Mary Chapin Carpenter Launches Jorgensen Season, 9/15

Grammy-winner Mary Chapin Carpenter has played the White House, the Superbowl, the World Series and the Grand Ole Opry. On Sept. 15, she'll play Jorgensen on the University of Connecticut campus. 

Carpenter, winner of five Grammys, will perform songs from her new album, Ashes and Roses, and draw from her past trove of evocative ballads, point of view pieces and sassy fast rides in Jorgensen's season opener at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 15. Doors open at 7 p.m. to Jorgensen's award-winning Cabaret for food and drink before the show, which will kick off with folk and bluegrass singer Aoife O'Donovan. Aoife (pronounced EEF-ah) has lent her clear voice to collaborations with Chris Thile (the Punch Brothers) and recently Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Stuart Duncan and Thile. Her singing has been heard on HBO's True Blood and ABC'sPrivate Practice.

Carpenter, the acclaimed singer/songwriter known for her intimate connection with listeners, has 12 Top Ten hits and four No. 1 singles, including "Down at the Twist and Shout," "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" and "Shut Up and Kiss Me." Her songs have appeared in films, such as "My Best Friend's Wedding," "Tin Cup," "Fly Away Home" and "Dead Man Walking." 

Carpenter will stop in Storrs on a national tour with her full band after releasing her 2012 album, which grew out of a difficult phase for her personally; in the last few years she has gone through divorce, loss of a parent and catastrophic illness. Her writing in this painful period has produced both paeans and songs of transformation, its arc going from night into day, she says. Songs include "Soul Companion," a duet with James Taylor, "The Swords We Carried" and "Learning the World."

"As we get older and we lose our father and we almost die and things go terribly wrong, we realize how much we need each other," Carpenter says. "We are all so profoundly connected. It's the only thing that matters. Without each other, what's the point?"