Marshall Chapman

Come within 10 feet of Marshall Chapman and she’ll likely tell you a story — which is not all that surprising since Nashville, Tennessee, is nothing if not a town full of stories, and “the tall girl” has called the Music City home for nearly four decades. Chapman might tell you about a recording studio “on an actual train on an actual train track” or a musician friend who’s from Cooter, Missouri (insert Dukes of Hazzard joke here). She might tell you about her song “Betty’s Bein’ Bad” that made it to No. 1 for country group Sawyer Brown or her more than 30-year friendship with Jimmy Buffett (who’s recorded six of her songs himself), or even how she and the legendary Doc Pomus cranked out a song for wrestler Hillbilly Jim in less than an hour (“I’m probably the only songwriter in Nashville who gets royalty statements from the WWF,” she says). Of course, if you never get that close, you could just read her book, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, a collection of songwriting stories that goes a great distance toward elucidating why Marshall Chapman is damn near as entertaining at a book signing as she is onstage.