I am a Town - Mary Chapin Carpenter @ Wolf Trap
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- Taken from the "Jubilee: Live at Wolf Trap" performance and found on the album "Come On, Come On".
Carpenter has struggled with periods of depression since childhood. While on tour with her album "The Calling" in spring 2007, Carpenter experienced severe chest and back pain. She continued to perform until a bout of breathlessness took her to the ER, where she learned she had suffered a pulmonary embolism.
Cancelling her summer tour to recover, Carpenter felt that she had let everyone down and fell into a depression before rediscovering "the learning curve of gratitude." Carpenter spoke about the experience on National Public Radio's "This I Believe" program in June 2007.
I Am a Town lyrics:
I'm a town in Carolina, I'm a detour on a ride
For a phone call and a soda, I'm a blur from the driver's side
I'm the last gas for an hour if you're going twenty-five
I am Texaco and tobacco, I am dust you leave behind
I am peaches in September, and corn from a roadside stall
I'm the language of the natives, I'm a cadence and a drawl
I'm the pines behind the graveyard, and the cool beneath their shade, where the boys have left their beer cans
I am weeds between the graves.
My porches sag and lean with old black men and children
Their sleep is filled with dreams, I never can fulfill them
I am a town.
I am 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 am not your destination
I am clinging to my ways
I am a town.
I'm a town in Carolina, I am billboards in the fields
I'm an old truck up on cinder blocks, missing all my wheels
I am Pabst Blue Ribbon, American, and "Southern Serves the South"
I am tucked behind the Jaycees sign, on the rural route
I am a town
I am a town
I am a town
Southbound.
This is one of the most beautiful, heartfelt songs ever written. Thank you, Mary Chapin Carpenter.
In concert once she described that this song is specifically about the highway leading from Virginia through eastern NC to the Outer Banks. These are the visions of our Southern youth, most of them now fading and replaced, and she paints them so graciously.
Truly....I can see them....
Hwy 158 through Currituck. My home.
When this album came out I was a young Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, and just met a girl from VA Beach. I made many weekend drives from Jacksonsville, through small towns like Maysville, Pollocksville, Chocowinity, and Windsor enroute to VA. This song always reminds me of that time. And that girl, we've been married for 23-years now.
We know that road well. And I love your story!
How wonderful that you shared that Brian. Thank you and stay safe.
What a wonderful story! I'll remember this now every time I hear this song. Thank you.
Beautiful, Brian. I will also remember your story every time I go to MCC's inimitable song(s)! Please, cherish each moment of your time with your beloved! Stay well in these so very challenging times.
This is absolutely sublime! No more to say!
God, this song gets me now more than ever...it is just not our small towns that are ghosts of what they once were, the whole country seems to going this way..
This is one of my favorite songs ever. It reminds me of all those people who are gone now who I loved so much.
Yeh
Exactly.
Song imagery doesn't get any better. I literally feel like I'm there. A masterpiece.
My then girlfriend (and now wife) were at this concert. Rain came down in buckets during the opening act, some Irish folk group. The rain stopped as MCC gets ready to sing...and when Chapin comes out to sing, looks out and just says "You poor dears"...and the crowd went crazy. Fast forward a couple of hours...she has finished her show, done encores, and the crowd is leaving when she comes running back out on stage yelling STOP! STOP!. It seems that the recording equipment had messed up the first song of the show, and she asked everyone to come back so she could redo the first song (which we did) and said "and maybe I'll do a few more songs" (which she did). An exceptionally wonderful night.
She's on my list..missed her awhile back..😐..anyway..nice post..🙂
What a voice, and what a superb song. Beautiful and so evocative.
I am Brazilian, I use to leave in USA, I remember taking a bus, joining this song writting letters to my parents and working hard to keep my tears into my eyes. The cello of this song is very special!
Let those tears go, that is what tears are supposed to do.
@@oldisgood2587 now I am 57 and absolutely agree with you! But I was 28 year old , into the bus. So at that time I made my best that my self experience could be
best song off the best album of the 90s
I Listen To Tupac And Kendrick Lamar And Stuff Of That Nature But You Can't Deny This Is Pure Beauty To The Ears.✨Im From Carolinas Too☝
Haven't heard this song for a while. I wish I had hundreds of ears so I could listen to beautiful songs like this; lovely and poignant lyrics...
This song is pure poetry.
When poetry meets passion its priceless!!!! Bravo well done!!!
Her sincerity touches me deeply. I was fortunate to see her perform over here in the UK and Mary and her band were world class. She has the knack of singing every song to you personally and it leaves it's mark. Thank you for touching me with your gift.
Gorgeous voice for such a beautiful woman.
God bless you always
Her live performances are so exquisitely intimate. It doesn't get any better. 💖
It is a story. It tells a tale. When I listen I see all pictures, invitations; it could be a screenplay. Just enthralling.
Watching and listening in 2024; played the album over and over when it first came out. Where did the years go? 😢
It's as though Mary Chapin Carpenter knew my mother. Born in 1933, raised and schooled in North Carolina, my mother wanted out of that Southern state so desperately because of its "old ways". This was before the Civil Rights Movement, of course. She was progressive in her thinking before it was popular. A woman ahead of her time. My mother passed away in September 2016. This song makes me think of her. Thanks, Mary, for singing my mother's life song. God bless you!! 🤗💕🙏
Absolutely beautiful rendition of her creation. So many years have past, but that voice....just continues to unfold and open up. A very good soul to boot!! This makes ms Carpenter that much more a gift. So wonderful that this has been caught on tape. Who better to have as her right hand amazing guitarist and best buddy than the late Mr. Jennings.
In a world that seems to want to go increasingly faster this song, and the singer, forces us to slow down, and listen to the story. This is one of the many reasons why we love this woman :-)
Mary, you are perfect in every way.
Thank you for the music!
Sheer magic! Talented inspirational!
I want this song played at my funeral. Hey, it tells my life.... yeah, three years later. What a great song.
This is an American masterpiece and it's handled here with the loving respect it deserves. Like taking a treasured document out of its display to enjoy but handle with care.
Every song, every word, every note, every performance, Mary Chapin Carpenter IS the true talent. My absolute favorite songwriter! ....and this is coming from someone who was raised on classic rock!
So beautiful on so many different levels. My favorite song .
Dear Mary, thank you for your wonderful music which touches my heart. Greetings from a german who is born in 1958 like you.
I hope, I‘ll see you in Europe one day
Wonderful lyrics ... the colors of a painting those of us down South know well ...
saved me on a trip to India when I was having a panic attack. i needed something familiar on which to hold. This was it.
I'm the language of the natives, I'm a cadence and a drawl....
Thanks Mary
Enormously affective and embracing ! MCC has a big heart and places it on display for all to hear, here !
I love this song.. I live in a town in Carolina. Thank you for this beautiful song
Oh how I wish I could have been at that concert! MCC is my favourite artist of all time.
There's an old saying, "Music finds you, you don't find it." I've found such poignant musical works intersect and mark my life's milestones . Whenever I hear them again, I am taken back through my mind's eye to re-experience those memories, some good, some sad, and thankfully, some very happy.
Such an incredible song writer
This is one of a few songs I really enjoy on a particular level. In college, in classes on poetry, I was always much taken by the Imagist School. They did not care all that much for rhythm (just enough) and they obviously cared not a whit for rhyme. What they cared about was concrete imagery, that is, they did not go on about despair, joy, sadness, love, etc. Rather, they described these states relative to things you could see, hear, taste, smell and touch. It was not concerned with the abstract, but it was very concerned with physical experience. Yes, I know the song ends with a piano sampling of "Dixie," but it is appropriate within the context of the song, one person's concept of their heritage in concrete imagery. It does not defend or accuse. It merely illustrates.
thank you for this song .its absolutely beautiful. in fact it brought tears to my eyes. definitely a favourite of mine .you have such a lovely voice, that reaches out to you. it certainly touched my heart. .this is what I would have listened to in my past lonely days whilst going through depression THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH
This song and only a dream i would sing out loud whilst driving wonderful stories heart felt salty cheeks.
Superbe chanson, toutefois le violoncelle (dans la version originale) apporte une atmosphère particulière, triste, mais qui donne une autre puissance au titre . Cette chanson est fabuleuse.
l I have been where she has but could never express the poetics and tales she can. A master musical poet and a masterful musician.
One of my top favs of hers.
Sarah Popejoy Okay when I finished listening to this song again I got inspired to write a song! Just finished it! Her stuff always inspires me! :)
I was there. A magical summer evening.
Superb...Superb in every aspect!
BREATHTAKING !
I am a house and I'd love Mary to stop over for tea. Please bring your guitar and those guys you're singing with. Lovely song.
This is the song that paints a thousand memories
Qué preciosa canción hace esta formidable cantautora norteamericana. Todo un clásico.
Beautiful, haunting...
Enchanting! What a beautiful singer!
I live on the west coast but know towns like this.....
What an amazing vibe! I've heard this song a million times, but not like this.
Thanks for the post.
Liked MCCs music & voice since the first time I heard her. She was a major factor in C&W certain performers crossing over to rock. Nuff said!
No words.
Completely Beautiful!
Awesome and beautifull. Thank you..
no comment just beautifull song my daughter listen she has 8 years
Hauntingly beautiful!
Wow. Just. WOW.
Just lovely!
Love you MCC!
Wonderful.
Going to see her this weekend! Can't wait!
No one and I mean no one can write and perform a song like MCC.The images she evokes make all the other writers seem pale in comparison So called"Country entertainers of the year" should watch this concert to see a real artist at work.
EPIC..........
LYRICS:
"I'm a town in Carolina, I'm a detour on a ride
For a phone call and a soda, I'm a blur from the driver's side
I'm the last gas for an hour if you're going twenty-five
I am Texaco and tobacco, I am dust you leave behind
I am peaches in September, and corn from a roadside stall
I'm the language of the natives, I'm a cadence and a drawl
I'm the pines behind the graveyard, and the cool beneath their shade, where the
boys have left their beer cans
I am weeds between the graves.
My porches sag and lean with old black men and children
Their sleep is filled with dreams, I never can fulfill them
I am a town.
I am 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 am not your destination
I am clinging to my ways
I am a town.
I'm a town in Carolina, I am billboards in the fields
I'm an old truck up on cinder blocks, missing all my wheels
I am Pabst Blue Ribbon, American, and "Southern Serves the South"
I am tucked behind the Jaycees sign, on the rural route
I am a town
I am a town
I am a town
Southbound."
I miss old Rt 12
@TrapDaddy65 - I agree. She performs it *so* well.
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Superb backstory. I have been listening to this for decades, and I never knew this about MCC. Thank you so much. It doesn't change my listening, but it certainly informs it. I believe that's why you wrote?
God I'm in love with this woman in the most non creepy way, apologies to my wife! Sorry honey! Her mind and songs move me in ways that I understand.
Reminds me of Joan Baez ♡
I had never heard that about her suffering from depression ??
Beautiful. But I miss Edgar Myer's bass.
Did she say "black man?" What's that about? Can someone explain?
Give it a rest
Because they are there.
Well, first this song was part of an album that came out in 1992,, and the concert was about 1996, so times were a little different. Also, in the patois of the South-by which I include my native Virginia-references to old black men and old white men was the norm and was just a description and nothing more. African-American as the preferred term wouldn't have hit the mainstream. Plus, the tempo wouldn't be right.
@SmellyCat NO
@@fayesmallwood385 And that's so important to say what the race is, right!