Ashes and Roses

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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Thom Jurek
On Ashes and Roses, songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter offers the most confessional record of her career. Always a storyteller whose protagonists could be seamlessly interchanged with the first person, that distance shrinks here; all that's left is the songwriter confronting herself in a mirror. Carpenter examines heartbreak, grief, loneliness, yearning, acceptance, gratitude, and new possibility with a gaze brimming with self-respect and compassion. Musically, the sound here is akin to 2010's Age of Miracles, but perhaps even softer. "Soul Companion," the single that features James Taylor, is not necessarily indicative of this set's sound, nor its greatest strength. The ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Thom Jurek
On Ashes and Roses, songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter offers the most confessional record of her career. Always a storyteller whose protagonists could be seamlessly interchanged with the first person, that distance shrinks here; all that's left is the songwriter confronting herself in a mirror. Carpenter examines heartbreak, grief, loneliness, yearning, acceptance, gratitude, and new possibility with a gaze brimming with self-respect and compassion. Musically, the sound here is akin to 2010's Age of Miracles, but perhaps even softer. "Soul Companion," the single that features James Taylor, is not necessarily indicative of this set's sound, nor its greatest strength. The rootsy fingerpicking on "What to Keep and What to Throw Away" is a deep reflection on the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other kind of collecting oneself after the end of a relationship that leaves one devastated: ."..These are your instructions/When grace has left you stranded/When you are lost and wounded/Bleeding and abandoned." The personal cost of betrayal is poetically and poignantly rendered in "The Swords We Carried." Carpenter's language, both musical and lyrical, though rich in melody, color, texture, poetic metaphors, and images, never flinches from looking at her subject squarely. With its shimmering mandolins, B-3, and acoustic guitars, "Chasing What's Already Gone" looks through the past to make sense of the present. She gets there, but there's a cost; she willingly pays it and holds herself accountable at the song's conclusion: "Ashes and roses and hearts that break/I tried so hard to be strong/It may be my worst but not my first mistake/Chasing what's already gone." This is the sound of the human heart at a time of reckoning, embracing its brokenness with gentleness. The embrace of grief is observed tenderly on "Learning the World," where it "rides quietly on the passenger side." But there is another side here, too; it's expressed in the resilience in "Don't Need Much to Be Happy," the yearning in "Old Love," and the acceptance that possibility awaits in "New Year's Day." Carpenter is accompanied only by producer Matt Rollings' piano on the closer, "Jericho," where she speaks to an Other about how long it will take to get to know her and how worth it that will be. Ashes and Roses is devastating in its quiet yet dignified and fierce vulnerability. Its courage makes it something singularly beautiful. Musically and lyrically, it is likely to be among her most enduring recordings.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 6/12/2012
  • Label: Zoe Records
  • UPC: 601143115028
  • Catalog Number: 431150
  • Sales rank: 11,262

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 Transcendental Reunion - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:48)
  2. 2 What to Keep and What to Throw Away - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:34)
  3. 3 The Swords We Carried - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:06)
  4. 4 Another Home - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:29)
  5. 5 Chasing What's Already Gone - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:59)
  6. 6 Learning the World - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:29)
  7. 7 I Tried Going West - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:17)
  8. 8 Don't Need Much to Be Happy - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:23)
  9. 9 Soul Companion - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:02)
  10. 10 Old Love - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:46)
  11. 11 New Year's Day - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:55)
  12. 12 Fading Away - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:21)
  13. 13 Jericho - Mary Chapin Carpenter (4:03)
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Mary Chapin Carpenter Primary Artist, Acoustic Guitar
James Taylor Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Harmony
Matt Rollings Piano, Accordion, Harmonium, Hammond B3
Duke Levine Mandolin, Electric Guitar, Mandocello, Guitar (Resonator)
Eric Darken Percussion, Bass Drums, Glockenspiel, Cajon, Shaker
Russ Kunkel Percussion, Drums, Tambourine, Shaker
Mac McAnally Background Vocals
Glenn Worf Bass, Upright Bass
Kim Keys Background Vocals
Technical Credits
Matt Rollings Producer
Mary Chapin Carpenter Composer, Producer
Bob Ludwig Mastering
Chuck Ainlay Engineer
Russ Harrington Cover Photo
Chris Tetzeli Management
Larissa Collins Art Direction
Brandon Schexnayder Engineer
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