Track 10: Iceland
Simply breathtaking.

This is the song that deals most overtly with her near-death experience. An out of the blue pulmonary embolism forced her to cancel tour dates and drop active support of a new album. The on-the-move musician became grounded in a way that I imagine she hasn’t been since her early twenties. Who are you when your whole life changes?

I’m looking over the lyrics to decide what to sample here, and it’s seeming like if I try to start, I’m just going to end up transcribing the entire song. I’m sure part of my attachment to this song is related to my delayed realization of how close I was to losing her so suddenly and unexpectedly. That thought still chills me. But also, this song is just an amazing poem, set to music.

The madness created by an actual Iceland volcano is just a strange coincidence. I guess it’s just another wonder of our mysterious world.

Track 11: The Age of Miracles
As a history nerd, I study a lot of why and how things change. The problem with the study of history is that we always figure out that A led to B, which resulted in C. But as a kid, I remember the absolute wonder of 1989. This communist bloc country fell. Then this other one fell. Until…

On the evening of November 9, 1989, I was studying for a big test that was going to happen the next day. I got called to the TV to see people dancing on top of the Berlin Wall.

I remember that no one saw it coming. I remember that everyone, even all the experts on TV, were amazed, enthralled, and joyous. Part of the joy, I believe, came from the realization that they could still be surprised.

I remember being so thankful that this momentous event happened in my lifetime. I. Lived. History!

As a kid in the suburbs, I didn’t think anything exciting was ever going to happen to me. And that’s the sentiment that she expounds on here.

We’re in an environmental crisis. Natural disasters take out hundreds and thousands of us at a swoop. We still hate indiscriminately, irrationally, and violently.

But boy, you just never know when something AWESOME is going to happen.

But I woke to find monks pouring into the streets
Marching thousands strong into the rain
Now if courage comes dressed in red robes and bare feet
I will never be fearful again

Because there are people still trying out there. You just never know when that message in the ether is going to flare up and win.

As a history nerd, I’m just tickled pink that Mary Chapin Carpenter’s Ivy League degree is in American civilization, and that she’s someone capable of not only earning it but also capable of using it.

Track 12: The Way I Feel
We end the album in flight.

This one’s a hand-tapping head bob-er.

Cause when I’m all alone on a midnight highway
There’s nothing like two hands on the wheel
And the radio playing I Won’t Back Down
Baby that’s about the way I feel

Hey, if she’s ready to get back on the road, I’m ready to meet her.

All the way down 81
I’ve got some friends in Nashville
Atlanta it’s been way too long
By morning I’ll make Asheville

Did you know the unofficial MCC fan-clubbers (flamingos) flock down to Atlanta’s Chastain Park on every tour? There’s nothing quite like a lighted pink flamingo conga line during Down at the Twist and Shout and then group pictures backstage later. Since MCC and the band mates all play along, it’s a great time. You gotta join the mailing list to find out more.

I’m sad I won’t be able to join in this year, but I have my other tickets ready to go. Come on, tour!

Other posts in this series

• Introduction
• Tracks 1-3
• Tracks 4-6
• Tracks 7-9

Track 7: Mrs. Hemingway
Like 4 June 1989, this is a first-person narrator song. The inspiration this time is Hadley Hemingway, the first wife of Ernest Hemingway.

Here, the verses set the scene, but the chorus really brings through the spirit and heart of the remembrance. She’s recalling their earlier years together, with Paris as the backdrop. Chorus:

Living in Paris, in attics and garrets
Where the coal merchants climb every stair
The dance hall next door is filled with sailors and whores
And the music floats up through the air
There’s Sancerre and oysters, cathedrals and cloisters
And time with its unerring aim
For now we can say we were lucky most days
And throw a rose into the Seine

That’s gorgeous right? Come on, she rhymed Paris and garrets, oysters with cloisters, aim and Seine. These make me happy.

This one is sung in Mary Chapin Carpenter‘s classic confessional lower register. It has an exquisite musical arrangement that features an alluringly plaintive piano. It makes me close my eyes and luxuriate as it plays.

Track 8: I Have a Need for Solitude
And this is seriously why I feel such a kinship with her.

I have a need
For solitude
I’ll never be
Safe in crowded rooms
I like the sound
Of silence coming on
I come around
When everyone has gone

Amen.

I really have a need to be alone. If I don’t cocoon in my cave regularly, I feel like I start losing myself. That solitude lets me regenerate and become able to deal with the social world out there.

The bridge here is wonderful musically, but it also serves to let us know that there are special people allowed into her silence. The speaker is stating how she is, but she’s also explaining and hoping for understanding. She’s there. She’s yours. But if you don’t leave her alone when she needs it, she’ll go crazy and become even more “hard to love/Harder now to keep.”

Once again… Amen.

On the MCC SAT front, I had to look up verdant, which she uses in this song. Also, intrude and solitude form another great rhyming pair.

Track 9: What You Look For
I go back and forth on this song. I certainly enjoy it much of the time, but if I had to choose, I’d say that this is the weakest song of the album. There are great moments in the lyrics and a really singable chorus, but it is more generically rah-rah than the other offerings. It encourages the listener to live bravely and consciously. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Send it out into the Universe
A humble plea, a wish, a broken verse

It works with The Age of Miracles message of the album. If we continue to be open in the darkness, “[the sun] shines back.” I know that all sounds great, but this is a theme that she also revisits over multiple albums, and I’ve heard better.

Other posts in this series

• Introduction
• Tracks 1-3
• Tracks 4-6
• Tracks 10-12

Track 4: Holding Up The Sky
Once again, we’re longing for air. It’s a great way to explain this idea of wanting to fly instead of “being down here/Holding up the sky.” For a long-time fan like me, it’s also great that she references previous works that help shade the meaning to this song. The previous knowledge is not necessary, but it certainly makes me feel more clued in.

No Fear is one of my all time favorite Mary Chapin Carpenter songs that unfortunately was not done justice (in my opinion) when recorded by Terri Clark. Ugh, I just hit the play button on that song link, and the flat vowel sounds and jagged edges of the vocal performance just made me cringe all over again. There’s a weird lack of muscle and vigor in this recording.

I’ve heard MCC do this song and her round tones and smooth power really make huge differences on this song. Oh, how I wish she would record it too. There is absolutely no need to waste lyrics like

I want a road stretching out before me
I want the radio in my ear
I want a full tank of absolution
No fear

A full tank of absolution?! Come on! That line made me fall out of my chair and weep the first time I heard it.

In the context of this song, she writes:

I want to feel what the wind feels like
I want to go that high
And feel no fear instead of being down here
Holding up the sky

Between Here and Gone is a song off of Mary Chapin Carpenter‘s album of the same name. It’s a post-September 11 work so I think the “here and gone” becomes pretty obvious in that context.

And this song reinforces the dual-layer imagery by having the first-person narrator repeat “I found myself between two…” throughout. First, it’s places. Then it’s choices. And finally lifetimes.

I found myself between two lifetimes
A sunset and a dawn
I reached out and took the lifeline
Offered up between here and gone

Track 5: 4 June 1989
MCC wrote this after reading about Chen Guang in the NY Times. Many times, there is at least one song on each album that brings tears on almost every hearing, and this time, track 4 is my crying song. The Tiananmen Square experience of this person is just heartbreaking, and MCC has created such a haunting version of it.

There’s a dreamy, floating quality to the music that makes it a remembrance with just the right amounts of pathos, wistfulness, and hope. In the chorus, she creates a fine effect by breaking up the lush lyricism with the harsh, short syllables of “In the dirty stinking river.” It really puts the anger through.

Another thing that I absolutely love here is the evolution of an idea through the progression of the song. The first time the chorus goes by, it ends with

In the messages that find you then vanish in the ether
They vanish in the ether…

Wow, depressing.

But, the second time through, the boy soldier says

In the messages that found me, then vanished in the ether
In the messages that found me…

Ah, the students did make an impact. And their ideas were not confined within the borders of that square.

And finally,

In the messages that find us, then vanish in the ether
Oh the messages will find us, then vanish in the ether

Mary Chapin Carpenter has written an ode honoring failed revolutions. Eventually, movements succeed and the ones who are carrying the banner at that time are celebrated. But before that happens, there are attempts that fail and fail and fail. And the people who tried during those times are rarely remembered.

With that final line, however, MCC reminds us that messages do not die. They come and may move away, but if it reaches someone new, then the voices will surely be raised again.

Track 6: I Was A Bird
Yes, back to the ground/sky dichotomy. It’s a lovely song with a simpler presentation. Alison Krauss lends her angelic voice to it.

It may seem like this theme is overly explored on this album, but in my opinion, it really doesn’t come off that way. The songs and the way they are presented vary enough so that the motif is obvious but not repetitive.

Other posts in this series

• Introduction
• Tracks 1-3
• Tracks 7-9
• Tracks 10-12

Track 1: We Traveled So Far
In addition to a great way to start off the album, this is also a great wedding first-dance song. There’s a comfortable swaying back and forth rhythm, which is perfect for a romantic slow dance. The words reflect the struggles of two people to reach this place. It’s I in the first verse, You in the second verse, and We in the third verse.

Favorite lines:

And you with the blue in your eyes
The storms of life leave a few lines

It’s worth it all learning at last
The future begins with the past

Track 2: Zephyr
And we move from something very grounded to something very free. This one is about wanting to fly. The speaker (singer?) compares him/herself to a zephyr and tries to explain the need to untether. The relationship is still there but locking down a person who flies is not the way to keep him/her.

The opening of this song is essentially the same as those of We Traveled So Far except We Traveled asked why “some go and some stay,” while Zephyr admits that

I don’t know nothing, nothing today
Whether to leave or to stay

I like that inclusion of oneself within the universal because isn’t that really the truth? If I knew why I did something, I would be closer to knowing why others do the same.

There is a really fine bridge in this song:

All of the wings I’ve ridden back home to you
All the things I’ve given I’ve wanted to
All that you see has always belonged to you
Except for the wind…

Yes, the wind is just a better way of saying me.

Mary Chapin Carpenter uses the word yar in this song. Ever since I first learned it in the movie High Society (Sorry, I did see that one before The Philadelphia Story), I’ve loved that word. It made me so happy to hear it here.

Track 3: I Put My Ring Back On
I wasn’t that enamored with the somewhat sentimental subject matter at first, but this song has really grown on me. First, it is the catchiest song on the album, and I keep humming and humming it. Second, it’s always a pleasure to hear Vince Gill, who sings a beautiful harmony. Third, MCC has a way of making very simple ideas very adult (as in grown-up, see I Want To Be Your Girlfriend). And lastly, what great lines:

And love wounds with such simplicity

And your kiss remembers the mystery

Other posts in this series

• Introduction
• Tracks 4-6
• Tracks 7-9
• Tracks 10-12

By this, I mean that she’s been meaningful and relevant to me for the longest time out of all the musicians that I adore. She was with me as I transitioned from high school to college, college into the adult world, and then the adult world into whatever the heck this is now. She got me through house-cleaning Sundays, gloriously long road trips as well as soul-sucking disillusionments.

Oh, our relationship has not been consistent. She hasn’t even remained my favorite artist of the moment through all our years together.

I found her during her literate yet radio-friendly days. Then as she and her music matured, she lost me for a little while as I yearned for the upbeat tempos and relationship angsts of the past. While I continued to buy the albums, attend the concerts, and bow to the pure poetry in songs that she always produces, I just didn’t feel that I was at a personal-achievement level capable of connecting fully with her messages.

Now, something must have changed. The Age of Miracles is such an amazingly complete album from beginning to end. I feel that this is her best CD since the acclaimed Stones in the Road. I’ve loved loved loved other songs off of other albums, but as a complete work, I haven’t played Miracles on shuffle once. It seems constructed to be listened to as is.

Once upon a time, I would have been impatient with the lack of tempo here. Now, I can feel the separations and differences between each song. I like the way they flow into each other. And with the way the tracks are ordered, there is constant movement within the album.

The first song, We Traveled So Far, starts off

I found myself wondering today
Why do some go and some stay

And the album follows that thought. The songs move between the earthly, the solid—and the aerie freedoms of flight. Mary Chapin Carpenter started writing these songs shortly after a near death health scare, and the contemplations coming out of that experience are present as well.

Musically, there are plenty of melodies and lines that stick in my head. There are some really strong bridges within this collection too, and that is not something I think I’ve recognized in her writing before.

I plan to go through the songs on this album in some future posts so hopefully I’ll provide some strong examples of why I love this album so much. It really is a glorious work.

Other posts in this series

• Tracks 1-3
• Tracks 4-6
• Tracks 7-9
• Tracks 10-12

First, if you haven’t been there, this Lincoln Square venue is a fabulous place for music. It’s comfortable, lovely, intimate, and the sound is amazing. I know there is amplification, but when you stare at a source onstage, it usually appears as if the sound is coming from that vocalist or instrument.

It seems that the format for the 7:30 show changed from that of the 4:00 show. Here, Cheryl Wheeler came on first for an approximately 30 minute set. Then it was Patty’s turn. After a break, the two shared the stage together to trade songs.

I’ve seen Cheryl Wheeler in concert before but for the last couple of events, she’s been under the weather. This was the first concert in a while that I’ve heard her voice sound so good.

It seemed like the crowd was more familiar with Patty Larkin than Cheryl Wheeler at this particular show so I was glad that there seemed to be some new and appreciative fans gained this night.

I had intended to purchase Cheryl’s latest CD, Pointing at the Sun, here but all her CDs sold out during the earlier show.

This was my first Patty Larkin concert, and her guitar skills are every bit as impressive as they are reputed to be. I was also pleasantly surprised by her sense of humor. I’ve come to expect the funny from Cheryl Wheeler, but the way that Cheryl is able to get the crowd with her sometimes leave other performers uncomfortable and overshadowed. I’m glad to say that this did not happen to Patty. She certainly held her own.

As an artist, there are a lot of Patty Larkin songs that I appreciate and like (My favorite is probably Pundits & Poets.), but overall, she just doesn’t speak to me as much as Cheryl Wheeler’s music does.

I was glad that they seemed to be fans of each other though. It was certainly an enjoyable night for me.

Now while U2 is just fine, I am a long-time fan of Bruce. He turns 60 today! and he is still going strong.

Bruce and the band rocked for almost three hours on Sunday. Unlike other shows—even though they always put on a great performance—this one had no filler, no pauses, no ballads, no breaks. They just blasted and pleased all night long.

Don’t believe me? Read on:

• the most fantastic concert I have ever seen. -Daily Herald
• many in attendance now consider their favorite Springsteen concert -Los Angeles Times
• The band responded with an inspired performance -Chicago Tribune

An extra special treat was the playing of the break-out album Born to Run in its entirety. right? Right?!

Awesome.

I’d like to note that the stand-up bass player, Richard Davis, you hear on the original Meeting Across the River was there tonight on the song. My boyfriend’s stand-up bass teacher was his student. So now I’m four degrees away from Bruce. Yay! Heh.

Bruce and the band are very wise in their stagecraft by now. Their live shows are legendary and built their reputation. It’s easy to see why.

They warmed up nice and solid, hit Born to Run, and moved right in to the hits off the more current albums. It’s as if they drew the fans of the older stuff out and said, “Hey, you’re still going to dance, sing, and rock with this new stuff.”

I have to think they gained some more regular concert goers that night.

There were also a lot of fist pumps and wide grins from the younger people there. Come to think of it, which of today’s music stars can put together a straight up rock show like this?

Ok, so after the newer songs, they hit audience requests. We got Da Do Ron Ron, Rockin’ Robin, and I’m Goin’ Down. It was as much fun seeing them try to figure them out (except for Down obviously) as it was to hear them.

One final note—While the United Center is obviously not Soldier Field, when Bruce wants to get connected to the audience, he simply goes for a stroll through them. Or he pulls them on stage with him.

He doesn’t need a giant claw.

Set List:
Seeds
No Surrender
Johnny 99
Cover Me
Outlaw Pete
Hungry Heart
Working on a Dream
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Night
Backstreets
Born to Run
She’s the One
Meeting Across the River
Jungleland
Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Badlands
* * *
Hard Times
Raise Your Hand (instrumental)
Da Doo Ron Ron
Rockin’ Robin
I’m Goin’ Down
American Land
Dancing in the Dark
Rosalita

I went to the U2′s 360° Tour stop in Chicago on Sunday, September 13, 2009. Truthfully, I could really take or leave U2. I’m not a massively dedicated fan so please take what’s ahead with a grain of salt.

The main draw (because their new album is not doing that great) is the massive, weird stage. I can see how it started out as an idea to get the audience more involved with the show. The final execution, however, is a bit hit and miss.

It certainly is impressive to arrive at your seat with this strange and gigantic caterpillar-colored spider sitting in front of you. When the show starts, and the bridges start to rotate, allowing the band members to stand over the interior standing-room crowd and walk over to the outer ring, it does seem very cool.

As the show went on though, the stage seemed too big for the band and their show. There are only four of them, and Bono is the only one that runs. If you had the chance to see Garth Brooks back in the 90s, you know what I’m talking about when I say “run the stage.” And Bono does not measure up to Garth’s abilities.

Since the drummer is stationary, that leaves a lot of stage to be filled by three guys. And really, does U2 have that many arena anthems?

The stage does some very interesting things like in the picture above. But, and here I am again with the other hand, a lot of these things seem superfluous. Go ahead and click on the picture above of the expanded screen. Can you find the band mates?

Bono and U2 have so admirably positioned themselves as one of the most intelligent, caring, and conscientious stars of today. They do a lot of great work and increase the visibility for so many causes. That’s why I can’t help but think about the waste in terms of money and resources created by this stage.

I would think differently if there was a function, a reasonable exchange in terms of entertainment and artistic statement. But I don’t think the smoke, mirror balls, and flashing lights are worth it.

I’m sure there are those out there who would disagree with me though. As a non-fanatical fan, I may have missed the point. There were certainly moments when I was impressed and even very, very moved. I just expected my overall experience to be stronger than it was.

Laying dormant before the show:

This is Snow Patrol on stage:

More tomorrow.

I don’t know if you can see it, but there’s a rainbow shooting straight into big-screen Pat Benatar in the picture. When I first heard they were putting video screens on the lawn at Ravinia, I was sort of against them. But really, how am I going to argue against this view and the rainbow on top?

I’m in the very last section of the park, where they warn you about diminished audio. That warning is never true though. You can hear fine. It’s just not as loud.

I was also pleased to find that, even though the entire place is a hot spot, no one had a laptop open. I hope it stays that way.