Without adapting herself too much to the ever changing musical landscape,
Tracy Chapman followed a path that seemed to be laid out especially for her. She put her credentials on the table with her title less debut album, an act of aptitude that would resound in the rest of her oeuvre to come. With her honest, personal and politically committed songs she succeeded in capturing an entire generation. Songs like Fast Car and Give me one Reason have become classics of the singer-songwriter repertoire. Chapman owes her success a great deal to her credibility: she knew what she was singing about. She grew up in one of Cleveland’s projects. And as a kid she started to play the guitar and write songs about herself and her environment. After high school she studied anthropology and African studies. At Tufts University she got to know the rock and singer-songwriter’s repertoire, started to perform in coffeehouses and finally made the demo that would lead to the success album
Tracy Chapman. On last year’s album
Where You Live, Chapman proves that her music sounds as powerful as ever.
