Mary Chapin Carpenter's "experiences on Sept. 11, 2001, affected her deeply and led later to the inspiration for "Grand Central Station." In New York to tape a PBS show in lower Manhattan, she witnessed personally the tragic events of that day. When the first tower fell, she and her band members were within earshot. In the aftermath, Carpenter felt great anxiety about the experience, and she wondered whether it would find its way into her music. On the first anniversary of the tragedy, she heard a National Public Radio interview with an ironworker who was one of the first on the scene. The life force he felt at the site prompted him to make a pilgrimage to Grand Central Station so that the souls of the departed could follow him there and on to their trains home. Carpenter responded to the story with her deeply affecting song."