Duet

Our daughter Frances was born in 1988. We moved house the following year - to this house in fact, I can't remember if it was in that summer or the following year (1990) when we went on holiday to Tenby in South Wales.

We had rented a caravan (American: trailer) on a disused aerodrome  at nearby Carew Cheriton - about four miles west of Tenby. One of the main things I remember about that holiday was the pre-recorded cassette tape I had in the car. It was "Tracy Chapman".  God, I played that tape over and over again that summer. It felt revelatory in its sublime authenticity. There were no dud songs on that album.

Anyway, I heard one of the songs from that album this morning on the radio. It was "Fast Car". A little idle googling later and I was surprised to see that the song had quite recently been  picked up and re-recorded by one of America's new crop of country artistes - Luke Combs from North Carolina. He said that it was his favourite song of all time and that he had first heard it as a child.

"Fast Car" received the accolade of "Song of the Year" at  the 57th Annual Country Music Association Awards for 2023. At The Grammies ceremony in February of this year, Tracy Chapman joined Luke Combs on stage to perform the song together. Here it is, the older maestro and the younger fan, together:-

So, I remember when we were driving, driving in your car

Speed so fast, I felt like I was drunk

City lights laid out before us

And your arm felt nice wrapped around my shoulder

And I, I had a feeling that I belonged

I, I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

And speaking of "someone",  there's Taylor Swift dancing away near the front and singing along, unconcerned about who might be behind her. I guess that's what life is like when you are a megastar.