Mary Chapin Carpenter - Almost Home - Non-Album Tracks (1999)

I'm very puzzled by what the heck happened to Mary Chapin Carpenter's career in the late 1990s. She had hit albums in 1992, 1994, and 1996... but then she didn't release another album of all-new material until 2001. There was a greatest hits album with a few new songs on it in 1999, but that was it. Her career momentum was stalled, and she hasn't had a gold record since.

As this stray tracks album shows, she had plenty of quality songs from 1999 alone for an album that year. (And that's not even including a dive into the studio vaults.) Furthermore, that's on top of another stray tracks album covering 1996 to 1998 that I previously posted here. I think this is a strong album that compares well with her official 1990s albums, and could have had some hits.

Three of the songs here are from that 1999 greatest hits album I mentioned above, "Party Doll." Another is from a various artists compilation. The rest all come from concert bootlegs (with good, but not excellent, sound quality). Most of those appear to be originals. It's a real shame that she hasn't officially released these songs in any form. I especially like it when she shows her humor on funny songs like "If I Were a Diva" (also known as "The Diva Song"). But she's kept pretty much all the songs of that type unreleased, though I've included a couple of previous stray tracks albums posted here.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, she hasn't had as many non-album tracks since the 1990s, at least that I know about. So I still haven't been able to put together enough material for another album after this one, heading into the early 2000s. But hopefully I'll come across more material in the future.

01 Almost Home (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
02 Bells Are Ringing (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
03 I Belong to You (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
04 These Are the Things that Matter (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
05 Leave It All Behind (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
06 No Fear (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
07 My Love Will Not Let You Down (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 If I Were a Diva [The Diva Song] (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
09 It Works (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
10 Wherever You Are (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
11 Party Doll [Ballad Version] (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15264443/MaryChapC_1999_AlmostHme_atse.zip.html

I'm not sure when or where the cover art photo comes from. But I found it on a website dated to 2001, so it could be from that year or a couple of years prior to that.