If there is one thing Mary Chapin Carpenter associates with Atlanta, it’s the pink flamingos -- the plastic ones that fans have carried into Chastain Park when she performs there almost annually.
The symbolic gesture is associated with Carpenter’s early '90s video for “I Feel Lucky,” which featured a few of the schlocky yard decorations propped in front of a mobile home.
Some fans jam a flashlight inside so the birds light up during the song. Others make them part of the spontaneous conga lines that snake through the tables set up around the venue.
It’s all part of the “special atmosphere” that Carpenter feels brewing every time she plays Chastain.
“When you walk out on the stage and it’s dusk and you see all of those flickering candles, it’s the most beautiful sight,” she said. “It’s humbling that people would go through the trouble year after year to let you know how much they appreciate what you do.”
Carpenter has been an illustrious presence in the folk-pop-country realm for more than 20 years, expressing her intellectually and emotionally stirring observations in songs such as “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” “I Take My Chances,” “The Hard Way” and “Between Here and Gone.”
Her most recent album, “The Age of Miracles,” arrived in April 2010, her first recording since suffering a pulmonary embolism in 2007. Songs such as “Mrs. Hemingway,” which imagines the life of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife after their divorce, and “I Have a Need for Solitude,” which Carpenter, 53, said is her most autobiographical song, scorch with vivid descriptions and pensiveness.
In January, she’ll return to the studio to record a new album, expected next summer.
Last week, the singer called from her home in the mountains of Virginia, a ranch populated by her five dogs and four cats -- her “welcoming committee” when she returns from the road -- and spoke warmly and candidly about her music, touring with old friend Shawn Colvin and her songwriting process.
Q: Since the album has been out more than a year, is it still the focal point of the show?
A: Not as much, since last year's tour was on the heels of the release. Now I have a little more room in the set to add some other things in. I'm playing some new songs I haven't recorded yet. I say I'm "road testing" them, and there's a certain amount of trying to gauge a reaction, but I'm also playing them because I feel they're keepers.
Q: You write such beautiful story songs. Are you usually carrying around a journal and jotting things down or does reflection lead you to your topics?
A: I don't carry a notebook around, but in my little office where I work, I have legal pads and pencils. To me, it's like the slow-food movement. It's slow writing in the sense that on the computer, I'm zipping along. Being so analog, it allows me to ponder things. It can really impact the content of the missive. When I sit there and buzz on with the computer, it's like my brain isn't taking enough time.
Q: Would you say “I Have a Need for Solitude” is self-descriptive?
A: I remember the day I wrote that song. It happened magically in a few hours. It's probably the most autobiographical song I've ever written. It really is me. I don't see it as a reveal or the cliché confessional-singer-songwriter. What am I confessing? It's expression to me, not confession. The reality is that everybody goes through the same things in life. When we start believing we're utterly unique, that's when we're going to get in trouble.
Q: Did the tour you did a few years ago with Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin and Dar Williams inspire this pairing with Shawn?
A: We've been friends for such a long time that pre-dates that tour by many years. Last year, she and I did some dates together, so when the calendars match up ...
Q: Will you do any songs together?
A: She's very generous in coming out or, rather, letting me drag her out! She's very kind about it. But we like to keep things spontaneous.
Q: How have you been feeling?
A: Thank you for asking. I'm doing great. There was that period of time in the first six months afterward when you're trying to get your life back, but I feel good.
Q: It’s hard to believe it’s almost the 20th anniversary of [breakthrough album] “Come On, Come On.” Think you’ll do anything to commemorate?
A: Wow, is it really? I hadn't even realized that. Well, I guess I'll start thinking about it! What it makes me feel like, though, is that it takes my breath away that it's been that many years. I can't believe I still get to do this. We're so lucky to be able to wake up and go play songs. I don't ever forget that.
Concert preview
Mary Chapin Carpenter with Shawn Colvin
7:30 p.m. Aug. 13. $25-$69. Chastain Park Amphitheatre, 4469 Stella Drive, Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.
