Mary Chapin Carpenter and guitar

[LiveMusic]

I have always liked her but I've never owned a record. I gotta get one! I have seen her do a stuck-at-home video a few times recently. This gal has got it goin' on! Her voice has always been great but, my, she plays SO effortlessly and it just absolutely suits a singer-songwriter. Most of these are in alt-tunings. Some or all are a 1983? Greven guitar. Anyone know what tunings she plays, info on her guitar(s) and can you recommend a great cd? She is wonderful for the world of acoustic guitar; anyone who can play like she does and sing a song and have it sound great, that is a special thing, indeed. She can do just fine with no band and I like bands!

[6L6]

When it comes to academic, God-given brains, Mary is third in line behind Brian May and Kris Kristofferson in the music industry.

An Ivy League graduate (Brown University), Mary can do it all. Definitely worth paying close attention to her.

[rickcrna]

I've been a HUGE MCC fan for a very long time and have seen here live on several occasions. There are very few songwriters that can string together superb lyrics and pair them with just the right music and she is a master. Yes, she does use quite an assortment of alternate tunings. I once came across a tuning chart for many of her songs and if my memory serves, I believe it was on one of the guitar tab sites like ultimate guitar tabs or chordie.com. Of course, her songbooks have the tunings and chord structures in them as well.

Gosh as far as recommended records there are many. Her earlier offerings tended a bit more towards country and from Come On, Come On and onward tended to be much more singer-songwriter. Stones in the Road, Ashes and Roses, Sometimes Just the Sky there are so many. Was thrilled to see her do some songs from her home on youtube. Her playing style seems to effortless and gorgeous, even standing in her kitchen. Hope this is helpful info.

[Roksbug]

I liked Mary years ago when I would see her on various award shows. I had no idea she was still performing. She was actually just going to go on a major tour when this virus stopped everything.
I am loving her videos! Definetly going to follow her from now on! I signed up to get updates on her web site.

[mcduffnw]

Hi LiveMusic

Here is info on her John Greven Guitars that I posted in an earlier thread about her and her Home Youtube Concerts...she has two Greven's. John has been building for about 56 years, and has made almost 2400 steel string guitars to date. He started building in the mid 60's in rural Indiana. He was also the repair shop foreman for Gruhn's Guitars in Nashville from 1969 to 1975. He now lives and builds guitars in Portland Oregon:

John Greven is one of my very best friends, and it has been a delight to see Mary and her "Greven #1"...she has two...playing her wonderful music from home.

Her Greven #1 is a Gibson J-185 style body, her #2 is a J-200 size, also Sitka/Maple. This guitar certainly proves that maple is not at all a bright nor harsh tonewood, it is just all in which maple you choose, and how you work with it. John Greven also made John Denver a Sitka/Maple 000 and Sitka/Maple J-185 12 String, back at the same time, early 80's, as Mary's #1 guitar was made.

An interesting "guitar nerd" thing about Mary's Greven #1 is that what looks like top "runout" is actually a wee bit more than that. This guitar's top was actually made from two separate "orphan" pieces of Sitka Spruce. John said that back then, he was living in very rural Indiana, and did not always have a lot of money on hand to buy wood, and/or, that back then, there was not the support system of great tonewood suppliers that there is now, so at times his wood supply was very low and tenuous, and he had to build from "what he had", so when he made this guitar, he had these two un-matched pieces of very nice Alaskan sitka spruce, and he had to use them to make this guitar. In fact, I have John's original 1975 "White Lady" prototype design 0000/M model, and it too has John's "infamous" "2 Orphan Piece" Sitka top. Like Mary's Greven, mine sounds just wonderful, mis-matched top pieces and all...so it might be fair to say that having perfectly bookmatched top wood sets is not all that it's "split up" {;-) to be, and that good wood, bookmatched or not, is good wood, can be used to make a fine sounding guitar.



Here is Mary, describing how she came to own her Greven #1 guitar, her main guitar now for 37 years, and the one she is using in these videos on Youtube:

"I found it at The Guitar Shop on Connecticut Avenue in DC, a place owned by Steve Spellman, a somewhat eccentric guitar collector and shop owner. I did not have to talk him into selling it to me; in fact, I determined I could not buy it as I had no money. I left the shop.

A few weeks later, Gary Oelze, the proprietor of the world famous club The Birchmere, heard me talking about this wonderful guitar that I had seen at the shop. He told me to go get a bank loan, which I laughed at the idea of, because I had never done anything like that and would have to get someone to co-sign it. I had no money or collateral.

A few more weeks went by. Then Gary hired me to open for someone at the club. When it came time for me to get paid, he took me into the dressing room, stood in front of the closet and opened up the door, and pulled out a guitar case. I was dumbfounded. There in the case was the Greven. He said he had made arrangements with Steve Spellman to take it out on loan for a few weeks, because he said that if you are going to buy a guitar, you need to be able to play it a bunch. Gary theorized that if I could just play it for a while, then I would not be able to part with it and then I would be motivated to figure out some way to pay for it. AND that night he paid me for my opening slot with something like $400 dollars, as a way to get started for my Greven Fund. He literally forced me to take the money. He would not let me hand it back. It was a gig that I should not have been paid more than $40 dollars for.

I took the guitar home, played it every night after I got home from my day job, stared at it on the guitar stand, and then proved Gary right. I could not part with it.

My father agreed to co-sign a loan, I went to the bank, took out a loan for $2000. The price of the guitar was, I believe, $2500. I applied that $400 dollars to it, came up with the last $100 on my own.

So thanks to John [Greven] who made it, Steve Spellman and Gary Oelze who made it possible, and the original owner, whose misfortune I unwittingly benefited from, I have been the proud owner of this instrument ever since. Everyone who has played it, from David Crosby to Jackson Browne, has remarked on how special it is."


That should bring you up to speed on the guitar {;-) It is truly an amazing sounding instrument...and looking too...and Mary is a superb player with exceptional touch and control, no doubt making that guitar sound as good as it possibly can...and vice versa!


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

[palsed]

If anyone has time and a good ear and wants to transpose some of my favorite MCC songs that I can’t find online, please PM me. I have a small budget but will compensate for time.

[Stevien]

Thanks, duff, for the back story on the guitar! Very interesting! If only one of those could be found for $2500 today! There's one in Japan for sale for $6500!
Steve

[LiveMusic]

Thanks to all for posts and thanks duff for all that info!

[pieterh]

She is an amazing singer and songwriter. I’ve spend years trying to work out how to play her songs but I’m not really used to open or alternate tunings which puts me at a disadvantage!

One great song is This Is Love from the album Stones In The Road (the title track is excellent too!). She did it recently as one of her “songs from home” videos and you can see it’s almost an open chord but with an add 9 so that she can play the 3rd and sus easily.

Check out that album and also Ashes and Roses (born out of the heartache she went through with a divorce and death of her father).

[jgmaute]

Here's an interesting Q&A article from Acoustic Guitar in 2016, Mary Chapin Carpenter Talks Songwriting, Beating Writer’s Block, and Alternate Tunings

Toward the end she talks about alternate tunings,

What role does the guitar play in the process? Is it usually with you?
Other than when I’m walking, yeah. The guitar most of the time is what kicks something off for me. I play primarily in [alternate] tunings because I bore myself to tears in standard. The different voicings really do evoke things. When I feel stuck about how I’m trying to say something, invariably it’s some sort of voicing that leads me to the next place. Being a player is incredibly important to me, and not just to dress something up or be a part of the band. It’s the way things are created. It’s the difference between inspiration and nothing.
Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Things That We Are Made Of

Carpenter’s Tunings

Copping a Mary Chapin Carpenter guitar part off the record ain’t an easy task, thanks to her use of unorthodox tunings, often in combination with a capo. Here are a few examples that she shared from her new album.

‘The Things That We Are Made Of’:
D A C# E A E (capo VII)

‘What Does It Mean to Travel’:
C# A E G# B E (capo IV)

‘The Blue Distance’:
C G D G B C (capo V)

I, like many others, am really enjoying her Songs From Home and you really get a great look at her left hand...now if she'd only let us know what tuning she's using I could keep real busy learning them.

[jgmaute]

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

I have always liked her but I've never owned a record. I gotta get one! I have seen her do a stuck-at-home video a few times recently. This gal has got it goin' on! Her voice has always been great but, my, she plays SO effortlessly and it just absolutely suits a singer-songwriter. Most of these are in alt-tunings. Some or all are a 1983? Greven guitar. Anyone know what tunings she plays, info on her guitar(s) and can you recommend a great cd? She is wonderful for the world of acoustic guitar; anyone who can play like she does and sing a song and have it sound great, that is a special thing, indeed. She can do just fine with no band and I like bands!

Bill I really can't recommend just one CD. The Essential Mary Chapin Carpenter (2001) is a good collection of her early work, lots of great songs there. Songs From The Movie (2014) is a collection of previously recorded songs with full orchestration, Things We Were Made Of (2016) is the album mentioned in the article I posted in my previous post. Sometimes Just The Sky is her latest. I've got 14 of her albums in my iTunes library and some days I just have a MCC day and listen to them all day. After listening for decades, I first heard her in concert in 2010, just after The Age of Miracles was released. I've heard her four or five times since, she never disappoints. Maybe what you need to do, if you have a streaming service, is just listen to her music and decide what you want to own. You can also stalk her on YouTube! There an old concert DVD Mary Chapin Carpenter at Wolf Trap (1995) that I pull out and watch from time to time.

Guess I wasn't much help narrowing things down for you was I?

[Mking]

Originally Posted by mcduffnw

Hi LiveMusic

Here is info on her John Greven Guitars that I posted in an earlier thread about her and her Home Youtube Concerts...she has two Greven's. John has been building for about 56 years, and has made almost 2400 steel string guitars to date. He started building in the mid 60's in rural Indiana. He was also the repair shop foreman for Gruhn's Guitars in Nashville from 1969 to 1975. He now lives and builds guitars in Portland Oregon:

John Greven is one of my very best friends, and it has been a delight to see Mary and her "Greven #1"...she has two...playing her wonderful music from home.

Her Greven #1 is a Gibson J-185 style body, her #2 is a J-200 size, also Sitka/Maple. This guitar certainly proves that maple is not at all a bright nor harsh tonewood, it is just all in which maple you choose, and how you work with it. John Greven also made John Denver a Sitka/Maple 000 and Sitka/Maple J-185 12 String, back at the same time, early 80's, as Mary's #1 guitar was made.

An interesting "guitar nerd" thing about Mary's Greven #1 is that what looks like top "runout" is actually a wee bit more than that. This guitar's top was actually made from two separate "orphan" pieces of Sitka Spruce. John said that back then, he was living in very rural Indiana, and did not always have a lot of money on hand to buy wood, and/or, that back then, there was not the support system of great tonewood suppliers that there is now, so at times his wood supply was very low and tenuous, and he had to build from "what he had", so when he made this guitar, he had these two un-matched pieces of very nice Alaskan sitka spruce, and he had to use them to make this guitar. In fact, I have John's original 1975 "White Lady" prototype design 0000/M model, and it too has John's "infamous" "2 Orphan Piece" Sitka top. Like Mary's Greven, mine sounds just wonderful, mis-matched top pieces and all...so it might be fair to say that having perfectly bookmatched top wood sets is not all that it's "split up" {;-) to be, and that good wood, bookmatched or not, is good wood, can be used to make a fine sounding guitar.



Here is Mary, describing how she came to own her Greven #1 guitar, her main guitar now for 37 years, and the one she is using in these videos on Youtube:

"I found it at The Guitar Shop on Connecticut Avenue in DC, a place owned by Steve Spellman, a somewhat eccentric guitar collector and shop owner. I did not have to talk him into selling it to me; in fact, I determined I could not buy it as I had no money. I left the shop.

A few weeks later, Gary Oelze, the proprietor of the world famous club The Birchmere, heard me talking about this wonderful guitar that I had seen at the shop. He told me to go get a bank loan, which I laughed at the idea of, because I had never done anything like that and would have to get someone to co-sign it. I had no money or collateral.

A few more weeks went by. Then Gary hired me to open for someone at the club. When it came time for me to get paid, he took me into the dressing room, stood in front of the closet and opened up the door, and pulled out a guitar case. I was dumbfounded. There in the case was the Greven. He said he had made arrangements with Steve Spellman to take it out on loan for a few weeks, because he said that if you are going to buy a guitar, you need to be able to play it a bunch. Gary theorized that if I could just play it for a while, then I would not be able to part with it and then I would be motivated to figure out some way to pay for it. AND that night he paid me for my opening slot with something like $400 dollars, as a way to get started for my Greven Fund. He literally forced me to take the money. He would not let me hand it back. It was a gig that I should not have been paid more than $40 dollars for.

I took the guitar home, played it every night after I got home from my day job, stared at it on the guitar stand, and then proved Gary right. I could not part with it.

My father agreed to co-sign a loan, I went to the bank, took out a loan for $2000. The price of the guitar was, I believe, $2500. I applied that $400 dollars to it, came up with the last $100 on my own.

So thanks to John [Greven] who made it, Steve Spellman and Gary Oelze who made it possible, and the original owner, whose misfortune I unwittingly benefited from, I have been the proud owner of this instrument ever since. Everyone who has played it, from David Crosby to Jackson Browne, has remarked on how special it is."


That should bring you up to speed on the guitar {;-) It is truly an amazing sounding instrument...and looking too...and Mary is a superb player with exceptional touch and control, no doubt making that guitar sound as good as it possibly can...and vice versa!


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

[jaymarsch]

Long time MCC fan here. Another thing to mention related to Mary Chapin Carpenter and guitar is her long-standing musical partnership with John Jennings, who was her lead guitarist until his untimely passing a few years ago from cancer. “The Things That We are Made Of” was the first album, I believe, that she did after John died. It’s a wonderful album, well produced by Dave Cobb, but John’s presence is noticeably absent. I admire and respect the grace and courage that it must have taken to find her way without such a huge musical presence in her life. It is a testament to her talent and commitment to the music.

Best,
Jayne

[LiveMusic]

jgmaute, I find this fascinating...

‘The Things That We Are Made Of’:
D A C# E A E (capo VII)

‘What Does It Mean to Travel’:
C# A E G# B E (capo IV)

‘The Blue Distance’:
C G D G B C (capo V)

I am not familiar with these tunings, far as I know. This one -- C G D G B C -- is apparently called Admiral tuning? That, according to a google search. I didn't find a name for the other two. Now on this "Admiral" tuning... I found it hard to believe she can tune the e-strings to C but I just tried it and it works. I've got two chords picked out, so, I have a start!

The more I dig into MCC, the more I like. My kind of writer and very intrigued with her guitarwomanship.

[mcduffnw]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

Long time MCC fan here. Another thing to mention related to Mary Chapin Carpenter and guitar is her long-standing musical partnership with John Jennings, who was her lead guitarist until his untimely passing a few years ago from cancer. “The Things That We are Made Of” was the first album, I believe, that she did after John died. It’s a wonderful album, well produced by Dave Cobb, but John’s presence is noticeably absent. I admire and respect the grace and courage that it must have taken to find her way without such a huge musical presence in her life. It is a testament to her talent and commitment to the music.

Best,
Jayne

I SO absolutely agree about Mr. Jennings...sadly RIP.

He was an incredibly tasteful, lyrical, and elegant guitar player and arranger, and he so perfectly fit with MCC and her music...such a huge loss in the music world.

The partnership John had with Mary and her music reminds me in many ways of Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro...very much symbiotic and remarkable.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher