Tracy Chapman - Chapman, Tracy (CD 1988)

Opening with her beautiful and folksy guitar playing, Tracy Chapman is one of those performers you could readily see occupying a smoky, corner bar, in some little town...if she wasn't as well-known as she is!

Her first, self-titled album, reminds me of the 80's and all that social-consciousness the musicians had, a little over 12 years ago. She has a blues-folk music sound and that is most evident in the song that started it all for her, Fast Car. This collection of songs is soft and emotion-filled - her messages of revolution, domestic abuse, escaping a hard life and wanting the good life being sung with a voice that knows. There is something in Chapman's voice that makes you wonder just how much of what she's singing is from personal experience...and that's frightening.

Now, Chapman showed her talents for guitar and lyrical beauty, but it's during her a capella ballad Behind The Wall that will make you tear up with its quiet double-meanings:

Last night I heard the screaming/Loud voices behind the wall/Another sleepless night for me/It won't do no good to call/The police/Always come late/If they come at all

She has a deep, rich voice that rings out on this beautiful and utterly sad ballad. In fact, it is her folk-singing voice that brings these songs that reality. She is a singer for the common people who don't always live on the right side of the tracks and who struggle to live and love.

Okay, so that was a little melodramatic...but Tracy Chapman is a passionate singer! Would I do her justice if I didn't accentuate that?

Chapman also has the knack for the controversial, but in a very subtle way. I had to listen to Across The Lines closely (and looking at the lyrics in the jacket doesn't hurt) to hear her comment about racism:

Little black girl gets assaulted/Don't no one know her name/Lots of people hurt and angry/She's the one to blame

Powerful thing to say, but you have to listen to the entire song to really understand what Chapman is saying.

There are love songs, too - and they are hardship songs. Where a woman tells her friends and family that they don't understand the love between her and her man (For My Lover), showing just how incredibly far she'd go. In Mountains O' Things, she sings of a life of luxury and ease and filled with material wealth (as opposed to spiritual health) in almost a bitter way. It's another one of those eye-opening songs...and it definitely makes you think!

With not too many instruments crowding Chapman's voice and the soft treatment of the majority of songs, this is a great album to relax to and maybe, even, one you can release your emotions with.