James Funfer

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OSYqTA2fuQ

The Moon and St. Christopher

By Mary Chapin Carpenter

My introduction to country music as a child was a little bit different. While most of my peers were hooked on the newly popular Shania Twain or the ever-popular Garth Brooks, I was exposed to artists with less of a Nashville influence and more of a singer-songwriter kind of feel. The best of these, in my opinion, had her roots in folk and rock as much as country. She wrote thoughtful, humorous or wistful lyrics, and she didn’t seem to buy into the glamour of music television. I didn’t even know that she was a Grammy Award-winning artist for the longest time, but in the mid-nineties she seemed to have won those as easily as she won my ear.

Mary Chapin Carpenter still produces albums, but I haven’t lost my attachment to her prolific period from 1990-1994, and it’s not her greatest hits that I treasure the most. I find that she’s at her best when she’s pensive. Songs like Come on Come on, I am a Town and Only a Dream have stuck with me throughout the years, and have inspired some great story ideas.

If you’ve never heard Mary Chapin Carpenter, do yourself a favour and check her out.