eveningsout

Chapman's complex lyrics match well with her winning music

Telling Stories Tracy Chapman Elektra Records

Reviewed by Michelle Tomko

If it's not broken, don't fix it. This seems to be the mantra for folk women of today. Female solo artists often sound very similar from one track to the next. But the combination of raw voices singing prophetic lyrics amid the din of basic chord progressions does keep the public coming back for more. So the future of folk will be slow to change.

The same holds true for Grammywinning singer and songwriter Tracy Chapman, who delivers more of her same signature sound with fifth album, Telling Stories.

As always, the Cleveland native serves

up haunting, often cumbersome lyrics with a winning acoustic sound. The mostly prose songs are well performed with both confidence and simplicity. The singer has a calmness about her when she performs that others only have when they are sitting at a secluded river on a warm spring day.

The album deals poetically and reverently with themes of love, addiction, religion, regret, race, death, and money.

Tracks that truly stand out are the lullaby sound of "First Try," which soothes the listener with a sense of the artist's humility. "Less Than Strangers" does this as well. Here Chapman takes us on the journey of love, from intimacy to indifference, that we all know so well.

She sings, "You and me had some history. Had a semblance of honesty. All that has changed now. We shared words only lovers speak. How can it be we are less

than strangers?”

In the title track and "Speak the Word," we hear some electric sound with drums and other instrumentation and a more upbeat tempo.

Backup vocals and instruments like the dulcimer and the electric sitar are used sparingly, and truly complement Chapman's sound.

So if you enjoyed her first four albums, Telling Stories is here for you, as in her song "Devotion": "If I am right, if I can be constant and faithful, you'll find me."

April 7, 2000

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