He Knows My Name

Mary Chapin Carpenter's "John Doe No.24"

I prompted AI with simple song lyrics: “The banks of the Great Big Muddy / where the shotgun houses stand”

Dear Friends,

Step into my study! Shall I fill you a pipe? Pour you a dram? Excellent!

It has been some time since we’ve had a visit over a pipe and dram and hopefully now that the holiday season is (nearly) behind us it can be more frequent.

I’ve been enjoying here in my study my very special Christmas gift from my daughter, which I’ve mentioned in another newsletter: a vinyl LP of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s 1994 hit album “Stones in the Road.” I bought it on CD format when I was 18 years old on a whim. I knew of Carpenter only from her few radio hits like “Down at the Twist and Shout” (1990), but hadn’t listened to any of her other music. I was in a mall at one of those music stores that attached CD players to the wall with headphones so you could listen and preview a new release before deciding to buy it.

The opening piano intro instantly hooked me. Later I discovered that it was, of course, Matt Rollings, probably the most gifted and prolific Nashville studio musician of a generation. But everything on that album clicked for me: the song arrangements, instrumentation, mixing, melodies, and lyrics. “Stones in the Road” is the album that has had the most influence on me as a musician and songwriter, even though my own music does not very often resemble Carpenter’s. Trust me: the influence is there. In the bones.

Ironically, the album does not contain my favorite Mary Chapin Carpenter songs. Oh, I went on to collect her entire oeuvré and discovered that country radio was giving this marvelous writer the shaft—maybe one or two radio plays per album, always the most “country” track like “I Feel Lucky” or “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” or “Passionate Kisses” (even then, those weren’t exactly “country”—the woes of a singer-songwriter not easily categorized—I feel “seen”!) Fans had to dig for the real gold. In my opinion the greatest song she’s ever written is “I Am a Town,” from the album “Come On, Come On.” It is as perfect a song musically and lyrically as I can imagine, painting a portrait of a rural, dying southern town from the perspective of … the town itself. Lyrics like this:

I am peaches in September / corn from a roadside stall / I’m the language of the natives / a cadence and a drawl

or

I’m a church beside the highway / where the ditches never drain / I’m a Baptist like my Daddy / and Jesus knows my name / I am memory and stillness / I am lonely in old age / I’m not your destination / I am clinging to my ways / I am a town

That isn’t to say “Stones in the Road” is devoid of great songs. They’re all great, just not my favorites among her total output. It does contain, however, one song that hits me deep every time. And that’s really what I want to share with you today. In fact, as I’ve gotten older I am now to the point I am unable to listen to this particular song without crying. It’s ridiculous. I am perfectly fine and then one line hits me and I am a puddle. I want to muse about why that is.