** 1/2 MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER, “A Place in the World,” Columbia

That starting a country album with a riff nearly identical to “Honky Tonk Women” could seem conservative shows how much things have changed in Nashville since Carpenter arrived as an East Coast folkie misfit nine years ago.

She’s still an antidote to the pinup mentality of Shania Twain and the other new country cuties. But perhaps because she has steadfastly carved out a place in that world at once outside the norm and inviting to the mainstream, we expect more from her than this generally pleasant but routine album.

“Keeping the Faith,” the song with the Stones riff, is just the kind of trite, Middle America cheerleading Carpenter used to disdain. And save for the horns on “Let Me Into Your Heart,” there’s little in her writing or co-producer John Jennings’ arrangements that hasn’t already been heard on country radio thousands of times.

Only the placidly yearning “Sudden Gift of Fate” even hints at the glories of “10,000 Miles,” the gorgeous, chilling, folk-based song that she, Jennings and Mark Isham collaborated on for the movie “Fly Away Home.” But that’s not on this album, so to hear her at her best, don’t turn on the stereo--go catch a flick.

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