Blaze of Glory finds Marshall Chapman enjoying her own private dance through life. “I never intended to make it this far, I never had a fall back plan, I always thought I would go out in a blaze of glory,” she explains in the title track. She picks up this theme again in “Not Afraid to Die” where she sings “Dying is the least of my fears, I have already lived way past my prime.” The last sentiment seems dubious at best, since she seems to be enjoying herself all the way through this album. She teases her way through Doc Watson’s “Blues, Stay Away From Me,” her joy bubbling off the album and filling an entire room. She does a warm and intimate rendition of Hoagy Charmicle’s “Nearness of You.” “Let’s Make Waves” is her own romp in the hay. She and Todd Snider have palpable fun playing off of each other on “Love in the Wind.” “Call the Lamas” is a delightful little ditty about finding the divine in the everyday, in this case a new Buda in the face of the child ahead of her in a supermarket line. Even her darker songs a tinged with an edge of hope and happiness. “Dreams & Memories” finds comfort in the parts of our psyches that hold on to love long after it’s gone. The songs on Blaze of Glory are loosely tied together by a hard won thread of hope.
Happiness, peace, joy, all of the brighter emotions can be very difficult things to capture on a record. When asked why she never recorded happy songs, Trisha Yearwood once replied that it was difficult to finds ones that were smart. Kasey Chambers once pointed out that writers are rarely in the mood to write when they are happy. That’s when they want to go out and live. On Blaze of Glory, Marshall Chapman has captured that sense of being in the moment you want to spend your life living in. Blaze of Glory is a glorious tribute to the happiness that life has to offer.
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