Jerry Notaro wrote:
> Happy Birthday, Les. You look terrific for 60.
>
> Jerry, excited about seeing Mary Chapin tonight!
Hi Jerry,
So, how was she? I've seen her recently on late night talk shows and am
starting to get curious now. Since you're such a fan, I thought you'd
enjoy this article from today's NYTimes. Makes me really want to hear
the song The Long Way Home. What she has to say about life after 40 is
interesting, too.
AUG 14, 2001
Confronting Middle Age With Songs and Pluck
By KEVIN SACK
MELBOURNE, Fla., Aug. 9 At 43, Mary Chapin Carpenter has seen some
life. There have been streaks of breathtaking creativity followed by
spells of bewildering frustration. There have been
profound love affairs and wrenching breakups. There has been both joy
and the darkest sadness.
In "Time*Sex*Love," (Sony) her first recording of new music in five
years, Ms. Carpenter has harnessed
the contradictory emotions of adulthood and produced what is essentially
a concept album about middle
age. Throughout the recording, which was released in late May, she
challenges her listeners, and herself, to
live life fully and urgently, to take risks of the heart, to abandon
ambition in exchange for simple pleasures,
to be philosophical about mistakes and to recognize that much is beyond
control.
She writes with some bitterness, bordering at times on self-loathing,
about her powerlessness against the
force of sexual obsession, and she uses her music to reach a reckoning
with old lovers and old loves. Above all she recognizes that much in
life is received rather than taken, and while she does not encourage
passivity, she does encourage acceptance. "Accidents and inspiration,
lead you to your destination," she writes in "The Long Way Home," the
album's anthem. In the next verse, she advises, "See your life as a gift
from the great unknown, and your task is to receive it."
...
The rest is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/14/arts/14MARY.html
Debra Shea
