Mary Chapin Carpenter was part of a small movement of folk-influenced country singer/songwriters of the late '80s. Although many of these performers never achieved commercial success, Carpenter was able to channel her anti-Nashville approach into chart success and industry awards by the early '90s.
Carpenter was born and raised in Princeton, NJ, the daughter of a ~Life magazine executive; she spent two years of her childhood in Japan, where her father was launching the Asian edition of ~Life. During the folk explosion of the early '60s, her mother had begun to play guitar. When Mary became interested in music as a child, her mother gave her a guitar. Carpenter played music during her high-school years, but she didn't actively pursue it as a career.