Marshall Chapman

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Marshall Chapman
Born	January 7, 1949 (1949-01-07) (age 59) Spartanburg, South Carolina
Genre(s)	Country Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, Author
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1970s-present
Website	www.tallgirl.com

Marshall Chapman (January 7, 1949) is an American country rock singer/songwriter.

She was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the daughter of a cotton mill owner. In 1957, she was taken to an Elvis Presley concert. This, she claims, changed her from a southern debutante to a nascent rock and roller. She went to Vanderbilt University in 1967 and majored in French. Her songs have been recorded by such diverse artists such as Conway Twitty, Joe Cocker, Sawyer Brown, Jimmy Buffett and Emmylou Harris.

Her memoir, published in 2003, titled "Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller", has received critical acclaim in the music press.

[edit] Career

Marshall Chapman was one of the first women to front a rock and roll band, back when women weren’t yet picking up electric guitars. She rose from her conservative South Carolina background to become a versatile, acclaimed, and playfully irreverent songwriter and pioneer performer. To date she has released ten critically acclaimed albums, most notably, Jaded Virgin (Epic, 1978), voted "Record of the Year" by Stereo Review, and It’s About Time… recorded Live at the Tennessee State Prison for Women (Island, 1996).

Her songs have been recorded by a variety of artists, including Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Buffett, Wynonna, Joe Cocker, Jessi Colter, John Hiatt, Dion, Olivia Newton-John, Conway Twitty, Irma Thomas, and Ronnie Milsap. Her song "Betty’s Bein’ Bad" was a #1 hit for Sawyer Brown.

In 1998, Marshall and Matraca Berg contributed fourteen songs to Good Ol’ Girls, a country musical based on the stories of Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle. The musical continues to play theaters throughout the South.

Marshall's first book, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller (St. Martin’s Press, 2003) was a 2004 SEBA Book Award finalist, and one of three finalists for the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recent CD is Mellowicious! (Thirty Tigers, 2006).