MUSIC REVIEWS: MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER’S THE AGE OF MIRACLES

By R. A. Pearson

Mary Chapin Carpenter’s The Age Of Miracles was released in late April of this year and is a CD whose theme is redemption and resilience. In an interview with NPR’s Diane Rehm the artist described the songs on the CD as songs that express the overcoming of traumatic struggles, emotions, and episodes in life.

While Carpenter’s band on The Age Of Miracles includes an excellent band of Matt Rollings on piano and Hammond B-3 organ, Russ Kunkel on drums, Duke Levine on guitar, Glenn Worf on bass, Dan Dugmore on steel and 12 string guitar, and Eric Darken on percussion, the real beauty of the songs is in the lyrics. Songs such as “I Was A Bird,” “I Put My Ring Back On,” “The Way I Feel,” “Zephyr,” “Iceland,” and “We Traveled So Far” mark the emotional points of a person’s struggles at various stages of one’s life. The CD also features guest vocals by Vince Gill and Alison Krauss.

The Age Of Miracles was produced by Matt Rollings and Mary Chapin Carpenter and is a good solid CD by the artist. Her fans will enjoy the CD as will fans of the folk or soft country genre.

The latest John Fogerty CD, The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, is basically a CD of covers. The CD contains 12 cuts with only one, “Change In The Weather,” written by Fogerty. The songs include Bonnie and Delany Bramlett’s “Never Ending Song Of Love,” Rick Neilson’s “Garden Party,” “Haunted House by Robert Geddins,” a great cut of John Prine’s “Paradise,” and “Back Home Again” by John Denver. The CD features guest appearances by Don Henley and Bruce Springsteen on vocals. The fiddling, mandolin, and steel guitar are excellent in this CD, and most of the songs are featured in a western/western swing style of instrumentation. Some of these songs may be worth a download; however, it is not a typical Fogerty CD.

In a few weeks I plan to meet over 150 friends from my college days from the 1970s at “the scene of the crime.” I have planed a list of ten obscure album/CDs released by artist popular in the 1970s and still making music today. The first on the list, because of the appropriate name of the CD, is Heretics And Privateers, a 2001 release by John Kay of Steppenwolf fame. The title cut is great and reminds me a lot of the friends and the times we shared in the college days of the 1970s. Kay seemed to do great solo work after the demise of Steppenwolf; it was a lot better than the music he did in his efforts to reform the band. Heretics And Privateers is just one good example.

Mark Knopfler’s Sailing To Philadelphia, which came out in 2000, was a great collection of tunes. The title track, “Sailing To Philadelphia” is about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon who surveyed the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary line during colonial times. Another release from 2000, John Haitt’s Crossing Muddy Waters, would remind the listener of the type of music a group of friends would play on a warm night on a front porch over a few beers. The title cut, “Crossing Muddy Waters,” is a heart wrenching love-lost story anchoring a solid album by Haitt. Wine aficionados will enjoy Al Stewart’s 2007 offering to the music world, Down In The Cellar. This CD contains great cuts about wine, of which Stewart is a connoisseur. “House of Clocks,” “Under a Wine-Stained Moon,” “Sergio,” “Tasting History,” and “Down In The Cellar” make this CD a must have.

Dr. John’s 2008 CD, The City That Care Forgot, is about Hurricane Katrina and the city the nation seemed to forget after the storm. In this 13 track CD Dr. John attacks politicians, civil authorities, and business leaders who caused the destruction along the Mississippi River and Gulf coast during Hurricane Katrina. Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson make guest appearances on this CD. Major songs on the CD include “Promises, Promises,” “Save Our Wetlands,” “Black Gold” and “Land Grab.” Meanwhile, David Gilmore’s 2006 release, On An Island, maybe as close to Pink Floyd as you will get in this decade. Gilmore’s post-Pink Floyd releases have always been good, but this one seemed a cut or two above. Listen for great guitar work and lyrics on this CD.

John Prine’s Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, which appeared in 1995, was a kind of a CD of love songs regardless of the title. A unique mix of songs on this collection of 14 included “I Love You When It Hurts and a great ballad Lake Marie. Listen for some great mandocello work on this CD. Another CD with a little unusual bit of instrumentation was Jethro Tull’s frontman Ian Anderson’s 2000 release The Secret Language Of Birds. This CD uses Glockenspiel guitars, the flute and many other exotic insterments in a very impressive blend of music and lyrics. The title track, along with “Postcard Day,” “Sanctuary,” “Panama Freighter,” “The Little Flower Girl,” and many other great songs make this a album as good as any Tull CD except for perhaps Aqualung.

Although he mainly played country music for most of his life, Tom Russell’s Blood and Candle Smoke released last year is another overlooked but important and wonderful contribution to the music world. The CD is done in the folk music genre and includes songs “East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam,” “Crosses of San Carlos,” and “Santa Ana Wind.” The imagery in Russell’s lyrics are beyond great and he is joined in the music by the indie-rock band Calexico.

Finally, reaching back into the 1970s into fusion-jazz there are two Santana albums that need mentioning as I close this list, Illuminations and Caravanserai. Illuminations was a collaboration between Carlos Santana and Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane’s widow. On this now remastered CD is perhaps the best of Santana’s jazz period. Caravanserai is another Santana jazz period CD and one with a little more vocal tracks if a listener is into vocals.