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It’s a two-parter today on Kyle Meredith With, as we bring you a backstage chats with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Trampled by Turtles’ Erik Berry from this year’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
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First up is Carpenter, who talks about her new album, Personal History — a record she’s been shaping for nearly five years. The five-time Grammy winner reflects on balancing the literary with the plainspoken, as she’s done since her late-’80s breakout, while still finding new ways to write from the heart. “At this point in my life,” she says, “I can’t hide behind it anymore.”
For Carpenter, the stories on Personal History aren’t arranged chronologically — they flow more like memory. “If you accept the idea that time is fluid,” she explains, “it sort of works that way.” She smiles about her recurring coffee references (“Mary Chapin loves her coffee”) and admits how much “A Girl and Her Dog” has resonated: “Lots of girls and their dogs — but really, people of all stripes. Dogs make life worth living.” She also shares how producer Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman) helped shape the sound of both Personal History and their earlier collaboration with Scottish musicians Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart, Looking for the Thread. “Working with Josh is a dream,” she says. “Bonny Light Horseman is one of the coolest bands going right now.”
Later in the episode, Berry joins Meredith to talk about Trampled by Turtles’ collaborative album with Low frontman Alan Sparhawk. “When we started out in Duluth, Low were the band to look up to,” Berry says. “They showed us how to do things our way.” The new record honors that lineage, even if the band’s schedules make live shows rare. “It makes it special,” he says. “We’re not going to be able to tour it properly, so when it happens, it really happens.” They currently have two such dates on their schedule — December 11th in Saint Paul, Minnesota and March 29th, 2026 at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee — and you can get tickets to those and all of TbT’s upcoming concerts here.
Listen to Mary Chapin Carpenter talk about Personal History and Trampled by Turtles discuss their With Trampled by Turtles album with Alan Sparhawk, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.