Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020286
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CARPENTER ROLLS WITH THE SUCCESS
Mary-Chapin Carpenter felt like talking about three things:Her voice. She's never liked it.
Rollerblading. She loves it.
And songwriting. "The thing that floats my boat more than anything," Carpenter said in a recent telephone interview from Fort Wayne, Ind., where she was performing.
But she hasn't done much writing lately. She has been too busy touring. Carpenter opens for Vince Gill on Sunday night at the Roanoke Civic Center.
On the road, she can't write, she said. "There's just not time and solitude."
She writes at home in Northern Virginia. "I have a big, beautiful old pine desk in a cozy room in my apartment. That's where I work," she said.
And for inspiration, she has hanging on the wall a letter from Johnny Cash sent to her before she ever met the legendary country singer.
In it, he tells her how much he enjoys her music and to keep up the good work "right on into that legendary stuff."
What exactly "that legendary stuff" is, Carpenter isn't sure. But so what? "I just flipped. It's the coolest," she said.
She later met Cash. He told her that he and his wife, June, like to take their boat down the Cumberland River outside Nashville and idle off the river bank from Clint Black's house.
Then, they blast her song, "Down at the Twist and Shout," and dance around on the deck. "They just said they really dig it," Carpenter said.
Now, about her voice.
She said she listens to other singers she likes: Trisha Yearwood, Bonnie Raitt and Patty Loveless, to name a few. Then, she said she hears herself and thinks:
"Who am I kidding?"
She said it hasn't been easy sharing the bill with Vince Gill, one of country's best crooners. "Vince has got a voice from heaven; I've got a voice from hell," she said.
"I kind of croak my way through."
Some, of course, would disagree.
Carpenter, 34, got her start playing nightclubs around her hometown Washington, D.C., after graduating from Brown University.
Her first major album release came in 1987 with "Hometown Girl." "State of the Heart" followed in 1989.
But it was "Shooting Straight in the Dark" in 1990, featuring the Grammy-winning "Down at the Twist and Shout," that was Carpenter's breakthrough.
Her current release, "Come On, Come On," has followed suit, yielding the hits "I Feel Lucky" and "Passionate Kisses" and receiving equally critical raves.
Meanwhile, Carpenter Rollerblades.
She said she borrowed a pair one day and was hooked. It's good exercise, she said. Plus, Carpenter is a natural. In her youth, she was a competitive figure skater.
It's also well-suited for where Carpenter spends much of her time - in concert arenas. The concourses make for great skating.
She laughed. Most musicians walk in with guitars and amps. She said she and her crew come in with Rollerblades.
"It's really a good way to blow off steam."