Carpenter was born and raised in Princeton, NJ, the daughter of a Life magazine executive; she spent two years of her childhood in Japan, when her father was launching the Asian edition of Life. During the folk explosion of the early '60s, her mother had begun to play guitar. When Mary-Chapin became interested in music as a child, her mother gave her child her guitar. Carpenter played music during her high school years, but she didn't actively pursue it as a career. In 1974, her family moved to Washington D.C., where she became involved in the city's folk music scene. After graduating from high school in the mid-'70s, she spent a year travelling Europe; when she was finished, she enrolled at Brown University, where she was an American civilization major.

Following her college graduation, she became deeply involved in the Washington-area folk scene, performing a mixture of originals, contemporary singer/songwriter material, and pop covers. Carpenter met guitarist John Jennings during the early '80s and the pair began performing together. Eventually, the duo made a demo tape of their songs, which they sold at their concerts. The tape wound up at Columbia Records, who offered Carpenter an audition. By early 1987, the label had signed her as a recording artist. Her first album, Hometown Girl, was released that year.

Come On Come On signalled a slight change in direction for Carpenter -- although there were still folk songs, she felt freer to loosen up on honky tonk and country-rock songs, which resulted in several hit singles. Two of the singles from the album -- "I Feel Lucky" and "Passionate Kisses" -- hit number four and "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" became her first number one. Come On Come On would eventually sell over two million copies. Stones in the Road, her fifth album released in 1994, concentrated on the folkier material, but it was still a major success, selling over a million copies within the first six months of release. Place in the World was released in October 1996.