Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Barns at Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA, 7-3-1995

I think it's strange that Mary Chapin Carpenter has never released a live album. But there were to be one, I'd be most interested in hearing one from her mid-1990s commercial peak. Unfortunately, when it comes to bootlegs, there are virtually no soundboards or radio shows from that time period. However, I did find one concert that's worthy, and that's what's presented here. It's the audio from her live DVD, called "Jubilee: Live at Wolf Trap."

The good news is this is a professionally recorded concert from the weirdly named venue "The Barns at Wolf Trap." (I gather "The Barns" is in front for clarification, because there's more than one concert arena at Wolf Trap.) But there's a big downside to using the audio from this DVD: instead of just presenting the entire concert, there usually were interludes between songs that cut to clips of her being interviewed at a different date and location. Even worse, a couple of songs actually have dialogue over the music. One of those was a duet between her and Shawn Colvin that wasn't from the concert at all. Another, "Jubilee," is a backstage performance. So I don't feel bad losing those, since neither of them actually were a part of the concert.

But there's one more song, "Stones in the Road," that's all messed up. It started with some talking over the song, then switched to a duet version of Carpenter and Joan Baez in a different location. Then, about a minute and a half in, it switched to the version played at Wolf Trap. But even then, during an instrumental solo section, there was more talking over the music. So I found a different live version, the one released on the "Party Doll" album, and used that for the first couple of minutes, then morphed it into the Wolf Trap version for the second half of the song. The arrangements were pretty much identical since the two versions were performed only a few months apart, so I don't think you'll notice the switch.

The other big problem with the DVD audio was that the editors were quick to cut away from the songs as soon as they finished. So there's virtually no talking between songs. To fix the very short audience applause, I used the few songs where there was longer applause and copied and pasted that into the brief applause for the other songs. I was careful to match the volume of the end of the clapping of one song with the start of the next one.

Now, after those edits, this should sound like a normal concert, except one in which she hardly said anything between songs. In a way that;s a bummer, but it means the concert has no wasted time whatsoever.

If you enjoy Mary Chapin Carpenter's most popular albums from the 1990s, this is the concert for you. She plays pretty much all of her hits, as well as her other most popular songs. That's so much the case that this could easily double as the track list for a greatest hits album.

The album is one hour and 15 minutes long. Oh, and note she plays the songs with a band, so it's generally a lively album.

01 Why Walk When You Can Fly (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
02 Passionate Kisses (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
03 I Feel Lucky (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
04 Shut Up and Kiss Me (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
05 A Keeper of Every Flame (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
06 Come On Come On (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
07 The Last Word (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 John Doe No. 24 (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
09 Only a Dream (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
10 I Am a Town (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
11 Can't Take Love for Granted (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
12 The Hard Way (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
13 Quittin' Time (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
14 He Thinks He'll Keep Her (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
15 Down at the Twist and Shout (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
16 Stones in the Road [Edit] (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15282389/MaryChapC_1995_BrnsatWlfTrapViennaVA__7-3-1995_atse.zip.html

I could have used a photo from the DVD, but the quality wasn't that good. I also could have used a screenshot from a video of the DVD on YouTube, but that was a bit low resolution as well. So instead, I went with a photo from an unknown 1995 concert.