The Essential Mary Chapin Carpenter

1	Stones in the Road 4:32
2	The Long Way Home 4:54
3	Shut Up and Kiss Me 3:41
4	I Take My Chances 3:45
5	I Feel Lucky 3:31
6	Almost Home 4:37
7	Halley Came to Jackson 3:10
8	I Am a Town 5:05
9	Quittin' Time 3:51
10	Down at the Twist and Shout 3:21
11	He Thinks He'll Keep Her 4:03
12	Only a Dream 5:32
13	Late for Your Life 5:35
14	The Hard Way 4:23
15	Passionate Kisses 3:21
16	10,000 Miles 6:10

Barnes & Noble

It's a challenge to summarize Mary Chapin Carpenter's deep catalogue on one disc, but this Essential release does a fine job of surveying the impressive range and sophistication of the singer-songwriter's music over the past decade-plus. Oddly, the disc bypasses Carpenter's debut album, Hometown Girl, and includes only one song from her stunning sophomore effort, State of the Heart -- a jangly cover of "Quittin' Time," which for emotional insight, brutal honesty, and tunefulness is of a piece with her own work anyway. Otherwise, Essential offers one formidable performance, one penetrating lyric after another, mostly dealing with the yin-yang of relationships. Highlights are many, due to Carpenter's stylistic diversity. The scabrous rocker "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" delineates a woman's spirit being snuffed out in a stifling marriage to a doltish hubby, while the steady, mid-tempo "The Hard Way" is an impassioned plea to a lover to stay connected through the tough times. Also of note is Carpenter's classic, driving take on Lucinda Williams's "Passionate Kisses," as well as saucy good-time numbers, such as "I Feel Lucky" and the Cajun-flavored workout "Down at the Twist and Shout," enlivened by the contributions of BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet. And bringing us to the present are two gems from Carpenter's most recent album, Time*Sex*Love: "The Long Way Home," a brutal screed detailing lives trapped in a limbo of predictability, and "Late for Your Life," a quiet, largely acoustic meditation on believing in chance and faith. Essential provides meaty texts and great music, though it's but a taste of this impressive artist's ongoing work. David McGee

All Music Guide

{|The Essential Mary Chapin Carpenter|} takes hits from six albums she recorded for Columbia, omitting material from her first album, Hometown Girl. Since the majority of these songs appealed to both pop and country audiences, they achieved wide crossover popularity. The 16 cuts include the original versions of Carpenter's Top Ten hits "I Feel Lucky," "Passionate Kisses," "Down at the Twist and Shout," "Quittin' Time," and her first number one hit, "He Thinks He'll Keep Her." While the majority of these tracks are also included on Party Doll and Other Favorites, the difference is Essential contains the radio versions, not alternate takes or live tracks. Both discs are recommended to fans of Carpenter's modern folk/country hybrid. Les Campbell