Mary Chapin Carpenter

Though it was the country charts that gave Mary Chapin Carpenter her biggest hits in the ’80s and ’90s, Carpenter was never fully comfortable being labeled as a country artist, since her music also touched on folk, rock and pop that didn’t have much of a place on the world of contemporary country radio. Now that she’s no longer on a major label, Carpenter is even more keen to explore those other sides of her songwriting. Her latest studio album, The Age of Miracles i>, her tenth, is her most folk-based yet.