Artist:     Marshall Chapman

Album:     Songs I Can’t Live Without

Label:     Tall Girl Records

Release Date:     5.15.20

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You ever get a song stuck in your head, that keeps playing on and off all day long? It happens to me a lot, but rarely is it a new song. That said, how this new “old song” nestled into the mix with a wide variety from all across the song spectrum, got past my ears that have been listening to music for teens and adults, since I was three years old, is truly a mystery to me.

Among the remaining eight cuts on this 14th album from the veteran Mizz. Maah-shul, are tunes from the teams of Styne/Cahn, Goffin/King along with Leonard Cohen, JJ Cale, Bob Seger, Johnny Cash, Otis Blackwell, and the unknown tunesmith (traditional) to wrap it up. That’s quite a grouping, but it all plays quite nicely together. Credit for that probably goes to both producer Neilson Hubbard and the Tall Girl, who have kept it all simple (basically two guitars, flourishes of keys, occasional bass and drums) very well focused and interpreted beautifully. There are very subtle production touches throughout that take several listenings before the light might come on what they add to the mix. She makes you believe she truly needs these songs to breathe.

“Don’t Be Cruel” ( the first record I bought with my own allowance in 1956) and “I Still Miss Someone”, (that since 1959, I always played far more than it’s A side) would be on my list, too, of songs I’m glad have been in my life, and now thanks to this My T Fine collection, I have Bobby Charles Guidry’s “Tennessee Blues” running around the jukebox in my mind.

—Ken Spooner