Personal History

Grammy award winning singer, songwriter, and performer Mary Chapin Carpenter will release her anticipated new album, “Personal History”, on June 6th, 2025, via Lambent Light and Thirty Tigers. The 17th album of Carpenter’s career was produced by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman, and indeed, Anais Mitchell appears on one track, and recorded live at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath and across the 11 tracks, she presents a set of songs that on first view appear way more autobiographical than any collection that has come before.

She says, “A novel that I’ve loved for years is ‘My Name Is Lucy Barton’, written by Elizabeth Strout. There’s this moment where the main character is taking a creative writing course, and her teacher says to her, ‘You will only have one story. You will write your one story in many ways’. I remember reading that line and taking an audible breath. In that moment, I said out loud to no one, ‘Oh, that’s what the songs are’.”

Carpenter has sold over 17 million records throughout her career, including hits like "Down At The Twist And Shout" and "He Thinks He’ll Keep Her", she has won 5 Grammy awards, with 18 nominations, 2 CMA Awards, 2 ACM Awards, and is one of only 22 female members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame, and is a recipient of the 2023 ACM Honors Poet’s Award.

Being a very industrious artist indeed, in addition to being a musician, Carpenter hosts the podcast “Hope Is A Muscle”, which finds her in conversation with people from all walks of life, including Joan Baez, Adriene Mishler, John Darnielle and US congressman Jamie Raskin, and on the heels of the album’s release, Carpenter will join forces with fellow Grammy award winning artist and songwriter, Brandy Clark, for a special tour this summer and autumn in the US.