A new label is often a chance for artists to renew themselves. Mary Chapin Carpenter does just that by making her debut release for Rounder/Zoe one of the most significant recordings of her 20-year-plus career. The sound hasn't changed; the blend of the public and the private figure remains. So on the surface it's business as usual. But it isn't. I don't know what's happening in Carpenter's private life, and that's as it should be, but songs such as the truly haunting Twilight, Leaving Song and Closer and Closer Apart suggest that all is not well. Yet the dignity and emotional range she brings to these songs is cathartic - at least I hope it is for her.

Carpenter is now entering her 50th year, and the opening title track traces her spiritual questioning while the closing Bright Morning Star finds some sort of resolution. In between she wrestles with her romantic demons and stands up for the right to stand up as any good, well-brought-up northern liberal would. With songs such as Why Shouldn't We? and the ever so slightly intemperate On with the Song she brings a political edge to proceedings, and indeed Houston and Twilight are the album's twin peaks, is a wonderfully understated picture of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina.

Carpenter's band are seriously engaged and she has never sung better, more confidently or more tenderly. It is a fine return to form, a difficult baring of private pain and public concern delivered with some panache. www.marychapincarpenter.com