State of the Heart is singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Mary Chapin Carpenter

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American folk and country music artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer...

's second album. It is much more country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 sounding than her preceding basically folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 début Hometown Girl

Hometown Girl

Hometown Girl is the debut album from American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. It was released on July 30, 1987 on Columbia Records. The album did not produce any chart singles...

. State of the Heart eventually rose to the #28 position on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 Country Albums chart, with four of its tracks finding places within the Hot Country Singles chart. Chronologically, they were "How Do" at #19, "Never Had It So Good" at #8, "Quittin' Time" at #7, and "Something of a Dreamer" at #14.

Track listing

All songs written by Mary Chapin Carpenter unless noted.

1. "How Do" - 2:09
2. "Something of a Dreamer
   Something of a Dreamer
   "Something of a Dreamer" is a single written and recorded by American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. Released in 1990, it was the fourth single from the album State of the Heart. The song reached #14 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart..-Chart performance:...
   
   " - 2:56
3. "Never Had It So Good
   Never Had It So Good
   "Never Had It So Good" is a single by American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. Released in 1989, it was the second single from the album State of the Heart. The song reached #8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart....
   
   " (Carpenter, John Jennings
   John Jennings (musician)
   John Jennings is an American musician: a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and music producer.Among his producer work are 8 albums by Mary Chapin Carpenter, as well as releases by Beausoleil, John Gorka, and Janis Ian...
   
   ) - 4:04
4. "Read My Lips" - 3:05
5. "This Shirt" - 3:48
6. "Quittin' Time
   Quittin' Time
   "Quittin' Time" is a single by American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. Released in 1990, it was the third single from the album State of the Heart. The song reached #7 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart....
   
   " (Robb Royer
   Robb Royer
   Robert Wilson "Robb" Royer was the bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, and songwriter with Bread from 1968 to 1971. While he was with the band, they had a #5 UK/#1 US hit single with "Make It With You"...
   
   , Roger Linn
   Roger Linn
   Roger Linn is an industrial designer, mainly of electronic drum machines, and has recently branched out into guitar effects pedals. His products have become underground hits, being used on many famous recordings...
   
   ) - 3:52
7. "Down in Mary's Land" - 2:27
8. "Goodbye Again" - 4:47
9. "Too Tired" - 2:28
10. "Slow Country Dance" - 4:00
11. "It Don't Bring You" - 4:45

Production

• Mary Chapin Carpenter, John Jennings - producers
• Bob Dawson - production assistance, recording, mixing
• Ted Jensen - mastering

The band

• Mary Chapin Carpenter
  Mary Chapin Carpenter
  Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American folk and country music artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer...
  
   - acoustic guitars, lead & backing vocals
• John Jennings - electric & acoustic guitars, synthesizers, backing vocals, bass ("Too Tired"), piano ("This Shirt")
• Peter "Tex Luigi" Bonta - accordion
  Accordion
  The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
  
  , keyboards, acoustic guitar ("How Do")
• Jon Carroll - organ, piano, keyboards
• Rico Petrucelli - bass, fretless bass
• Robbie Magruder - drums, percussion

Additional personnel

• Mike Auldridge - dobro
  Dobro
  Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...
  
  , pedal steel ("Slow Country Dance")
• Tommy Hannum - pedal steel ("How Do")
• Rickie Simpkins - Fiddle, Mandolin
• Shawn Colvin
  Shawn Colvin
  Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
  
   - backing vocals
• Kim Miller, David Premo, Bruce Myers, Steven Day - string quartet ("Goodbye Again")
• William Zsembery - french horn
• Strings Written, Arranged & Conducted By Rico Petrucelli

Chart performance

Chart (1989)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums	28
U.S. Billboard 200	183