Thread by @RadioFreeTom

Okay, so everyone is liking that I like Mary Chapin Carpenter, but honesty means that I have to tell the story of how I first saw her and why I didn't like her at all and it was a terrible night out. /1

I was a dating a very nice woman with taste in just about everything better than mine, and she said: MCC at the Birchmere just outside of DC, and you'll love it. And I was like...uh, country. Folk. No. This was mid-80s and I was all New Wave and Britpop. But I went. /2

Anyway, MCC was in a very folky phase then, and if I recall, comes in with an acoustic guitar and a long print dress and starts singing quiet, pretty songs, and by the end of that first pitcher of beer, even though I'm sitting near the stage, I am literally nodding off. /3

And the MCC sings this song about a shirt, and some kittens born in it, and how they died, and from that moment on for the rest of my relationship with that very nice lady, MCC was "Mary Chapin Dead Kitties" to me. I hated all that stuff. /4

So, years pass, relationships end, I move to New Hampshire, and I hear "Passionate Kisses" from "Come On Come On," and I think well, sure, Lucinda Williams wrote it. But it's not about dead cats. I kind of like it, and there's not much to do in New Hampshire, so I buy the CD. /5

That's when I hear "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" and "I Take My Chances" and "Walking Through Fire" and then I think... Maybe I had this artist wrong, and I go back and listen again to other stuff (besides the dead cat thing) and I become a fan. /6

The woman I dated was right, but an intro to MCC with an acoustic night at the Birchmere with a guy who is all about Boston and Cars and "I Melt With You" - well, that was just a misfire. So that's how I came to love MCC after really, really not loving her at first. /7x