TracyChapman: Under the Bridge, Over the Tracks

I clearly remember hearing Tracy Chapman, the artist, and Tracy Chapman, the album, both for the first time as a college student in Boston, where she made her debut on the streets and in the subway stations, among real people who would come to populate her songs. And what a terrific group of songs her first album is; arguably one of the finest debuts for a singer-songwriter in the last two decades.

This is pop-tinged, literate folk music with an urban sensibility, a set of well-crafted, gorgeous, topical ruminations on poverty ("Fast Car", "Mountains O' Things"), politics ("Talkin' Bout a Revolution", "Why"), domestic violence ("Behind the Wall"), race relations ("Across the Lines") and interpersonal relationships ("Baby Can I Hold You"). In many songs, the topics intersect dramatically ("Fast Car", "For My Lover", "If Not Now"), blending the politics of love with the ideology of urban existence in a divided society. These are songs about people traditionally given no voice, people passing in the shadows under bridges, people living on the other side of the tracks. Like Springsteen's Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad, like Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, like the Band's Music from Big Pink, these songs are the voices of real people, extraordinary in their ordinary lives.

This would all seem like a sociology lesson if it weren't for the absolutely gorgeous melodies Tracy layers together. There isn't a forgettable tune in the bunch, so if your only previous exposure to her is "Fast Car" or "Give Me one Reason", you're in for a terrific listen. Her voice has been criminally underrated and overlooked among her contemporaries; I won't say 'peers' because most Lilith Fair-era artists can't hold a candle to this woman's exquisite songcraft and haunting vocals.

Tracy Chapman is a treasure. Not to be missed...

Enjoy...