APRIL 19, 2000, BERKELEY, BERKELEY COMMUNITY THEATER [back]

Chapman Blends Pleasant Songs, Vague Politics
By James Sullivan, Friday, April 21, 2000 ©San Francisco Chronicle

Tracy Chapman started to explain something about her set list Wednesday,

then realized that she'd told the same story the night before. ``It's so boring,'' she chided herself with a sweet smile, forging ahead with the anecdote, ``but it's sort of entertaining.''

The bad news: That self-deprecating comment might as well describe Chapman herself. Undoubtedly gifted, earnest and endearingly bashful, the veteran songwriter is just plain pleasant onstage. The Bay Area resident played a sold-out show for an adoring hometown audience at the Berkeley Community Theater. It's no secret that Chapman endures the spotlight only in the service of her songs. On Wednesday she and her four-piece band used the sparest of stage sets, a tidy collection of amplifiers and little else.

The band -- guitarist Steve Hunter, bassist Paul Bushnell, drummer Denny Fongheiser and keyboardist Jeff Young -- took the stage silently, in the dark. The crowd's murmurs became cheers as Chapman followed, silhouetted by a deep-blue backdrop.

``You're my queen!'' one woman shouted. It was not the last such declaration of the night.

Dressed in a black T-shirt and black pants, Chapman began with a low, rumbling version of ``Nothing Yet,'' from her most recent album, ``Telling Stories.'' ``I'd run away/ But there is nowhere to go,'' she sang. ``So I'll stand and fight/ And hope and pray/ That the best is yet to come.''

Her songs are filled with such vague political bromides. The singer is adored by her fans in large part for her identity politics, but those are not always her best moments.

Midway through the set she played ``The Promise,'' a brittle love song from 1996's aptly titled career-restoring album ``New Beginning.'' The singer's simple, dignified reading of the song, accompanied by Bushnell's soft acoustic bass guitar, Young's Pachelbel-style synthesized violin sound and Chapman's own gentle fingerpicking, was one of the few times the show transcended natty professionalism.

Another highlight took place when Chapman invited her opening act, the young acoustic bluesman Corey Harris, onstage for an impromptu duet. Trading lines from the traditional blues ``Sittin' on Top of the World,'' the tall, dreadlocked Harris drew hollers of approval for his falsetto improvisation.

To her credit, Chapman still manages to make her early hit, ``Fast Car,'' sound fresh after a thousand renditions. The same couldn't be said for ``Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution,'' which was curiously devoid of passion.

The two-hour show ended with a lengthy version of another hit, ``Give Me One Reason'' (``to stay here/ And I'll turn right back around''). The bandleader milked the song for every obvious drop of its manipulative powers, vamping on the final lines ``I told you that I love you/ And there ain't no more to say'' as her fans dutifully called for more.

They got it, in the form of a sole encore song, Bob Marley and the Wailers' ``Get Up, Stand Up.'' The band lumbered through the people's anthem as though it were part of a workout, tamping down the herky-jerky energy of the original.

Most in the crowd seemed to think it was a wonderful finale. If a few of them left vowing to renew their social ideals, fuzzy as they might be, then admittedly Chapman had done the job she has chosen for herself.

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Review: Tracy Chapman Stretches Out Close To Home,
© VH1.com

San Franciscan takes some liberties with her songbook in Berkeley, Calif., show.
Correspondent Tim Simmers reports:

BERKELEY, Calif. — There was something electrifying about the way Tracy Chapman charged into Bob Marley's anthem "Get Up, Stand Up" in response to a standing ovation at the end of her set Wednesday at the Berkeley Community Theater.

Like a pied piper, the earthy Chapman drew the crowd down the aisles to the front of the stage with her powerful vocals and had them dancing and singing with her, "Get up, stand up! ... Stand up for your rights."

The international star's sold-out show ran almost two hours, but her heartfelt, quivering vocals and often biting social commentary were up-front from the start.

She opened with a new song, "Nothing Yet," from her most recent album, Telling Stories. The song featured politically charged lines: "Saddled with bonds/ Broken and in disrepair/ 40 acres to a 40 ounce/ Don't seem fair."

The three-time Grammy Award winner reflected on how comfortable she felt playing in the San Francisco Bay Area. "As some of you know, I'm home right now and very happy to be here," she said. Chapman, a native of Cleveland, has made her home in San Francisco for several years.

"We're at the end of a U.S. tour, heading to parts further north, and then to Europe."

Her apparent sense of ease seemed to put her in the mood for experimenting: "We're going to take a few liberties and play some of these songs in a different way," she told the crowd.

Then she kicked in with a melodic version of "Speak the Word, Love, Love, Love," also from Telling Stories. Her four-piece band, tight all night, took off jamming on this song. Organist Jeff Young added an intriguing gospel sound as Steve Hunter played some bluesy leads and slide guitar.

Throughout the evening, Chapman stuck primarily to her acoustic guitar, complementing the solid rhythm section and singing strong harmonies with various bandmembers. She showed a mastery of subtlety and dynamics as she guided the band through the set's peaks and valleys. Her dreamy, sensitive delivery made for a quieting, soothing respite from today's hectic lifestyles.

Halfway through, her love songs came pouring out, including the pure and lovely "Save A Place For Me" She also sang a disturbing yet beautiful a capella solo commenting on domestic violence.

The tempo slowed for these midset songs, but things picked up again with a nice duet with bluesman Corey Harris, who'd opened the show, on the traditional blues number "Sittin' on Top of the World." Chapman's voice was deep, low and bluesy, and Harris hit the high notes above her.

Between songs, the obviously shy headliner took her time, often staying silent for a minute or more, while the audience hooted and clapped in anticipation of her next song.

Well into the performance she picked up her electric guitar and served up some rock songs. The band revved up on an almost psychedelic "New Beginning"

Chapman did her early hit "Fast Car" solo, then followed that with a rousing version of the title song "Telling Stories".

On her comeback hit single "Give Me One Reason," from her 1995 New Beginning album, the band played it just like the record — the first time. After a pause, they came back to play a funky, more experimental rendition.

A slow, swampy version of the classic blues song "Rollin' and a Tumblin' " followed, demonstrating how soulful Chapman can be on blues.

The audience had been urging her to play her debut hit "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution" all night, screaming requests between songs.

Finally, she did. The song's message and raw energy marked one of the crescendos of the performance, on a par with the celebration that eventually engulfed the room during the encore.

"She cleans my body of all the day-to-day stress," said a sweating, beaming Kim Franklin, of Oakland, Calif. "It's positive, it's sad, it's happy and it's peace and harmony. "

APRIL 21, 2000, SEATTLE, BENAROYA SYMPHONY HALL [back]

Aloof at first, Tracy Chapman shows she really rocks
by Misha Berson, Seattle Times Company, Sunday, April 23, 2000, 12:00 a.m. Pacific

You might not think of folky singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman and rasta idol Bob Marley as musical soulmates.

But when Chapman brought the capacity crowd at Benaroya Hall to its feet with a powerhouse encore of Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up," it made you wish she'd rock out and reggae more often.

For the rest of her polished two-hour set, Chapman stuck to her own compositions - thoughtful songs old and new, political and personal, from her latest disc ("Telling Stories") and the three other albums that have made her an inspirational figure to many devotees and something of an enigma to critics.

After an edifying set of acoustic roots blues by singer-guitarist Alvin Youngblood Hart, Chapman came on in a plain black pants outfit, her mane of French braids secured in a ponytail, and got right down to business.

Her songs are filled with messages of unity, but Chapman can seem almost aloof in concert. At first, planted behind her acoustic guitar, she said little between tunes and barely acknowledged the adoring cries ("You're a goddess!") and shouted requests of ardent fans.

But if she didn't chat much, Chapman sure did sing - with a power and vibrancy her recordings don't fully capture. Against the electro-plush settings of a fine four-piece band led by keyboardist Jeff Young, her deep alto poured out like a dark, undulating river, with plaintive hues of blue shimmering near the surface.

In person, Chapman doesn't contradict her sensitive coffee-house-singer-made-good image. She still specializes in rather blurry relationship ballads (two of the best: "Baby Can I Hold You" and "Less Than Strangers") and ruminative protest tunes (i.e., the heartfelt incantation "New Beginning").

She's a good storyteller, and in the new "The Only One" sketched a keen, spare portrait of a grieving woman who wonders, "Does heaven have enough angels yet?"

But nothing in Chapman's recent output rivals her stunning breakthrough hit "Fast Car." The fervent live rendition, which alternates quiet verses with revved-up choruses, still brilliantly evokes the low-rung lives and hungry dreams of so many Americans who long "to be someone, be someone."

Eventually Chapman loosened up and joked a bit, playfully asking for a vote on whether she and opera star Luciano Pavarotti should duet on "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution" at an upcoming charity concert. (The verdict: yes.) And when she finally lit into her sultry, get-down hit "Give Me One Good Reason," and exhorted the crowd to "Get Up, Stand Up," Chapman made it clear she has the goods (if not always the inclination) to really rock the house.

APRIL 23, 2000, PORTLAND, ALENE CONCERT HALLl [back]

MAY 10, 2000, PARIS, OLYMPIA [back]

1. Nothing Yet
2. Baby Can I hold you
3. Less Than Stranger
4. For My Lover
5. Speak The Word
6. Across The Lines
7. Unsung Psalm
8. Behind The Wall
9. The Promise
10. Save A Place For Me
11. The Only One
12. Fast Car
13. Wedding Song
14. She’s Got Her Ticket
15. It’s OK
16. New Beginning
17. Talkin’bout A Revolution
18. Telling Stories
19. Give Me One Reason (twice)

20. Get Up, Stand Up
21. Proud Mary

MAY 13, 2000, GRENOBLE, SUMMUM ALPEXPO [back]

1. Nothing Yet
2. Baby Can I hold you
3. Less Than Stranger
4. For My Lover
5. Speak The Word
6. Across The Lines
7. Unsung Psalm
8. Behind The Wall
9. The Promise
10. Save A Place For Me
11. Rollin' And Tumblin'
12. Fast Car
13. Wedding Song
14. She’s Got Her Ticket
15. It’s OK
16. New Beginning
17. Talkin’bout A Revolution
18. Telling Stories
19. Give Me One Reason (twice)

20. Get Up, Stand Up
21. Proud Mary

MAY 22, 2000, BERLIN, FRIEDRICHSTATP PALAST [back]

[photos © Swen Darmer, except last one]

Tracy Chapman, Zauberzopf - Folk im Friedrichstadtpalast
By H. P. Daniels, Der Tagesspiegel, May 24, 2000

Vor dem Friedrichstadtpalast etliche Verzweifelte, die noch Karten suchen. Ausverkauft. Trotz horrender Preise. Im Vorprogramm überzeugt der schwarze Bluesmusiker Corey Harris mit Stimme, Gitarre und stilistischer Vielfalt. Dann tosender Empfangsbeifall für Tracy Chapman. In unaufdringlich elegantem Schwarz: weite Hose, schwarzes T-Shirt, schwarze Haare, zum dichten Zopf gebunden. Und eine Akustikgitarre, die riesig wirkt an der kleinen Frau. "The best is yet to come", singt sie. Und weitere Songs der neuen CD "Telling Stories", die live lebendiger klingen als auf dem Album mit den störend sterilen Rhythmuscomputern. Die sind allerdings nur unzureichend ersetzt von einem echten Trommler, der zu laut spielt, zu polterig, zu schlampig. Dafür ist der Rest der Band hervorragend: Orgel, Bass und Gitarre halten sich dezent im Hintergrund und unterstützen umso effektiver Chapmans vorwiegend ruhige Songs. Ohne jegliche Posen, ohne künstliches Getue steht die 36-jährige Amerikanerin am Mikrofon, konzentriert, wippt fast unmerklich mit dem Körper, singt mit dieser angenehm tiefen, warmen Altstimme. Gelegentlich ein Lächeln, ein paar scheue Erklärungen zu den Songs, und hin und wieder ein paar alte Hits: "Revolution" hatte sie 1988 beim Wembley Konzert für Nelson Mandela schlagartig berühmt gemacht. Heute bewegt sie sich zwischen Folk, Blues und weichem Soul. Und wenn sie zur elektrischen Gitarre greift, kann sie auch gewaltig losrocken. Stürmischer Applaus nach zwei kurzweiligen Stunden. Und zu Bob Marleys "Get Up Stand Up" steht das Publikum geschlossen auf, um teutonisch trampelhaft gegen den Takt anzuklatschen. Und Tracy Chapman lächelt dazu. Bezaubernd.

MAY 26, 2000, MILAN, TEATRO ORFEO [back]

[photos © Roberto Tiradritto]

1. Nothing Yet
2. Baby Can I hold you
3. Less Than Stranger
4. For My Lover
5. Speak The Word
6. Across The Lines
7. Unsung Psalm
8. Behind The Wall
9. The Promise
10. Save A Place For Me
11. Smoke And Ashes
12. Fast Car
13. Wedding Song
14. It’s OK
15. New Beginning
16. Talkin’bout A Revolution
17. She's Got Her Ticket
18. Telling Stories
19. Give Me One Reason (twice)

20. Get Up, Stand Up
21. Proud Mary

Personal Tracy autograph (thanx Gary !)
and Jeff Young one (keyboardist on Telling Stories tour)

MAY 29, 2000, MADRID, TEATRO APOLO [back]

[Canción] TRACY CHAPMAN, Historia del corazón
By El Mundes, Martes, 30 de mayo de 2000

Intérpretes: Tracy Chapman (voz y guitarra), Steve Hunter (guitarra eléctrica), Paul Bushnell (bajo eléctrico), Danny Fongheiser (batería) y Jeff Young (teclados)./ Artista invitado: Corey Harris./ Escenario: Teatro Alcazar./ Fecha: 29 de mayo.

(****)

MADRID.- Prácticamente, ninguno de los grandes éxitos de Tracy Chapman faltó a la cita en el recital con el que anoche abrió su actual gira por España, tras casi 40 conciertos a través de Norteamérica y media Europa. Alternando las canciones de su nuevo disco Telling stories (Contando historias) con sus anteriores temas triunfales (Fast car, Hablando de la revolución, Across the lines), la cantante de Cleveland, Ohio, dio muestras de una sobria y magnífica madurez sobre el escenario.

Un teatro, el escogido en Madrid, reducido de dimensiones como casi todos los de su presente gira. Al parecer Tracy Chapman prefiere este tipo de recintos, pequeños y acogedores, para conseguir un mayor grado de comunicación con el público, y de paso lograr un sonido limpio, claro y directo, que se aproxime al de los propios discos.

Sin embargo, algún imponderable debió surgir en la primera parte del recital, cuando ciertos problemas técnicos, procedentes de los teclados electrónicos, deslució en buena medida este segmento de su actuación, alterada por un operario que iba y venía entre los músicos. Y es que ni siquiera un concierto medido y cuidado, a priori, hasta los últimos detalles, y por el que se piden precios desorbitados (hasta 5.600 pesetas la entrada) se puede escapar a veces de ciertos imprevistos.

Salvada esta cuestión, y la escasa profesionalidad de la promotora del concierto, la presencia de Tracy Chapman cautivó por su sinceridad, su sencillez y su innato sentido de la sugerencia hecha canción. Los temas de esta cantautora están sembrados de una profunda sensibilidad y de un humanismo desbordante, son composiciones como dardos dirigidas directamente al corazón, henchidas bien de una tierna melancolía, bien de una dignidad por encima de credos, fronteras y colores.

No olvida cantar Tracy a los desprotegidos tanto de cuerpo como de alma, y por ello creaciones como Nothing yet o Speak the word realizan agudos comentarios sobre la situación social de la raza negra o son punzantes reivindicaciones.

En Paper and ink, cuestiona el valor de las cosas materiales, para concluir que todo es superfluo.

Existen lejanos ecos africanos en una voz que se ha dulcificado un tanto con el paso del tiempo, pero que no ha perdido un ápice de su vigor y de su carisma. En la última recta del extenso recital, Tracy, guitarra eléctrica en mano, demostró que también puede levantar al público de sus asientos.

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Tracy Chapman íntima,
By Freddy Ramírez, enDigital, May 2000

El lugar quedó pequeño: la voz de Tracy se encargó de llenar el teatro Alcázar y sólo 800 personas pudieron disfrutarla. Es que no entraban más...
Freddy Ramírez, desde Madrid

Luego de pasar un buen tiempo alejada de los escenarios europeos, Tracy Chapman hizo un concierto en Madrid en el teatro Alcázar, cuyos asientos, unos ochocientos, no fueron suficientes para albergar a todas las personas que deseaban disfrutar de las composiciones de la cantautora de Cleveland, quien regresa al mundo musical con Telling Stories.

Tuvimos la oportunidad de entrar en la sala durante el ensayo y escuchar el nítido y sobrecogedor sonido de una guitarra fantasma, que flotaba en medio del escenario horas antes de la presentación. No era una guitarra fantasma, era Tracy, su actitud y las sombras de la expectativa. La luz sólo iluminaba su instrumento preferido y Tracy escuchaba con atención las pruebas, como esperando que, minutos después, un pequeño grupo le aplaudiría con un calor insospechado.

La escena la abrió Corey Harris, quien nos ofreció durante poco más de media hora un interesante repertorio de blues y dejó la mesa servida a Chapman, quien no nos hizo esperar para sumergirnos en una atmósfera de sentimiento y sinceridad.

Acompañada de su guitarra y de un cuarteto conformado por el bajista Paul Bushnell, el guitarrista Steve Hunter, el tecladista Jeff Young y Danny Fongheis en la batería, la artista, vestida de negro de pies a cabeza, se dedicó a dar a conocer las canciones de su nuevo disco, en el que demuestra que, a pesar de haber estado alejada de los estudios de grabación por más de cinco años, tiene mucho que ofrecer con sus letras de protesta.

Nothing Yet abrió la presentación, un tema en el que denuncia la situación en que se encuentra la población de color en Estados Unidos. A medida que Chapman continuaba el recorrido por sus nuevas composiciones, sin dejar de lado sus éxitos más conocidos, los espectadores se involucraron en la travesía acompañando con sus voces. Parece mentira, pero se acordaban perfectamente de muchas de las canciones.

El placer del auditorio llegó al máximo cuando Tracy cantó Behind the Wall sin acompañamiento musical, tal y como está grabada en su primer álbum. No es fácil escuchar tantas sonoridades en una canción a capella. Pero Tracy lo hizo sin ningún problema.

El concierto transcurrió en un ambiente mágico que resistió los problemas técnicos de siempre, los cuales fueron enfrentados con mucho humor por Tracy. A mucha gente le pareció que la actitud de la cantante era sumisa, como si estuviese alejada de su público. Pero nada que ver: ese es su estilo y nada más había que escucharla para uno darse cuenta de que estaba pasando un momento estupendo, igual que nosotros.

Tras interpretar poco más de veinte canciones la cantautora se retiró, pero la aclamación de la gente la obligó a regresar, para cantar entonces Give me One Reason, una canción bastante conocida del álbum New Beginning, disco con el que ganó tres premios Grammy. También aprovechó ese momento para cantar Get Up and Stand Up, una de las canciones más conocidas del ya legendario Bob Marley.

El que se anunciaba como un concierto poco demandado en la noche madrileña resultó ser un espectáculo que, aunque no brindó lugares suficientes para la gente, dio a entender que la gente sí está contenta con el regreso de Tracy a los escenarios.

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Tracy Chapman reaparece en Madrid, San José, Costa Rica. Viernes 2 de junio, 2000
© 2000. LA NACION S.A.

• Luego de doce años de ausencia, la cantautora norteamericana hechizará con su espectáculo a los españoles

EFE.

Después de doce años sin pisar los escenarios españoles, la cantautora estadounidense Tracy Chapman comenzó en Madrid una minigira de conciertos por España para presentar su último trabajo, Telling stories.

Fue en 1988 cuando Chapman, recién estrenado su primer álbum, actuó en Barcelona en el macroconcierto Pro Derechos Humanos organizado por Amnistía Internacional. Compartió escenario con otros grandes de la música, como Bruce Springsteen, Sting y Peter Gabriel. Desde entonces no había vuelto a actuar en España.

Contando historias
Ahora, para regresar, ha elegido locales pequeños en Barcelona, Murcia y Madrid, donde ofreció el pasado martes un concierto sobrio, como es ella, y en el que alternó nuevas canciones con todos sus grandes éxitos.

Vestida de negro y guitarra en mano, comenzó el concierto con uno de los temas pertenecientes a su nuevo trabajo Telling stories, del que ha vendido en España 50.000 ejemplares.

Nothing yet fue el tema elegido para abrir su primera cita española, al que siguieron Baby can I hold you, Less than strengers, For my lover, Speak the world, Across the lines, Unsong psalm y Behind the wall.

Con Fast car, canción con la que ganó un Grammy en 1989, fue con la que arrancó una mayor ovación de los setecientos privilegiados que llenaban el Teatro Alcázar de Madrid.

Luego seguirían Wedding song, New beginning, It's OK, She's got her ticket, Talking about revolution y Telling stories. Y ya en los bises, su otro tema ganador de un Grammy, Give me the reason, y un pequeño homenaje a Bob Marley con Get up, stand up.

Debutante
El también norteamericano Corey Harris fue el encargado de abrir el concierto. Era la primera vez que actuaba en España y lo hacía para presentar su tercer álbum, Greems from the garden.

Representante del llamado renacimiento del blues acústico, Harris tocó temas de sus dos anteriores discos, Fish ain't biting y Between midnight and day, ofreciendo media hora de rhythm and blues, con pinceladas de mambo y vals francés.

Trayectoria dorada
Como un cohete, Tracy Chapman ha alcanzado desde el inicio de su carrera lo más grandes galardones de la música estadounidense.

Un ejemplo de ello es su primer álbum el cual lleva de título su propio nombre y con el que obtuvo en 1988 disco multiplatino y un premio Grammy.

Sus tres siguientes producciones, Crossroads (1989), Matters of the Heart(1992) y New beginning (1997) también han logrado ventas de multiplatino.

En el caso de este último la punta de lanza del álbum, Give me one reason, recibió un premio Grammy a la mejor canción rock.

En nuestro país Chapman, fue conocida por su participación en el concierto Derechos Humanos organizado por Anmistía Internacional en 1988 y durante el cual compartió escenario con figuras de la talla de Sting, Bruce Springsteen y Peter Gabriel.

JULY 18, 2000, MINNEAPOLIS, TARGET CENTER (w/Sting) [back]

JULY 28,2000, TORONTO, MASSEY HALL [back]


LIVE: Tracy Chapman
By Andrea Chiu, ChartAttack.com Staff, August 01, 2000

On the Rosie O'Donnell Show, Tracy Chapman laughed about her appearance on Sesame Street where she poked Elmo in the eye with her guitar. I was hoping for the same kind of humourous story telling when she took the stage at Toronto's Massey Hall last Friday. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to be in the mood for chit chat. Instead, she immediately dove into her set, opening with "It's Okay" off her latest album, Telling Stories.

The quiet songwriter played a good part of the new material including the stunning "Unsung Psalm," a song she wrote about someone who questions if they've lived a good life. It would be one of the very few songs Tracy would talk about throughout the course of the evening until she stopped to assure her eager audience that the fan favourite, "Fast Car," is not autobiographical.

Although her set was a good mix of both old and new songs, Tracy could have varied the tempo, but instead left the majority of her few faster paced songs to the end. After introducing her band members, she went into the thought-provoking single, "Telling Stories" and a rockin' rendition of the otherwise boring "Give Me One Reason" before leaving the stage.

The band returned and quickly treated the loving crowd to a cover of Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up" and ended the evening with a beautiful performance of "Amazing Grace," which was only complimented by the legendary venue.

The diehard fans had all and all a good musical evening. No surprises, no hitches, just good clean fun for the folk-rock music fans.

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Tracy sticks to her guns
By Mykella Van Cooten, JAM! Music

TRACY CHAPMAN, Massey Hall, Toronto
Friday, July 28, 2000

TORONTO -- Folk singer Tracy Chapman didn't try too hard to satisfy concert-goers at Massey Hall on Friday. Apparently, she didn't have to.

Instead she started right into the set with almost no warning, ignoring the ferocious applause. From the beginning it felt like a private gig in her basement, as though the audience wasn't even there.

Yet all in attendance silently went along with the performance, though they could have gotten the same experience from listening to a CD at home on a hi-tech sound system.

In fact, it was impossible to tell if Chapman really wanted to be there, until she finally spoke to explain her sixth selection, "Unsung Psalm."

"This song is about a person -- not necessarily me -- who wished they'd lived right," she murmured with a shy smile. Amazingly the crowd went wild, honouring the fact that she decided to speak at all.

The tune, from her latest album, "Telling Stories", gave a glimpse at why they love her so. It reminded everyone of her true appeal: as a songwriter capable of illuminating a gritty picture of despair and self-inflicted alienation, while still summoning a glimmer of hope.

But after the novelty of the new material wore off, the show again fell into a lull, as Chapman diligently trekked through an endless stream of melancholic material.

She stuck to the reliable reaction-getters -- the a cappella "Behind the Wall," "Promise," "She's Got Her Ticket," and "Fast Car" -- which she interspersed with new songs, like the racial anthem, "Nothing Yet."

And still, no one said a word. The crowd just waited - for her to breathe, to change her one of 4 guitars, to cue her band.

"Sometimes the band isn't really sure what we're gonna do," she said, referring to her last-minute whispered instructions to change song arrangements. "Sometimes I don't know."

And all this confusion showed, disturbing the potentially peaceful flow.

Yet the fans waited. Then they listened, singular heads bobbing in silent appreciation, leaning into themselves in introspection, as a room of almost 2,000 others did the same.

Eventually they knew it would end, and they'd have leave their cocoons and face the glare of the streets again. So she played what we'd all been waiting for: "Give Me One Reason."

The band ripped through the tune at full force for almost 10 minutes. Jazzman Steve Hunter was the show-stopper, riffing on acoustic guitar while Chapman complemented the proceedings and played the lyrics with her gravelly, versatile voice.

Simply put, she played their emotions -- and they liked it. After a pensive, plodding, sometimes heart-rending set, this long-waited climax made the audience jump to its feet, cheering, "Tracy, Tracy" through two encores.

One woman even held up a lighter in the historic venue and waved her arms to Chapman's encore rendition of "Amazing Grace."

The Massey Hall show was not for those new to Tracy Chapman or anyone who wanted a spectacle. It was for the simple folk-music lover who could appreciate its bare bones, take-it-like-it-is, one-woman show. Most of all, Chapman's show was played for her cult-like followers.

And it worked. As one mesmerized fan said to his partner while leaving the building, "I want to follow wherever she goes."

Superstardom isn't in the singer/songwriter job description. There aren't any solos to stick your tongue out to. The music videos use more Vaseline-smeared lenses than digital animation. And the closest the genre ever came to having an inflatable phallus onstage was when Bob Dylan asked Sam Shepherd to accompany the Rolling Thunder Revue.

Tracy Chapman knows her job. Yet compared to the rest of her ilk she's a supernova. The unplugged craze followed her standing down an audience crying for Stevie Wonder with just a guitar during an anti-apartheid benefit in 1988. But while her open face and Odetta-inspired vocals inspire their own quiet charisma, she's still a writer who constantly aspires to excellence.

You could hear it tonight when she played New York's Beacon Theater, with nothing but her band, a spotlight, and a few thousand hushed souls for company. The songs from the Grammy-winning debut to this year's Telling Stories are filled with confused protagonists, but Chapman can't stop loving them. She speaks for them better than they ever could for themselves. When Chapman sings a line from "Baby, Can I Hold You," "Years gone by and still/ Words don't come easily/ Like forgive me," she doesn't need to say more. We get it.

With a cast of characters never quite herself and a storytelling ability best heard on the escalating escapist fantasy of "Fast Car," Chapman's songs find rare wisdom in the genre's trappings. As she warns in "At This Point in My Life," "Before we talk commitment/ Let me tell you of my past." Tonight Chapman was just as worried about the present, stumbling through a lengthy anecdote about confronting her own insignificance at the New York Planetarium.

Like most of her tales, there was no neat moral, and the crowd was more interested in a woman's yearning expressed so well in Stories' "Wedding Song." One lech repeatedly cried out that this unlikely sex symbol was a "hot mama jama." However, it was well into the show before Chapman became one, closing the show with a growling ride through "Give Me One Reason" that brought the audience to their feet.

Chapman's encore showed off both her sides, tipping the dreadlocks to two performers who knew how to soak up the adulation. Her rendition of "Hound Dog" owed more to Big Mama Thornton's earthiness than Elvis' sneer. But "Get Up Stand Up" seemed drained of its political bent, favoring instead the unlikely party she had gotten started right here.

Tracy Chapman tells stories her own way
By Sarah Rodman, © Boston Herald and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems, Inc.

Friday, August 4, 2000
Tracy Chapman, Jeffrey Gaines, FleetBoston Pavilion, Boston, last night.

Tracy Chapman's latest album is called ``Telling Stories,'' but last night at the FleetBoston Pavilion the folk rocker didn't want to tell a particular tale.

``I'm sure you've all probably heard this a million times,'' she groaned. But the sweetly appreciative capacity crowd had their way.

The Tufts grad was trying to explain how her unity lament ``If Not Now . . .'' was associated with Boston even though it was written in Argentina. (She used to play in Harvard Square and an avid fan wanted to, and did, fly her to Buenos Aires to play for her family.) Chapman, chatty and gracious all night, joked that it all could've gone differently if that fan had made good on the promise to secure her an Argentinian record deal.

``You all might never have heard of me unless you were a fan of obscure world music,'' she said with a laugh.

Thankfully, Chapman decided to make her records, and tell her stories in this country. Last night's warmly embracing hour and 45-minute performance focused mainly on ``Telling Stories'' and Chapman's critically acclaimed 1988 debut and their collective songs of social protest and personal politicking.

While decidedly low-key overall, the show ebbed and flowed with great dynamism.

The gentle entreaty of ``Baby, Can I Hold You,'' segued smoothly into the more uptempo ``Wedding Song,'' which found guitarist Doug Pettibone and violinist Alison Cornell adding gauzy harmonies to Chapman's stealthy vocal.

Drummer Denny Fongheiser tapped out a martial tempo on the folk noir of ``For My Lover,'' which was enhanced by the contrasting textures of mournful pedal steel, scratchy hurdy-gurdy and eerie fiddle lines.

``Fast Car'' was, ironically enough, slowed down just a touch and a melancholic fiddle solo captured the song's still riveting and somewhat depressing tale of the stages of urban hopefulness, the smack of reality and the yearning for the illusion of escape that a fast car gives.

Jeffrey Gaines opened the show with impassioned tales of love and betrayal in his throaty, Elvis Costello-like voice.

For the first time in a long time he also favored the crowd with his soul inflected version of Peter Gabriel's ``In Your Eyes.''

AUGUST 5, 2000, BALTIMORE, PIER 6 CONCERT PAVILLION [back]

AUGUST 22, 2000, SANTA FE, PAOLO SOLERI [back]

The voice of a dreamer, Tracy Chapman makes music out of poetry
By JEFF SIMONS, The Associated Press - Amarillonet.com, September 5, 2000

SANTA FE, N.M. - Slow and steady, she reels you in.

There's an alchemy to Tracy Chapman's music, and it's rooted in her seductive simplicity: basic chords resonating off her Martin Dreadnought guitar; a rich vibrato tenor delivering clear, straightforward, confessional lyrics.

It's the stuff of life - a jilted lover, a battered woman, a woebegone kid, a stranded sailor.

Chapman is the voice of dreamers and outcasts - the ones she sings of in "Talkin 'Bout A Revolution" - the ones ready to "...rise up and take what's theirs."

"I'm inspired by things I read, I'm inspired by people I meet," said Chapman during a recent telephone interview with The Associated Press from Austin.

"I'm inspired by thinking about the world and the potential - and the sometimes lack of potential - there sometimes seems to be."

At a recent performance at the Paolo Soleri outdoor amphitheater, Chapman's inspiration rang true with the audience.

"Her music really touches my heart," said Amme Hogan of Albuquerque.

"It's her truth. It's sincere and spiritual," added Donna Kangeter, also of Albuquerque.

Chapman, dressed in a black shirt and jeans, her dreadlocks tied back in a thick ponytail, delivered a two-hour set of ballads, blues, reggae and her poignant a cappella "Behind The Wall" that brought the capacity crowd of 3,000 to its feet.

Her song list offered the crowd a glimpse into the emotional fabric that has inspired much of her songwriting.

In her opening number, "It's OK," Chapman is the steadfast friend: "I'm the rock/The shoulder you c