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http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977008135
Hello Everyone!
I am very excited to announce that I will be participating in my first Live Chat here on Gather this Thursday 4p PST/ 7p EST. Prior to the chat, feel free to begin posting your questions here. Just scroll down and type a question in the comment box (if you're not already a member of Gather you will need to join in order to post a question).
On Thursday at 7pm I will login to Gather and begin answering these pre-posted questions as well as any questions/comments that Gatherers post while I am live on the site. To find the chat at 7pm on Wednesday just visit Gather's Music Essential and click on the featured article.
I look forward to chatting with everyone Thursday!
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Comments: 62
Glad to have you here on Gather. I have been a fan forever. As a question, which do you prefer playing live, the ballads, or the "rockers"?
all the best to you as you make your way around gather. still enjoying the work you and Terri Allard did together on Anna Carolyn -- great combination of both your songwriting voices on that song.
Come on Come on was the first album I bought. I was completely captured by your voice and Edger Meyer's bass on, I Am A Town.
What drew you to Virginia?
Where it is coming the plays of enthusiams?... Is it in your being boyish and girlish artistic appreciation or outlook?
by The King of Hearts...
Question 1: What is your reaction to the impact of American Idol on music today and especially, your thoughts on the message of the looks vs. talent debate - which was recently brought to light when "Plain Jane" Melinda, clearly the best singer, was voted off?
Question 2: Related to the previous question...there was a recent article on MSNBC and CNN website discussing the fact that in this visual age, only physically attractive women have a chance at mainstream and the "Plain Janes" pretty much have to hang it up or "Do It Yourself" to have a musical career. I find this sad for the older gals like myself who are singer/songwriters and found their calling later in life & to the younger gals who are just coming up. On one hand, we are blessed to live in an age where we can afford to DIY, on the other, it seems that we are cheated that so much focus is on the shape of the face and body not the shape of our songs. I fear that too many beautiful voices and stories will be unheard. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and any advice you may have for DIY women and for girls who are considering a career in the creation of music.
Question: Have you an Ann Lamott collaborated on writing songs together? I love your music and I love her words.
Beryl is author of The Scent of God and was named "Best of 2006 Minnesota Authors" by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Hope you're well after the recent hospital visit. I managed to see you in New York early April, and me, my wife and my 2 kids thought it was fantastic.
Are you likely to play Between Here & Gone live at some point? It's an incredibly powerful song and i'd love to hear you interpret it on stage.
Also do you have any plans for a live album? Considering how you adapt the songs live it would be nice to have a record of them.
I hope u get well soon. I just wanted to say how much ur music means to me. I love ur new album. My question is, are planning to ever come back to Memphis Tn. or anywhere close, I hope so. I did c u the last time at Mud Island Amp. U were great.
One questions I've always wondered about has to do with the development of your songs. I have heard many new songs performed live before you head into the studio and they often take on different colors when recorded. How does that process happen? I know you've got great vibes with the Boys with Poise but they don't follow you into the studio. What process do you use in the evolution of the song in the studio.
We look forward to seeing you when you come back West. You KNOW we will always pack the house with festivities and neon!!
And will there be a transcript available of the chat to read since I get off work at 4p and it takes 40 min to get home?
I can't believe how dearly fortunate we each are to have this amazing opportunity to write to you and in my case for you to hopeful respond to these thoughts I now plan to scribe. I could write so much in adoration that I have for you and the precious gift you possess in how you paint in art with the words that encompass the lyrics to your songs. I recently was at your concert in Connecticut and drew in such joy in your performance. I have spent my adult life listening to music acutely engaged in the words to songs and no one has inspired or impressed me more deeply that you. I write poetry as my passion and I have told my friends if there was just one person I could write with it would be undoubtedly you. To share in inspirations and thoughts that encompasses the craft to grow songs. I could and would gladly write more to you, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to read others as well. My question is if you would perhaps like to read some of my poetry and share your thoughts and feelings and perhaps venture future aspirations of potential song fruition, I would greatly appreciate your expertise. If so, you can contact me at 4apoet@gmail.com.
Sincerely yours and with deep gratitude,
Mark L. Frohlinger
I've loved your music since I walked into a thrift store in November 1989 and heard "You Never Had It So Good" booming from the speakers of a cabinet model stereo on the "showroom" floor. The years since have been full of great concerts, drives, and back deck summer nights with MCC music playing on everything from LPs to cassettes to CDs to the ipod. Thank you very much for sharing your music and thus sharing in so many life events and great memories.
Your lyrics are full of so many emotive lines and phrases. Is there one line you've written in which you thought to yourself, "that's it! that's the line I needed! Now that's poetry."?
I believe if I had the good fortune to write something such as "see your life as a gift from the great unknown and your task is to recieve it" I'd set my pencil down, tell myself "well done," and head for the beach!
Back for a second question - bit cheeky i suppose, but being in England I might be asleep by the time you're online, so i thought i'd better ask now.
Do you have specific lines in songs that are either the start point for writing, or that you view as a focus for the song. I'm thinking of 'No sign of someone who expects to be back' and 'I am seven years old and I feel my Daddy reach out for my hand'. These seem to me to be key lines and never fail to bring a tear to my eye.
There are several of these lines in numerous songs and i just wondered if i was imagining it or whether that was how you work.
By the way, thanks for 'Ideas are like Stars' in New York, one of my current favourites. Any chance of listing the guitar chords.
Thanks again, and look forward to seeing you healthy and back on stage soon.
Paul
(one other thing - love the way you worked your wedding ring into the cover of the Calling!)
It drives me nuts when people misspell my name ... what about when people call you Mary, which isn't really your name?
Hope you are feeling better, we'll miss travelling to see you in Atlanta but your health is way more important!
R-a-c-h-e-l
Hope you're well on the way to recovery and feeling stronger every day. Your music has been a large part of the soundtrack of my life for almost 20 years - thank you.
A few questions:
What's the best concert you ever attended as a member of the audience?
Do you have a wish list of performers who you'd like to have cover any of your songs?
Can you share your top 5 movies of all time?
Do you remember which was the first CD you bought to replace a vynyl album already in your collection?
What recent book would you recommend?
Thanks!
Nancy
I hope you are feeling much better now that you are home in "The Valley" and in your own beautiful spaces. While I will miss you being at Wolf Trap this summer, your health is much too important not to take the time to recuperate.
While I (and probably every single other fan) would be thrilled if you brought out a new album every month (Ha!), I was wondering how you start on an album of songs? Is it one theme that's running through your mind? A single line that keeps coming back? One song you're working on that inspires a theme around which to build the songs? Strong feeling you need to find avenues to express? Or, does this inspiration vary from album to album?
Your most recent three (back to Time*Sex*Love) seem to have very strong themes (to me).
Thank you sharing your music with us. You have given the world so many splendid gifts, and as others have said in earlier posts, you have touched my life in ways too numerous to describe here and comforted me over and over again with your songs. Linda in Bridgewater, VA (Yep!! The Shennandoah is a fabulous place to be!!)
How do you reconcile The Calling and those of your fans who are denigrated by your messages in it? How do you respond to your fans who support the president, who feel like Iraq is not a lost cause or an immoral action, who don't agree with the Dixie Chicks when they insist they have a right to say whatever they want but no one else does, and who hear On With The Song and hear you calling them blind followers who don't think for themselves?
To be honest, I'm sorely disappointed in your effort here. I came to love your music dearly because you have a wonderful ability to look deep into the human heart and to observe the human condition and to portray this beautifully in music. But when it comes to politics you apparently only see things in black and white, and if someone doesn't agree with you then there is no humanity in us, only blindness and hollowness.
Isn't my opinion deeper than that, even if you don't agree with it?
I love The Calling, as I do all of your prior cds. You continue to inspire me with your thought provoking lyrics, and the absolutely wonderful music. Bless you Mary Chapin!
Cheryl Merrill
My second &Question, hope not it is not too much... When you composed your composition... How do you found your musical works from your perspective...would you consider it Spiritual, a devotional Artistry-sort of responsibility towards Arts and the public--or just playing around and Silly?... You know your lyrics well... that's what I supposed and them are great.
By The King of Hearts
believe- were in your band then. Your lyrics were and continue to be inspirational - Your dad was seated at the table beside us enjoying your performance so much - First time I ever saw a person "BEAM"w/ joy. Your interaction/connection with him touched us deeply.
I'm Danish and a graet fan of yours. I've got all your records etc. etc. and i was wondering if there will be any live performance in July in the US?. I'm comming to the US to visit with my family and I would sure like to see you live on stage.
Sorry for my poor English..
Do you think that you will be performing near the Louisville, KY area? We would love the see you back at the Palace Theater! Maybe the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville? The Calling is great.
Terry in Louisville
Will you be making any trips to Canada anytime soon?
I would love to attend another one of your concerts!
Regards,
Laura P.
Two and a half years ago I enrolled in the Guilford Technical Community College's Entertainment program. On May 12th, I graduated with a double degree. Concentration studies in Sound Engineering and Performance option. While being at GTCC, I was awarded title The Vice President of Fellowship for the Phi Theta Kappa. In 2005, they awarded me with the Hall of Honors for the Carolinas for the work I did in raising funds for cancer research. Fundraiser was called " Bands Battling Cancer". Maybe you could do one for your concert some time.
The main reason I'm writing is I want to send you a CD called " All I Want To Do" I've composed. Also, you keep up the good work cause I enjoy what you are doing. Hope you enjoy the music.
I grew up listening to everything on the radio, and what a time it was to listen! There was British rock, Motown blues, Country and western, Bluegrass, Elvis, the Beach Boys and The Beatles. And, thanks to the magic of sound frequencies, all of this came to a lonely country boy in rural Madison, North Carolina. What I heard, I wanted to keep, so I picked up a guitar at thirteen, and still haven't put it down. As I grew, so did my passion for music. It was my best friend, my therapy, my comfort and my true love and has remained so over the decades.
To be a professional musician was a dream. A far away one, at that, I heard of a community college program that specialized in entertainment technology recording, producing, performance and management. At that point, I realized my dream could become reality, and I enrolled and
studied with great dedication and enthusiasm. The music attached to this e-mail, is self-produced, recorded, engineered and performed by myself. It is the fruition of all those years of love for the music that I grew up with.
I'm looking for employment in the recording field. I have mailed a lot resumes but no takers yet. I want to record music. Continue working on what I've learned from GTCC. So if you know someone who may need my talent let me know. I'm employed at WGSR TV station as a Master Control Engineer in Reidsville, NC. I presently live outside of Greensboro, North Carolina, in the country. I continue to write and pick and sing and hopes to produce more music. I'm also looking for a publisher that will be interested in my style of music. So if you could send me some information I would appreciate all your efforts deeply. If you have any questions call me @ 336-342-2668 during the day.
Thank you for the ear,
Yours Truly,
Bobby Martin
I saw you about a month ago at The Flynn Theater in Burlington Vermont. You
were great and I thought you talked to us from the heart.
When you write a song do you hear a melody first and then add the lyrics or vice-versa? I think you're a great songwriter! Are you a dog lover? My dad was a vetrinarian and I've always loved animals. They do not have alterior motives or
big egos. They live their short lives and give us their love. How can people be cruel to them? Maybe someday you can write a song about a favorite pet.
My Best : )
Bill Lunna
Swanton VT