Mary Chapin Carpenter’s The Calling, her first release for Zöe/Rounder, is unique among a body of work that has earned her five Grammy Awards and helped her sell 13 million records in the first 20 years of her career. While her writing continues to be deeply personal, this new collection of songs also unequivocally addresses issues both public and political: from the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina to religious zealotry to the trial-by-radio of the Dixie Chicks. Thematically, the album is about faith, vocation, commitment, responsibility, and the ways these are wielded for various—often, competing—agendas.

Carpenter’s approach ranges from intimate to anthemic, and on some of this material—like the title track and the spare, stirring “Here I Am,” for example—she combines the two, contemplating the sort of big-picture questions that become more important as we grow older.  Carpenter is more interested in the act of asking than in providing answers, though; she suggests an approach to life where mystery and possibility can tantalizingly co-exist.

The Calling is Carpenter’s second co-production with pianist Matt Rollings. The pair had initially worked together on Carpenter’s 2004 disc, Between Here and Gone, which also marked the first time Carpenter actually recorded in a Nashville studio, despite such country chart staples as “I Feel Lucky,” “Shut Up and Kiss Me” and “Down at the Twist and Shout.” (When “He Thinks He'll Keep Her” was nominated in 1995 for Record of the Year, it was the second time in Grammy history that a nomination in this category had gone to a country artist.)