Mary Chapin Carpenter - Personal History

Mary Chapin Carpenter returns with Personal History, an 11-song collection recorded at Real World Studios in early 2025 and produced by Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, The Hold Steady). Framed as a musical memoir, the album finds Carpenter reflecting on the lessons of growing older, charting a course through life’s joys and sorrows with lyrical intimacy and emotional clarity.

Backed by a stellar band – Matt Rollings (piano, organ, accordion), Duke Levine (electric guitar, hammer dulcimer), Chris Vatalaro (drums, percussion), Cameron Ralston (bass), and Kaufman himself on multiple instruments – the album’s arrangements are warm, detailed and spacious. Anais Mitchell also contributes harmony vocals on ‘Home Is A Song’.

Carpenter describes the project as “a personal history, song by song.” Highlights include the observational storytelling of ‘Paint + Turpentine’, the wistful self-portrait ‘Girl and Her Dog’, and the life-affirming ‘The Saving Things’. From quiet reckonings to hard-earned insight, Personal History offers a deeply human, resonant portrait of a life lived in full view.