that's cool! who's the dude just chilling there?

I’m guessing it’s the dude that got “passed over” considering he looks like a Generic Country Singer

Random country singer dude who had a hit covering her song maybe? Fast Car is not a 2023 song.

The guy is Luke Combs, who covered the song this year, and it went to #1 in the country charts

Tracy Chapman won the CMA for song of the year for it, because that award is for songwriters, and she wrote the song

@waknatious I'm tagging you since I'm adding extra info after you already saw it lol

I'm actually surprised that this cover was never discussed on Tumblr, tbh, because Luke Combs didn't change the words. He said he didn't want to make it his song... it was his favourite song as a kid, and he wanted to expose a new generation to it, but he also wanted them to know the original, so he left the lyrics the same.

So like... the #1 on country music stations featured a man singing the line "I work in the market as a checkout girl". Which like... you would never expect from country music.

But I think it was the right thing to do, because if he'd changed it, there probably would have been a lot of people who didn't realize it was a cover

it's a decent cover, too.

I like how there was a brief surge in thinkpieces over whether it was appropriate for him to cover it, and she immediately shut them down with "No, I like it and it's making me a ton of royalties, so go away".

🤌🏻

Someone said in the tags on a reblog and now I can't find it that Luke's version has transmasc vibes and I dig it.

I’ve been struggling with whether to be happy or reticent that Tracy Chapman, a black (rumored) queer artist, is like 36 years late being recognized for the singer-songwriter legend she is, but also reticent she’s being discovered and validated because of a white country singer, having not noticed he didn’t change a word of her song. Now I’m more comfortable with it (if disgruntled she wasn’t as appreciated by the grammy voters until Luke Combs covered her) and glad she’s getting paid and gaining whole new generations of fans. All of her songs are this poignant and relevant.