Marshall Chapman was born and raised in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
To date she has released twelve critically acclaimed albums, and her songs have been recorded by everyone from Emmylou Harris and John Hiatt to Irma Thomas and Jimmy Buffett. Of her three rockin’ albums for Epic, the Al Kooper-produced Jaded Virgin was voted Record of the Year (1978) by Stereo Review.
Her album, It’s About Time… (Island, 1995), recorded live at the Tennessee State Prison for Women, drew rave reviews from Time, USA Today and the Village Voice.
Marshall’s first book, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller (St. Martin’s Press) was a SIBA bestseller, 2004 SIBA Book Award finalist, and one of three finalists for the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. A softcover edition was released in 2004.
2010 was a banner year for Chapman. In January, she landed her first major movie role, playing Gwyneth Paltrow’s road manager in the recently Country Strong. In February, her musical Good Ol’ Girls (adapted from the fiction of Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle, featuring songs by Matraca Berg and Marshall) opened off-Broadway. She remains an active member of SAG, NARAS, and AFTRA.
On October 30, Chapman simultaneously released a new book (They Came to Nashville [Vanderbilt University Press/Country Music Foundation Press, 2010], a 2011 SIBA Book Award nominee, January 2011 Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection, and 2010 SIBA Okra Pick) and a new CD, Big Lonesome.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently named Big Lonesome “Best Country/Roots Album of 2010.” Paste Magazine calls it “her masterpiece.” It was a preliminary nominee for the 2012 Grammy Americana Album of the Year.
Marshall is currently a contributing editor to Garden & Gun and Nashville Arts Magazine and a contributing author to W Magazine, Southern Living, Oxford America, and Town (Greenville, SC).
In March, 2012 she released the second edition of her first book “Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller” through Tallgirl.com, the multimedia arm of Tallgirl Records; she has hosted Music City Roots, been a guest DJ on WSM and WLAC, and presented the Entertainer of the Year Award to Buddy Miller at the 2011 Americana Music Awards.
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