Looking For The Thread

The trio of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, and Karine Polwart first came together as a writing experiment coming out of the pandemic lockdown.

With touring off the calendar, multi-Award winning US singer-songwriter Carpenter was looking for something new and reached out to Fowlis and Polwart, two highly acclaimed Scottish singer-songwriters whose work she had long admired. Prompted by admiration and respect for each other’s work, the trio quickly came up with a plan and, once able, met in Northern Scotland for an extended writing retreat to see what magic could be made.

The success of this initial experiment led to a second writing session and, in early 2024, the 10-song album Looking For The Thread was recorded at Real World Studios in Box, England, with Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, The Hold Steady) producing and a world-class band of musicians: Rob Burger (piano, organ, accordion, keys),Chris Vatalaro (drums, percussion), Cameron Ralston (bass), Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh (hardanger d’amore) and Josh Kaufman himself (guitar, keys). The album features tracks written by all three artists, who take turns performing and collaborating on each song.