Tracy Chapman was honored with Song of the Year for her 1988 folk anthem “Fast Car” at the Country Music Awards on Wednesday, becoming the first Black songwriter to ever win the award. “Fast Car” peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart following its release more than 30 years ago. The song was nominated for three Grammys …
25 years on, Lilith Fair is a reminder of how one woman’s radical idea changed music
It was July 5th 1997: Opening night of the groundbreaking all-female music festival Lilith Fair. The lineup featured a who’s who of female alternative musicians of the moment: Sheryl Crow, Jewel, The Indigo Girls, Lisa Loeb, Fiona Apple, Shawn Colvin, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant and more. Lilith Fair was the culmination of a year of work by its founder, a …
Meeting Tracy Chapman In The Spaces Between
Tracy is wearing a plain, worn, black T-shirt, no pockets, no sly sayings, and I imagine her waking up in it, in just that T-shirt, and walking around my small basement bedroom in the Oakland split-ranch that I am sharing with 5 other grad students for $200 dollars a month each, so cold we can see our breath. Tracy is …