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Mary Chapin Carpenter is one of the more unlikely artists ever signed to a major label. Carpenter got her start as a folkie, singing in clubs in the Washington, D.C. area while in college. A homemade demo tape found its way to a Columbia Records exec and was released as Hometown Girl, her debut set. Her 1992 breakthrough, Come On, Come On, was a virtual greatest hits collection that included honky-tonk rockers like "I Feel Lucky" and a chart-busting cover of Lucinda Williams' "Passionate Kisses." The album racked up Grammys and CMA awards, but Carpenter followed it with the acoustic introspection of Stones in the Road. Between Here and Gone is in the smoky, downbeat tradition of Stones. The songs deal primarily with loss, aging and mortality, yet Carpenter finds redemption and an amazing kind of secular grace even in life's darkest moments. "Grand Central Station," the story of a steelworker clearing the rubble of the World Trade Center, becomes a universal lament by concentrating on the small human details of the tragedy, "One Small Heart" examines the ambivalence of a small town girl leaving home for an uncertain life in L.A., and "Beautiful Racket," the album's lone rocker, gets into the head of a woman alternately pursuing and fleeing from her high volume internal dialogue. Or maybe it's just Carpenter's love/hate letter to the industry that supports her improbable celebrity.

"Mary Chapin Carpenter is one of the more unlikely artists ever signed to a major label. Carpenter got her start as a folkie, singing in clubs in the Washington, D.C. area while in college. A homemade demo tape found its way to a Columbia Records exec and was released as Hometown Girl, her debut set. Her 1992 breakthrough, Come On, Come On, was a virtual greatest hits collection that included honky-tonk rockers like ""I Feel Lucky"" and a chart-busting cover of Lucinda Williams' ""Passionate Kisses."" The album racked up Grammys and CMA awards, but Carpenter followed it with the acoustic introspection of Stones in the Road. Between Here and Gone is in the smoky, downbeat tradition of Stones. The songs deal primarily with loss, aging and mortality, yet Carpenter finds redemption and an amazing kind of secular grace even in life's darkest moments. ""Grand Central Station,"" the story of a steelworker clearing the rubble of the World Trade Center, becomes a universal lament by concentrating on the small human details of the tragedy, ""One Small Heart"" examines the ambivalence of a small town girl leaving home for an uncertain life in L.A., and ""Beautiful Racket,"" the album's lone rocker, gets into the head of a woman alternately pursuing and fleeing from her high volume internal dialogue. Or maybe it's just Carpenter's love/hate letter to the industry that supports her improbable celebrity.

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