One of the unexpected changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that isolated so many musicians in the early 2020s was how many embraced the notion of virtual collaboration, as they found themselves working with artists they admired but didn't often meet due to the obstacles of scheduling and geography.
Mary Chapin Carpenter
was an admirer of Scottish singer and songwriter
Julie Fowlis
, having appeared on her 2017 album
Alterum
, and while waiting out the lockdown at her farm in Virginia,
Carpenter
contacted
Fowlis
and the two began sharing musical ideas online. They soon brought another gifted Scottish artist into the picture,
Karine Polwart
, and together they all assembled the material they would record at
Peter Gabriel
's Real World Studios for the 2025 collaborative effort
Looking for the Thread
. The album is the work of three distinct voices who blend together beautifully, with
' sweetly soulful clarity,
Polwart
's gentle but sturdy tone, and
's thoughtful, plainspoken sincerity complementing one another with artful grace, and allowing each other room to shine when they step to center stage. As songwriters,
' and
's material reflect the forbidding beauty of their Celtic and Gaelic influences while folding in contemporary folk accents, and if
's four songs possess a somewhat different personality, the longing and emotional distances of "A Heart That Never Closes" and "Satellite" find their home in a very similar part of the human spirit. (The album also features two traditional numbers adapted by
that reinforce the Scottish soul of this album without forcing out the input of her American collaborator.)
Josh Kaufman
's production and
D. James Goodwin
's engineering and mix are superb, capturing the rich frisson of the vocals and instruments with a welcome attention to the individual elements as well as the way they come together in the studio. And the studio band's understanding of dynamics and how to weave themselves around the singers is faultless. Plenty of artists who rise to fame in country music seem stylistically lost when they fall out of favor in Nashville after their sales and airplay take a dip, but
has instead welcomed the opportunity to explore new sides of her talent outside the mainstream.
is the sort of project she likely wouldn't have been allowed to record in the 1990s. The depth of her artistry was always there, but she's given herself permission to take chances she might not have been granted in the past, and this album confirms that her instincts were spot-on; it's a deeply satisfying work that rewards repeat listening. ~ Mark Deming