Product Description:
Personnel: Mary Chapin Carpenter (vocals, acoustic guitar); John Jennings (acoustic & electric guitar, synthesizer, bass, background vocals); Matt Rollings (acoustic guitar, piano); Michael Doucet, Mark O'Connor (fiddle); John McCutcheon (hammered dulcimer); Jimmy Breaux (accordion); Don Dixon (bass, background vocals); Rico Petruccelli (bass); Robbie Magruder, Dave Palamar, Vince Santoro (drums); Billy Ware (percussion); Marti Jones, Mike Cotter, Herb Pederson (background vocals).
Producers: John Jennings, Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Recorded at Bias Studios, Springfield, Virginia and Hometone Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.
SHOOTING STRAIGHT IN THE DARK, the follow-up to STATE OF THE HEART, proves that Mary Chapin Carpenter's successful second album was no fluke. Here Carpenter sticks with a similar stylistic template. Songs such as "Right Now" and "Down at the Twist and Shout," the Cajun-flavored hit featuring great guest work by members of Beausoleil, are done in a recognizable C&W style.
The rest of the album, however, features introspective and highly literate singer/songwriter folk ("Halley Came to Jackson" is a lovely extended metaphor about family tradition) and late-'70s Fleetwood Mac-style pop. "You Win Again" and "Middle Ground" neatly combine fat pop-chorus hooks with Carpenter's mildly feminist lyrical bent.
Entertainment Reviews:
Audio Magazine (1/91) - Sound A / Performance A - "...keen observation and excellent storytelling...Carpenter's songwriting is disarmingly open and mature. Her singing is excellent, by turns rueful and sassy, smart and sad, winsome and spiteful..."
