Just got back from an absolutely AMAZING concert

[DFW]

I had head that Mary Chapin Carpenter was a great singer, but didn't know any of her songs. She came to our little corner of Cape Cod tonight. Standing room only. I was prepared for something good, but she blew us away. Not only is she a brilliant songwriter, but a spellbinding performer as well. I agree with some reviews I saw saying her style was difficult to categorize. But that didn't strike me as a negative at all.

She is completely different from Bonnie Raitt, but every bit as distinctive a voice.

Mary Chapin Carpenter has two new fans. I mean, just WOW

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. How cool, my dear DFW!

Glad you both had such a great time.

Quite a change from what passes for normal for you both, hey?

[DFW]

3. It was indeed that

But "normal" doesn't usually apply to us anyway.

Yesterday, we got a late start (it seems no one wanted to get out of bed). We finally got ourselves up, dropped some mail at the post office, went back for another round with Poseidon (he was in a better mood yesterday), came home and did one our typical dinner projects. I did the curried shrimp, she did the sautéed zucchini with artichoke bottoms and the tomato-onion salad, and we had some cous-cous and cole slaw to round it out.

Then we headed off to Payomet, which is all of 10 minutes by car from where we are staying. No one outside of the outer Cape has ever heard of it. It started out as a venue for local artists, and then they started to get grants and subsidies (this is, after all, Massachusetts) and were able to afford more well-known acts. They really don't advertise, just put up the occasional poster and have set up a web site. The only way to even know there is something going on is you see a hand-painted sign at the side of Route 6. Several years ago, I saw a sign saying John Mayall. I thought it must have been referring to a revival band. I mean, JOHN MAYALL? The British blues pioneer? "John Mayall's Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton?" THAT John Mayall? I thought, it can't be, the real John Mayall must be close to 80 by now. Well, he was (79, to be exact), and it WAS the real John Mayall. He was wailing the blues and prancing around the stage as if he were 50 years younger. Great band, too.

In the meantime, we have seen performances by Arlo Guthrie, Jesse Colin Young, AL Stewart, Graham Nash, Hot Tuna, etc.

But Mary Chapin Carpenter was special, even among that crowd. It was in part because I was not familiar with her music, only her reputation for being good. It is a reputation well-deserved.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

2. She IS amazing... good for you!

[DFW]

4. I was prepared from something good

Last edited Wed Jul 25, 2018, 01:27 PM - Edit history (2)

Instead we got something very special. She is WAY beyond good. Her level of musicianship, her voice, her songwriting, her choice of band, even her little talks between songs, all were perfect. She mentioned that she now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, a region close to where I grew up. Though it has been decades since I have toured or played professionally, I still turn a critical musician's ear to every performance I go to, and she not only passed every test, but surpassed every test. Everyone left with a smile on their face, and this was a crowd that ranged in age from under 20 to over 80.

The only minor annoyance was an obnoxious woman behind us who talked frequently throughout the concert. Luckily the sound system was good enough to bury her yapping most of the time, but I thought, why does someone pay the money to come see such a wonderful act, and then not only ruin it for themselves, but for others as well? I thought to myself, she could almost be a Republican! During the course of her interesting between-songs banter, Carpenter mentioned alien forms of life, and added as an aside, like the ones now in Washington. The crowd cheered, but the obnoxious woman behind us commented, "yeah, like Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey." Hah! I was right. Nasty, obnoxious--and Republican. You'd think these people find themselves under some kind of moral obligation to stereotype themselves.

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. Bonus - SHE HATES TRUMP!!!

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/mary-chapin-carpenter-the-things-we-are-made-of-donald-trump-depression-a7628086.html

“He’s mentally unbalanced, a sexual predator, racist, misogynist, a narcissist, a demagogue, he’s a frightening person,” asserts Mary Chapin Carpenter about America’s new “freak show” President, Donald Trump. And the musician is firmly of the belief that the fight back, particularly among the artistic community, starts here: “What I believe in my heart of hearts is that Trump has underestimated people’s ability to overcome this ugliness and behaviour. People will overcome that.”

[DFW]

6. Oh yes she does!

She made that abundantly clear, and except for the boorish woman seated behind me, there was nary a soul present who disagreed with her.