Details
Track Listing
1. How Do
2. Something of a Dreamer
3. Never Had It So Good
4. Read My Lips
5. This Shirt
6. Quittin' Time
7. Down in Mary's Land
8. Goodbye Again
9. Too Tired
10. Slow Country Dance
11. It Don't Bring You
Album Notes
Personnel: Mary-Chapin Carpenter (vocals, acoustic guitar); John Jennings (acoustic & electric guitars, piano, synthesizer, bass, background vocals); Peter "Tex Luigi" Bonta (acoustic guitar, accordion, keyboards); Mike Auldridge (dobro, pedal steel guitar); Tommy Hannum (pedal steel guitar); Rickie Simpkins (fiddle, mandolin); Kim Miller, David Premo, Bruce Myers, Steven Day (strings); William Zsembery (French horn); Jon Carroll (piano, organ, keyboards); Rico Petruccelli (fretless bass, bass); Robbie Magruder (drums, percussion); Shawn Colvin (background vocals).
Producers: Mary-Chapin Carpenter, John Jennings.
Recorded at Bias Studios, Springfield, Virginia.
With hindsight, it's not hard to figure out why Mary Chapin Carpenter's sophomore effort was her commercial breakthrough. Though ostensibly a country album, STATE OF THE HEART covers a wide range of stylistic bases.
"This Shirt" and "Something of a Dreamer" are unabashed singer-songwriter folk tunes--pretty exquisite ones, at that. "Never Had it So Good" and "Quittin' Time" are anthemic folk-rock concoctions not far removed from late-'70s Fleetwood Mac. STATE OF THE HEART could have degenerated into terminal slickness, but Carpenter is a genuinely gifted lyricist capable of wit, realism, and eloquence. Her collaborator, guitarist John Jennings, provides an ideal instrumental backdrop for these musings about love and loss.
Industry Reviews
...Carpenter's astute lyrical observation provides the missing link between Janis Ian and K.T. Oslin. Combining a strong melodic gift with a particular feel for the female predicament, Carpenter is a major new talent who should appeal to fans of Nanci Griffith...
Q - 3 Stars - Good - Recommended as one of the five best country albums of 1990 (12/01/1991)
3 Stars - Good - ...her tremulous vocal style suggests a youth spent listening as much to Janis Ian and Joni Mitchell as to Tammy Wynette and Emmylou Harris. Better than this was to come, but this was a useful start...
Q (12/01/1994)
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