first listened to Between Here and Gone, it evoked the same feeling. What a masterpiece lyrically. Musically, the arrangements are a bit more "Country" than her recent work, with a mandolin and steel guitar here and there. But, these instruments are very subtle and actually add to the texture of the song (I personally like the sound).

A few of the songs on the album will become Mary Chapin "signature songs". For example, "In My Heaven" will be another album standout in the likes of "This Shirt" from a former album. "Between Here and Gone" is a masterpiece lyrically, with superb piano arrangement and beautiful vocal style (listen to that vibrato). "One Small Heart" and "A Beautiful Racquet" are other noteable tracks.

Did I mention vocal style? Mary Chapin rarely gets recognized for her vocal interpretations, but I'm here to say she's a genius when it comes to phrasing and conveying a song's meaning with her voice. The timbre in her low alto seems to send a vibration of feeling straight to the listener's heart. Her vocal style is so intimate, you feel as if she is singing right next to you. Vocally, she is one of the best in the business.

I highly recommend Between Here and Gone.

Between Here and Gone is one recording that you should own - but probably won't. It will sadly go ignored by mainstream music listeners, but please, please prove me wrong and don't let that happen.

Mary Chapin Carpenter has matured with angelic grace. The quirky country riffs from the "Come On Come On" era have long since gone. `New' country acts are only now following where Mary Chapin was at all those years ago.

The soul Between Here and Gone is searching for ways to escape the disillusionment of a lost America and a world so embroiled with hatred and want - trying to move onto that better place a million miles away from the so-called "Promised Land" and finding true paradise. The song called, "Grand Central Station" is the most poignant remembrance to the departed of New York City that I have heard a musician deliver. There is also a moving and very fitting reuniting with Eva Cassidy.

I'm a young guy and my music collection is typically rock music - but this is really something different. There are no fillers on this recording. Every song will become special in its own way. The lyrics are amongst the most beautiful and most meaningful that will be written. Every line that this true artist sings will take you to a place of the deepest emotion and undoubtedly bring tears to your eyes. I can't compare Between Here and Gone to anything that I've heard before. If an angel came down to deliver us only one message, I believe that it would sound something like this.

Mary Chapin Carpenter has always been a refreshing counter point to the wave of grrl power in country music, a real live woman, if you will who understands that the best thing about being a woman has nothing to do with the length of your skirt or the color of your hair. Unlike female songwriters of the mainstream, Carpenter is unafraid to slip easily into unfashionable middle age, nor to have insecurities unrelated to boyfriends or diets. She provides point of view life stories from a modern day every woman.
"What Would you Say To Me" opens the album with the age old question of what would happen if one ran across an old lover one day. This I followed by the delightfully ambiguous tune "Luna's Gone," which documents the loss of a friend, lover or pet, yet, much like Tift Merritt's "Virginia, No One Can Warn You," leaves the listener wondering if the chanteuse is not also referring to a younger version of herself. "My Heaven" on the other hand is very literally a musing view of Carpenters view of heaven. "Good Night America" is a travel log about a woman, slightly alienated from her society ("I'm a stranger here, no one you would know), yet still looking out the window of her bus with affection. "Between Here and Gone" finds this creature of wanderlust contemplating her new settled lifestyle, musing "I wonder how we know where we belong/is it in a photograph or a dashboard poets song/will I have missed my chance to right an ancient wrong/should I find myself between here and gone." "One Small Heart" is a typical Mary Chapin Carpenter song, in much the same vein as "Why Walk When You Can Fly." Following this is the song which takes up where "This Is Love" and "Late For Your Life" leave off, the pretty and contemplative "Beautiful Racket." "Girls Like Me" is an open look at girls who "live alone inside our heads" and like "boys who aren't afraid of what they see, inside the eyes of girls like me," but "if somehow you love us back, we think there's something wrong with that." "Grand Central Station" is a powerfully haunting ballad about a construction worker. Next comes the very lovely "The Shelter of Storms" about a loved ones incessant hunting of troubles and what has been lately termed drama. Elysium is a pretty and rambling song about the twists and turns that traveled to find the place that winds up being home.
Mary Chapin Carpenter has never been traditional country, however she has always been at her heart real country. There is a heavy folk and pop influence to her work, highlighted by a stunning harmony vocals by Garrison Star, however the occasional fiddle and mandolin bring her firmly into the country realm. When even names like Tim O'Brien and Stuart Duncan turn up, it is hard to argue where she belongs. Unfortunately, right now that place is not anywhere on mainstream radio, however, the good news is that there is a growing independent radio scene nationwide which seems primed and ready to embrace her.

I'm so tired of reading reviewers here complain about "dirge"... "nothing uplifting"... "puts me to sleep", etc. Grow up. Has Madison Avenue brainwashed you into thinking everything has to be bigger, faster & louder to be good? Instant gratification has infiltrated too many minds; relax and enjoy the thought-provoking lyrics. MCC was also accused by another reviewer of writing at the level of a 16-year-old girl's diary -- that claim is completely inaccurate, as her lyrics are much more interesting, and I can't imagine what is expected? 4 minute songs don't exactly lend themselves to solving the problems of the world.
These are beautifully written songs that, as many reviewers have said, show MCC as the person she has grown into. Her own songs, not penned for radio play (other than maybe some public radio or folk station)... she has an audience that loves her music, and will love this recording. Why pander to a listener who wants another "Down at the Twist and Shout"? Those years have passed, for MCC and for all of us.
This is her best CD since 'Stones in the Road'. I loved it at first listen. Many of the songs are instant classics to her repertoire. I particularly like the thread throughout the CD of being on a journey, the open road, etc. Those who criticized her for going back to the same ideas too often have apparently never heard a themed CD before?

Mary-Chapin Carpenter has always ranked as one of my favorites... I've always felt that there isn't an artist out there who can write more subtle and touching music. And although she can truly rock when she wants to (is there anyone out there who can resist "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" from "Come On Come On"?), her soulful voice has always been put to it's best use on her sadder, more sentimental tunes.

That being said, her last few albums have seemed to be on a slightly downhill trend. "Time*Sex*Love" is no doubt my least favorite MCC compilation. It felt anxiously folksy to me, and me, being the pessimist, expect more from her next album.

I'm thrilled to say that Chapin has regained her momentum and sense of style: "Between Here and Gone" is undoubtedly her best effort since "Come On Come On." A passionate, sweeping and beautiful album, "Between Here and Gone" witnesses Carpenter embrace some of her older musical style while exploring new territory lyrically.

"Goodnight America" is the standout here. It's quite simply one of the most eloquent and lovely songs ever written, capturing the sadness and hope of our post-9/11 world.

After I heard this album and read that 'My Heaven' was based on The Lovely Bones by Alice Seibold, I ran right out and bought the book. This novel deserves it's own review, but I can say if you have read this book, you need to listen to this song and vice versa.

Maybe this review is based on the blurred experiences I've had reading that book and listening to this music, but I truly believe that music hits you at times when you need it and its messages the most. There comes a time in life when you let go of the authority that youth imposes and create the life you want. You grow up, you get older and at some point the baggage of youth just has to be left in the past. Mary echos this in her music and weaves an 'i can't believe my ears' sonic landscape. From instances of love lost on 'what would you say', migrating and changing friendships on 'Luna's Gone', to finally growing up and realizing that death is not a stopping point on 'Between Here and Gone' and 'My Heaven' respectively, this album is lush and dense. Mary's voice is unbelieveable on this recording. It is rich and strong and absolutely gorgeous. This voice is only matched by the content of this cd: what it means to love, to lose someone you love and miss dearly every day, to grow up and move on, and to finally wake up one day and be comfortable in your own shoes.

The pinnacle of this recording is Elysium, which few reviewers have touched in their meanderings on this album. It is nothing short of one of the greatest love songs ever written. It is brutally honest in its approach and free from cliche. It speaks to love as a creature of the moment and how life somehow weaves you toward love at some point and if the circumstances are just right, the winding road of life straightens itself out in that perfect moment. You never had a map, you had no direction, it just happened.

If you enjoy this recording, check out Vienna Teng's Warm Strangers, Sarah Harmer's All of Our Names and the Indigo Girls' All That We Let In....three of the most incredible releases of this year

BETWEEN HERE AND GONE - Mary Chapin Carpenter

If you're like Mary Chapin's record label, and were expecting something like a revisit to "Down At The Twist And Shout", "I Feel Lucky" or "Shut Up And Kiss Me", chances are this album might disappoint you. It is most certainly not an introductory level album for those new to the music of Mary Chapin Carpenter. The multi-platinum "Come On, Come On" with its seven singles would be more appropriate. Long-time Carpenter fans are most likely to regard Between Here And Gone as perhaps her most cohesive work, appreciating its lyrical insights and memorable melodies.

The overriding theme of Between Here And Gone is of journeys - both physical and spiritual, some completed, some still works in progress. From the wandering feline of "Luna's Gone" to the often wistful, affectionate recollections of places visited in "Goodnight America", the free spirit of "One Small Heart", of those who have passed on as in "Grand Central Station" and "Between Here And Gone", travel and journeys take center stage. Along the way, "What Would You Say To Me", "Girls Like Me" and "The Shelter of Storms" reflect uncertainties, but the album's closer, "Elysium", appropriately marks a journey completed.

Mary Chapin is often in deft lyrical touch here. In "Between Here And Gone", there is both wonderful imagery and disarming honesty as Mary Chapin sings, "up above me, wayward angels, a blur of wings and grace/one for courage, one for safety, one for just in case ..." In the hopeful imaginations of "My Heaven", "nothing shatters, nothing breaks, nothing hurts and nothing aches/we got ourselves one helluva place/in my heaven." Where grandma and grandpa live in a condo with "to die for views." In "Goodnight America", Mary Chapin observes something deftly simple yet profound - "I'm a stranger here, no-one you would know/I'm from somewhere else, well isn't everybody though?" Also, the song expresses physical movement through changing conditions from the sun setting in LA, the moon rising over Houston, midnight in Atlanta, first light in Charleston, and finally rush hour New York. The bridge here is unsually effective, continuing the theme of onward movement rather than a different angle. And hey, does it work well. Besides, what else should a bridge do in a song about traveling, carrying you through from one side to the other?

The free spirit of "One Small Heart" hits the road declaring, "got the cash, got the gas/now lose the map and compass/read the signs, obey the lines/follow all your hunches," and manages to cover all the bases. "Girls Like Me", from its opening notes, sounds like it would not have been out of place on Mary Chapin's 1987 debut "Hometown Girl" and, in that sense, perhaps she has gone full circle. "Girls Like Me" contrasts starkly with "Elysium" - the latter celebrating love found while "Girls Like Me" reflects Mary Chapin at perhaps her most confessional since "The Moon and St Christopher." Also drawing on themes from "Middle Ground", we have "and loneliness is like a cold, common and no cure we're told/we take to bed perchance to dream in the blue light of the TV screen." And "loneliness is like a drug, it makes a girl believe in love/and if somehow you love us back, we think there's something wrong with that ..."

Mary Chapin was once quoted as saying, "my songs are autobiographical ... but they're not about me." While "Girls Like Me" could resonate with many women, this song is very much about her. But the most intriguing song to me, which took a little while to reveal itself, is "the Shelter Of Storms." Musically, it ends like an unanswered question on an ascending note. Lyrically, I couldn't help recall and compare it with the Matraca Berg song "You Are The Storm". Am I playing devil's
advocate here?

All in all, from the opener "What Would You Say To Me", envisaging a chance encounter with someone once known (or possibly unknown but not yet met), through "Goodnight America" with its fluid sense of movement, the 9/11 tribute "Grand Central Station", to love found in "Elysium", Mary Chapin has produced what is likely the most complete work of her 17-year career. Could some things have been different? Maybe a couple of songs with a more upbeat tempo (yeah, I know, I'm starting to sound like her record label now). Those we do get, "What Would You Say To Me", "Luna's Gone" and "Beautiful Racket" work well, often embracing more of a country sound than we would normally expect from Mary Chapin.

Between Here And Gone is further proof that Mary Chapin seems incapable of producing anything faintly resembling a bad album. After the musical diversity of 2001's "Time*Sex*Love", Between Here And Gone represents more subtle variations on a unified musical canvas. Inspiration for dashboard poets everywhere.

Prime Cuts: Girls Like Me, River, Grand Central Station

In years passed, Carpenter's longevity as one of country music most titillating performers had been sustained through propulsive, at times tongue in cheek, radio friendly delights such as "Passionate Kisses," "Down at the Twist and Shout," "Shut Up and Kiss Me," "He Thinks He'll Keep Her," "I Want to Be Your Girlfriend" amongst others. These radio hits had allowed her to indulge her albums with reflective, introspective and emotionally riveting folk-like ballads.

However, after securing a large enough fan based and enough acclaim, Carpenter has finally allowed her true colors show. On "Between Here and Gone," Carpenter demonstrates that she's no longer the infatuated girl who wants to sit on Dwight Yoakam's lap (as in "I Feel Lucky") or the aggressive lover who is not reticent to make the first move (as in "Shut Up and Kiss Me"). Rather, Carpenter is a ratiocinative poet with an acute talent in imparting piercing observations about life scared by the passage of time.

Devoid of any songs aimed to placate radio, "Between Here and Gone" advances a more philosophical folk-like ambiance than in any of her most albums. Perhaps the only song that shares the same zip code as many of today's radio hits is the perky "Beautiful Racket." Framed by a rocking rousing melody not dissimilar to "Passionate Kisses," "Beautiful Racket" could be a contender here for country radio's play list. The other possibility is the amicable "What Would You Say to Me," but with its ambiguous lyrics, it may be ugly duckling in the flock of shallow ditties passed on as country hits.

Thanks to piano maestro and co-producer, Matt Rollings, piano-led ballads dominate the entire album. Other than a few tracks, the beat does not accelerate beyond mid tempo, neither does the content of the songs. Pain and vulnerability is best exemplified on "Girls Like Me"-a somehow biographical prayer of anyone who wants to experience the lavishness of love without the pain. "Grand Central Station" is Carpenter's take on 9/11. A moving ballad, "Grand Central Station" is a narrative about a rescue worker pondering the tragedy's aftermath and his own purpose. The search for meaning on the road of life is further reflected in "Luna's Gone," "Between Here and Gone," "Goodnight America" and "One Small Heart." Though Carpenter has my kudos for wearing her heart on her sleeve, but such indulgence becomes wearisome when almost half the album deals with the same theme.

Much better is the brighter "River." "River," not the Joni Mitchell song, but a Carpenter original has an infectious melody providing an excellent framework for Carpenter letting loose on the album's fewer but welcomed happier moments. What "Imagine" is to the Beatles, "My Heaven" is to Carpenter. An ode to her idea of utopia, Carpenter dreams of "a condo with to do die for views" where "presidents and movie stars" abound. The album closer "Elysium" brings the album to a much optimistic end. A thoughtful meditation Carpenter likens the flowering of newfound love to the beauty of nature; "Elysium" is just quaint and picturesque.

This is a serious adult oriented album and its seriousness may work as a double edged sword. Part of me appreciates Carpenter's intense insights to the disposition of hopes and dreams, but part of me wants Carpenter to let loose. Where is the Carpenter who encourages us to go to the Twist and Shout? Considering Carpenter's recent matrimony, where's the romantic vibe that she exudes in her rendition of "Grow Old With Me"? After all, in Carpenter's "My Heaven," isn't that what she hoped for-a place "where nothing shatters, nothing breaks"?