Carpenter working miracles

It’s no small miracle Mary Chapin Carpenter is out with a new album and hitting the road for the first time in three years.

She suffered a pulmonary embolism in the spring of 2007 – a life-threatening condition in which one or more arteries in the lungs become blocked – and was forced to cancel the tour promoting “The Calling,” her previous album, which was nominated for a Grammy.

“It really threw me,” she says. “I really questioned my identity and my purpose in life.”

When she recovered enough, Carpenter, 52, began to create what would become her latest effort, “The Age of Miracles.”

“The title song puts out the idea that we may live in an age of miracles if we’re lucky enough to believe in them,” she says. “There is so much out there in the world to be inspired by, to connect to … and when you are in a place in your life where things are so dark and so hard to figure out, if you are somehow able to reach those conclusions, that’s a pretty amazing thing.”

Carpenter says fans wont find any “toe-tappers” on this record, like her 1990s hits “Down at the Twist and Shout,” “I Feel Lucky” or “Shut Up and Kiss Me.”

The album features guest vocals by Vince Gill on “I Put My Ring Back On” and Alison Krauss on “I Was a Bird.”

More than anything, Carpenter is looking forward to performing in front of her fans again.

“The connection between the band and us on stage and the audience has always been just one of the great rewards of my life,” she says.

The birthday bunch

Comedian Jerry Stiller is 83. Comedian Joan Rivers is 77. Actor James Darren is 74. Singer Nancy Sinatra is 70. Singer Boz Scaggs is 66. Actress Sonia Braga is 60. Actress Kathy Baker is 60. Actor Griffin Dunne is 55. Actor-director Keenan Ivory Wayans is 52. Actress Julianna Margulies is 43. Rapper Kanye West is 33.