Who In The Hell Is This Honky Bitch?

Singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman turns sixty today (January 7th). For better or worse, Chapman's two best known songs are "Betty's Bein' Bad", recorded by Sawyer Brown, and "Don't Go Messin' With a Country Boy", co-written with legendary songwriter Doc Pomus and recorded by pro wrestler Hillbilly Jim. (How often does someone post two blog entries in less than a week that mention Hillbilly Jim?)

Among the many albums Chapman has released over the span of her 30+ year career is It's About Time...Recorded Live at the Tennessee State Prison For Women, although the CD almost had an entirely different title.

In 1993, Chapman accepted a four year old invitation from the prison's warden to play a concert for the inmates. Although the inmates had no idea who Chapman was at the time, she recorded the concert to release as a CD. Microphones were set up in the audience prior to the concert to record the inmates' reactions during the show. The engineer started rolling tape as the inmates filed in. When Chapman listened to the playback of the tape the first time, she heard an inmate utter, before the show, the words which were almost the CD's title, "Who in the hell is this honky bitch?"