Clowning Carpenter Saves Best for Folk in Intimate Show

Mary Chapin Carpenter’s country-pop albums have sold millions and earned her multiple Grammys, even as her music has maintained an intimate, folkie sensibility that would be at home in a hippie coffeehouse.

Carpenter infused much of that intimacy into her performance Sunday at the Universal Amphitheatre, dividing the nearly two-hour set between stripped-down solo acoustic turns and full-on rocking with her band.

She didn’t spare the personality, either, chatting expansively with the audience, telling funny anecdotes and introducing her backing quintet not once but twice. The silliness reached epic proportions during an acoustic set, as Carpenter and her band indulged in a game of musical chairs between each number, skanking around the diminishing number of stools to an old Specials ska tune.

While Carpenter managed to keep things focused on the music, the clowning occasionally got in the way. Carpenter’s songs about romance can be as pointed as Elvis Costello’s--simultaneously sweet and bitter, by turns devastatingly poignant and wryly funny. Her socially and politically themed tunes, such as “Stones in the Road,” about the effect of ‘60s upheaval on the middle class, bear evidence of her deep progressive-folk roots. There was much to listen to, and so it was frustrating when Carpenter broke up a heartfelt solo rendition of “The Hard Way” with an impromptu sing-along to the Eagles’ “Desperado.”

Folk singer Gillian Welch’s 35-minute opening set provided a sharp contrast to Carpenter’s slick pop. Alone on stage with just their guitars, Welch and David Rawlings, who co-wrote much of her 1996 debut album, “Revival,” delivered her Appalachian-style tunes in a freewheeling performance highlighted by sweet, soulful harmonies and simply effective guitar melodies.

“I keep forgetting there are more people here than I can see,” joked Welch, whose work was so true-to-form that a listener might swear a mournful number such as “Orphan Girl” was traditional rather than Welch’s own. This sensation was most profound during the lilting “By the Mark,” a stark yet resonant gospel tune.

Carpenter brought Welch and Rawlings back on stage at the end of her set for a somewhat under-rehearsed take on Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone.” The tune’s wistful longing and the performance’s haphazard charm suited this rather incongruous trio, however, and reinforced their roots connection, as fleeting and tenuous as it was.