B-side "Jubilee" Genre Country Label Columbia | Released March 25, 1995 Length 3:45 Writer(s) Mary Chapin Carpenter | |
"House of Cards" is a song written and recorded by American folk and country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. it was released in March 1995 as the third single from the album Stones in the Road. The song reached #21 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Contents
Content
The narrator sings of growing up in a small home in a small community, reflecting on knowing the “groan of every stair” in the house and the “name of every street” in the town. She reflects that while these small communities and homes seem perfect and ideal to an outsider, they hide their own secrets and perils, and that everyone’s greatest fear is that their “house of cards” will be discovered and everything will crash down around them.
Music Video
The music video begins by showing a family smiling happily for a family photo. Once the photo is taken, the façade falls away and the fighting, despair, and turmoil of the family is revealed. In the attic of the home, the younger child builds a large house of playing cards which in the end crashes to the ground.