Looking For The Thread

One of the unexpected changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that isolated so many musicians in the early 2020s was how many embraced the notion of virtual collaboration, as they found themselves working with artists they admired but didnt often meet due to the obstacles of scheduling and geography. Mary Chapin Carpenter was an admirer of Scottish singer and songwriter Julie Fowlis, having appeared on her 2017 album Alterum, and while waiting out the lockdown at her farm in Virginia, Carpenter contacted Fowlis and the two began sharing musical ideas online. They soon brought another gifted Scottish artist into the picture, Karine Polwart, and together they all assembled the material they would record at Peter Gabriels Real World Studios for the 2025 collaborative effort Looking for the Thread. The album is the work of three distinct voices who blend together beautifully, with Fowlis sweetly soulful clarity, Polwarts gentle but sturdy tone, and Carpenters thoughtful, plainspoken sincerity complementing one another with artful grace, and allowing each other room to shine when they step to center stage. As songwriters, Fowlis and Polwarts material reflect the forbidding beauty of their Celtic and Gaelic influences while folding in contemporary folk accents, and if Carpenters four songs possess a somewhat different personality, the longing and emotional distances of "A Heart That Never Closes" and "Satellite" find their home in a very similar part of the human spirit. (The album also features two traditional numbers adapted by Fowlis that reinforce the Scottish soul of this album without forcing out the input of her American collaborator.) Josh Kaufmans production and D. James Goodwins engineering and mix are superb, capturing the rich frisson of the vocals and instruments with a welcome attention to the individual elements as well as the way they come together in the studio. And the studio bands understanding of dynamics and how to weave themselves around the singers is faultless. Plenty of artists who rise to fame in country music seem stylistically lost when they fall out of favor in Nashville after their sales and airplay take a dip, but Carpenter has instead welcomed the opportunity to explore new sides of her talent outside the mainstream. Looking for the Thread is the sort of project she likely wouldnt have been allowed to record in the 1990s. The depth of her artistry was always there, but shes given herself permission to take chances she might not have been granted in the past, and this album confirms that her instincts were spot-on; its a deeply satisfying work that rewards repeat listening. ~ Mark Deming