Carpenter readies "The Dirt And The Stars"

The title track was released today. Produced by Ethan Johns (Ray LaMontagne, Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon) and recorded entirely live at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Bath, England, Carpenter wrote the songs at her rural Virginia farmhouse.

Carpenter said, "The writer Margaret Renkl once said, 'We are all in the process of becoming.' That doesn't stop at a certain age. To be always a student of art and music and life, as she says, that, to me, is what makes life worth living. It's certainly what makes me want to still write songs. No sugar coating, the songs are very personal, and they're difficult in some ways and definitely come from places of pain and self-illumination, but also places of joy, discovery and the rewards of self- knowledge. They arrived from looking outward as much as inward, speaking to life changes, growing older, politics, compassion, #metoo, heartbreak, empathy, the power of memory, time and place. So, I suppose I could say there are many themes, but they all come back to that initial idea that we are all constantly 'becoming' through art and expression."

Carpenter will continue her "Songs From Home" virtual concert series throughout the summer.

This is Carpenter's first collection of all-new material since 2016's "The Things That We Are Made Of." Most recently, in 2018, Carpenter released "Sometimes Just The Sky," which contained new versions of her songs.

The track list for "The Dirt And The Stars" is:
1. Farther Along And Further In
2. It's Ok To Be Sad
3. All Broken Hearts Break Differently
4. Old D-35
5. American Stooge
6. Where The Beauty Is
7. Nocturne
8. Secret Keepers
9. Asking For A Friend
10. Everybody's Got Something
11. Between The Dirt And The Stars