A 'Mighty Big God'

For more than 20 years, singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman has been slowly—and righteously—honing her craft and singing songs for the lonely, love-struck, visionary, and vanquished. In 1988, this kid from Cleveland stole our hearts when, for Nel­son Man­dela’s 70th birthday, she stared down an audience of 72,000. With nothing but an acoustic guitar and her shy smile and dreadlocks, Chapman sang “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution” to a world that had never heard of her.

Our Bright Future, Chapman’s newest release, doesn’t have the anthems of her early years, but listeners are treated to her sweet, serious voice cajoling us to live from our better natures.

Don’t be fooled by the title—Chapman hasn’t downed a happy drink. The title song is a heart-breaking anti-war prayer addressed “to my father /what of your sons? … All of your children /even the ones /sent out to martyr /to face the gun /precious bodies /op­posed to bombs … Led on, led on /to take the path /where our bright future /is in our past.” Dean Parks interrogates the listener with his pedal steel, underscoring the question Chapman recently asked a BBC interviewer: “Do we have a bright future if the best our society can ask is to ask young people to risk harm and risk their lives fighting for a cause that may or may not be worthy, that may not have merit?”