Sometimes Just The Sky album celebrates Mary Chapin Carpenter’s acclaimed 30- year recording career
Mary Chapin Carpenter’s anticipated new album, Sometimes Just The Sky, will be released in March on Thirty Tigers. A celebration of her acclaimed 30-year recording career, the landmark record features new versions of some of Carpenter’s most beloved songs as well as one newly written song, which became the title track. In celebration of the release, Carpenter will embark on a UK tour in May.
Special guest on the shows (except Worthing) will be Emily Barker, winner of the UK Artist of the Year award at the recent UK Americana Awards.
Over the course of her acclaimed career, Carpenter has sold over 14 million records. With hits like Passionate Kisses and He Thinks He’ll Keep Her’, she has won five Grammy Awards (with 15 nominations), two CMA awards, two Academy of Country Music awards and is one of only fifteen female members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Produced by Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Paul McCartney, Ray LaMontagne), the 13-track album was recorded entirely live at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios outside Bath, England. Joined by long-time collaborator Duke Levine on guitar and a handpicked band of Johns’ favourite musicians, Carpenter reimagined one song from each of her twelve studio albums along with Sometimes Just The Sky. See below for complete track list.
On the album title and newest song Carpenter says, ‘I read a beautiful interview with Patti Smith in which she said that you don’t have to look far or wide, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive or madness in order to find things to soothe you in life, or to be happy about. Sometimes just the sky makes everything fall into perspective.’
Most recently, in 2016, Carpenter released ‘The Things That We Are Made Of’. Produced by Grammy Award winning producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton), the album features eleven new songs and was released to overwhelming critical praise. The Associated Press called it, ‘an evocative collection of songs’, while The HuffPost declared, ‘Carpenter is now at the height of her musical career, painting a compelling, relevant piece of art tinged with mixed feelings of grief and joy, all without preaching or darkening our minds with sadness’.
MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER
+ EMILY BARKER
LONDON Barbican, Tuesday 15 May
& on tour across the UK
Monday 7 May GATESHEAD Sage Gateshead
Tuesday 8 May GLASGOW Royal Concert Hall
Wednesday 9 May BIRMINGHAM Town Hall
Friday 11 May BASINGSTOKE The Anvil
Saturday 12 May WORTHING Assembly Hall (without Emily Barker)
Monday 14 May CANTERBURY Marlowe Theatre
Wednesday 16 May BATH Forum (as part of Bath Festival)
Thursday 17 May NORWICH Theatre Royal (as part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival)
Bookings and more information: serious.org.uk/marychapin
