Word: chapman
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Tracy Chapman...
Eleven years after its release and four albums later, the breakout single "Fast Car" remains Tracy Chapman's signature song and biggest hit to date. Nothing on her fifth album, Telling Stories, is going to change or rival that. That said, it is not a bad effort. Bluesy guitars and Chapman's definitive soothing, soulful voice drive the tracks, which range from personal to socio-political, as she tries to return to the intensity and musicality of her early work...
Another: she is already seated in the Elektra Records conference room when the reporter arrives. Chapman doesn't do many interviews, but she is here to discuss Telling Stories, released last week, a lyrical, restrained pop-folk CD that contains some of her finest songwriting. She is dressed in blue jeans, black boots and a white T shirt that reads LOVE. She answers questions readily, but, at first, there's a dutiful quality to her replies; she measures her speech like stanzas. On CDs her singing voice is a heavy alto, laden with sadness; in person her speaking voice...
...Chapman, 35, says she's "mellowed" since her Talkin' Bout a Revolution days: "You can do more than be angry; you can do something about what's making you angry." She's following the presidential race but is disgusted by the process ("It's not about our lives; it's about how much money the candidates spend"). The issue of genetically altered food arouses more passion in her than one might expect ("We're polluting our food sources...
...Chapman, who has a reputation for being excruciatingly shy, is opening up, talking more candidly than she has in the past about her life and growing up poor in Cleveland, Ohio. Her mother divorced when Chapman was young and raised her and her elder sister Aneta alone. "Sometimes there was no electricity, or the gas would be shut off," the singer recalls. "I remember standing with my mother in the line to get food stamps." She eventually won a scholarship to the Wooster School, a private school in Connecticut...