Book Your Lunch with Marshall Chapman November 18, 2010

Some of Nashville’s greatest country music stars disclose their personal stories to one of their own, Marshall Chapman, in her new book, They Came to Nashville (Vanderbilt University Press, hardcover, $25.00).

Marshall Chapman knows Nashville. A musician, songwriter, and author with nearly a dozen albums and a bestselling memoir under her belt, Chapman has lived and breathed Music City for over forty years. Her friendships with those who helped make Nashville one of the major forces in American music culture is unsurpassed. And in her new book, They Came to Nashville, the reader is invited to see Marshall Chapman as never before — as music journalist extraordinaire. In They Came to Nashville, Chapman records the personal stories of musicians shaping the modern history of music in Nashville, from the mouths of the musicians themselves. The trials, tribulations, and evolution of Music City are on display, as she sits down with influential figures like Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, and Miranda Lambert, and a dozen other top names, to record what brought each of them to Nashville and what inspired them to persevere. The book culminates in a hilarious and heroic attempt to find enough free time with Willie Nelson to get a proper interview. Instead, she’s brought along on his raucous 2008 tour and winds up onstage in Beaumont, Texas, singing “Good-Hearted Woman” with Willie. They Came to Nashville reveals the daily struggle facing newcomers to the music business, and the promise awaiting those willing to fight for the dream.

About the author:
Marshall Chapman was born and raised in Spartanburg, South Carolina. To date, she has released eleven critically acclaimed albums, and her songs have been recorded by a number of artists, including Emmylou Harris, Wynonna, Jimmy Buffett, Tanya Tucker, Olivia Newton-John, and Conway Twitty. She has toured extensively on her own and opened shows for everybody from John Prine and Jimmy Buffett to Jerry Lee Lewis and The Ramones.

In 1998, Marshall began exploring new outlets for her creativity. One was theater. She and songwriting pal Matraca Berg contributed fourteen songs to Good Ol’ Girls, a country musical based on the stories of Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle. The New York Times called it a “feminist literary country music review.” Marshall’s first book, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, was published in September 2003. Simultaneously, a companion CD was released. The book was a 2004 SEBA Book Award finalist, and one of three finalists for the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. From 2004 to 2007, Marshall developed a one-woman show called “The Triumph of Rock and Roll over Good Breeding”, wrote commentary for The Bob Edwards Show, and released Mellowicious!, her first studio album in nine years. She’s currently a contributing editor for Garden & Gun, Nashville Arts Magazine, and Vanderbilt Magazine. Most recently, Marshall finished They Came to Nashville, a new CD, Big Lonesome, and acted in her first movie, playing Gwyneth Paltrow’s character’s road manager in Country Strong, all to be released this fall.

Official Website: http://www.bookyourlunch.com