Looking for the Thread | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | January 24, 2025 | |||
Recorded | 2024 (Real Box Studios; Box, England) | |||
Length | 47:28 | |||
Label |
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Producer | Josh Kaufman | |||
Mary Chapin Carpenter chronology | ||||
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Julie Fowlis chronology | ||||
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Karine Polwart chronology | ||||
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Looking for the Thread is a collaborative studio album by American singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter and Scottish musicians Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart. It was released on January 24,2025,by Lambent Light Records with distribution by Thirty Tigers. [1]
The album was preceded by the release of two singles. The first single,"Hold Everything",was released on November 24,2024. [2] The second single,"A Heart That Never Closes",was released on January 10,2025. [3]
Carpenter first reached out to Fowlis and Polwart in hopes of helping her with an album in 2022 before subsequently meeting together in Northern Scotland for two writing sessions in which eventuated in the recording of what would become Looking for the Thread in early 2024;it was recorded at the Real World Studios in Box,England. [4] Of the recording process,Powlart said in a press release that the musicians who contributed to the album were attentive to the music at the time of recording,adding that the songs were not "pre-produced to within an inch of their lives". [5]
Upon release,Looking for the Thread received positive acclaim from crtics. Lyndon Bolton of Folk Alley wrote:"Carpenter's rich,empathetic American folk blends beautifully with the Scots,Fowlis and Polwart,who add their own traditional and contemporary styles." [6] Mike Davies of KLOF Magazine opined that the album "offers a captivating meeting of different but kindred musical minds from different genres and cultures coming seamlessly together with shared themes and emotions". [7]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Gràdh Geal Mo Chridhe" |
| 4:26 |
2. | "A Heart That Never Closes" | Mary Chapin Carpenter | 5:02 |
3. | "Rebecca" | Karine Polwart | 3:52 |
4. | "Looking for the Thread" | Carpenter | 5:22 |
5. | "Hold Everything" | Polwart | 5:10 |
6. | "Silver in the Blue" | Fowlis | 4:16 |
7. | "You Know Where You Are" |
| 5:08 |
8. | "Satellite" | Carpenter | 4:50 |
9. | "Buidheann Mo Chridhe Clann Ualrig" | Fowlis | 4:04 |
10. | "Send Love" | Carpenter | 5:10 |
Total length: | 47:28 |
Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American country and folk music singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C.-area clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records. Carpenter's first album, 1987's Hometown Girl, did not produce any charting singles. She broke through with 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark.
A shruti box is a musical instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, that traditionally works on a system of bellows. It is similar to a harmonium and is used to provide a drone in a practice session or concert of Indian classical music. It is used as an accompaniment to other instruments and notably the flute. The shruti box is also used in classical singing. In classical singing, the shruti box is used to help tune the voice. The use of the shruti box has widened with the cross-cultural influences of world music and new-age music to provide a drone for many other instruments as well as vocalists and mantra singing.
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