Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American country and folk music singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C.-area clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records. Carpenter’s first album, 1987’s Hometown Girl, did not produce any charting singles. She broke through with 1989’s State of the Heart and 1990’s Shooting Straight in the Dark.
Carpenter’s most successful album is 1992’s Come On Come On, which accounted for seven singles and was certified quadruple platinum in the United States for shipments of four million copies. Her follow up album, Stones in the Road, appeared two years later and won Carpenter the Grammy Award for Best Country Album, while going double platinum for shipments of two million copies. After a number of commercially unsuccessful albums throughout the first decade of the 21st century, she exited Columbia for Zoë Records. Her first album for this label was 2007’s The Calling. She recorded several albums for Zoë until launching her own Lambent Light label in 2015.
Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards, from 18 nominations, including four consecutive wins in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance between 1992 and 1995. She has charted 27 times on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, with her 1994 single “Shut Up and Kiss Me” representing her only number-one single there. Her musical style takes influence from contemporary country and folk, with many of her songs including feminist themes. While largely composed of songs she wrote herself or with longtime producer John Jennings, her discography includes covers of Gene Vincent, Lucinda Williams, and Dire Straits, among others.
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