Washington Times Thinks It’ll Keep Mary Chapin Carpenter
If the New York Times figures it’s worth having Bill Kristol to have angry blog commenters kick around, then it only makes sense for the Washington Times to publish an Obama supporter every once in a while. Last week marked the debut of a column by country singer-songwriter (and former local) Mary Chapin Carpenter, who scored a big hit with a cover of Lucinda Williams‘ “Passionate Kisses,” and an even bigger hit with “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her”—a song that she co-wrote but sure sounds a heck of a lot like her cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Passionate Kisses.” In a press release announcing Carpenter’s new gig, WaTi’s Daniel Wattenberg said, “A column may be a new medium for Mary Chapin, but her voice — intimate, reflective and companionable — will be comfortingly familiar. Our readers are in for a treat.”
What readers got the first time around was a polite, unprovocative column about what it was like to watch TV during the election season, with a big plug for the band Hem. Any button-pushing was reserved for a bit toward the end: “”It brings me directly to what Barack Obama said at his Democratic Convention acceptance speech in Denver. We are our brother’s keeper, our sister’s keeper. We have a responsibility to watch out for one another, to do the right thing. Our better selves will seek out these opportunities because our present circumstances demand it.”
Pretty safe. But Carpenter’s column would still have to get a lot worse to compete with Stephen King’s ruminations on pop culture.
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6:50 pm
I most certainly agree with you on Mary Chapin Carpenter being a definite ‘Washington Times Ought to Keep Her’. However I must beg to differ as to just how new of a ‘gig’ written media publication is to the tremendously talented and extremely down to earth artist that is Mary Chapin Carpenter! One whose song lyrics are written with such depth, heart and range is certainly an accomplished and polished journalist of sorts, only with much more honesty, integrity and humility then most journalists of numerous venues are these days. With her extensive education and personal life experience, a degree in American Civilization from Brown University AND her blood-line (Dad was an executive for… I believe ‘Life Magazine’) Mary-Chapin’s successful, refreshing, much needed and welcomed, regular contribution to The Washington Times, is not completely surprising to me. The column is merely another remarkable reflection of her talent and range with Mary simply expressing herself A cappella!
That and… after all these years of avidly and devotedly following her music career (since I first heard the ‘Hometown Girl’ album) enjoying her unequivocally talented and creative gifts of vocals, music, story-telling and range… I still must also truly beg to differ with the continued labeling of her and her work as ‘çountry’.
8:18 pm
Her work is far too eclectic and encompassing to be summed-up in ANY one genre. Admittedly…I’m not a big fan of the ‘labeling’ tactic of music to begin with, but certainly casting a label on Mary Chapin Carpenter, her Artful expression of story and music is like trying to describe the Universe and everything in and about it in one word. But if we had to describe/label Mary Chapin Carpenter and her musical gifts and art-form in one word…’Mosaic’ would be the only singular word that comes close to capturing that kind of range and talent.