About Rennie Chapman

If “Swamp Yankee” were a musical genre, Rennie Chapman would be the modern archetype. Eclectic, resourceful, unfiltered, rooted, authentic–such qualities, which feel like home to us living in Eastern CT and Rhode Island, ring out in Rennie’s music. And it’s no surprise; somewhere in the fuzzy mystery between genealogical records and family folklore, Rennie is a direct descendent of Myles Standish–but it’s more likely that some of those details were mixed up and he, in fact, descended from the man on the Mayflower who circled up the sailors for a singalong late into the night. Either way, the centuries of Swamp Yankee stories in his blood have now taken form in stirring songs and lively performances that this region wouldn’t be the same without.

It’s hard to pinpoint where Rennie’s musical inspiration began. Was it his mother, who was a piano player and published songwriter? Was it gathering around the piano, singing three-part harmonies with his older sisters at three years old? Or was it hitchhiking to the Newport Folk Festival at fifteen and stumbling into a songwriting workshop with Arlo Guthrie? Wherever it came, it’s impossible to listen to Rennie’s recordings or see him live without drinking in that inspiration. 

Some Swamp Yankees have never ventured outside a thirty mile radius, and frankly, they “don’t care to.” But others climb the highest hill in town, behold the vast expanse, and wonder if there’s anything to those crazy people and places way out past home. Rennie fit the latter description, and when he graduated from high school in North Stonington, he went as far as he could: Fairbanks, Alaska. It was only the beginning of his musical travels; he continued to travel the world, playing in Hawaii, Italy, Greece, Thailand, and Australia. This, of course, was not unique to him–most serious musicians travel to go on tour, but what makes Rennie Chapman different is how he travels. He talks to strangers as old friends, plays with musicians from the street to the stage, and soaks in his surroundings as artifacts that become the material for his songs. This has served us all well, as there is nothing more compelling than a well-traveled writer. Rennie Chapman is indeed a true folk singer. 

Most of his time in the 1970’s and early 1980’s was spent in Fairbanks, where he recorded his full-length LP of Alaskan folk songs, It Costs a Lot to Sing a Song. After returning to CT in 1987, Rennie took a hiatus from playing out and recording to raise a family. He has been married for over thirty years and now has two children and six grandchildren. He kept his love of music alive over the years, writing children’s songs and teaching his family the beauty of folk music. 

Rennie Chapman returned to the music scene in 2015 with the American Art Adventure, a tour of the East Coast celebrating art in all forms, from all people, in all places. He returned to Southeastern CT and started The Howling Dogs, a duo that played folk, jazz, pop, blues, and everything in between. You can now see him playing solo or with an ensemble of musicians in the area. You may find him on piano playing rhumba-rhythmed New Orleans jazz inspired by Professor Longhair, you may hear him with his guitar and harmonica grippingly singing a Dylan song or one of his originals, or you may hear him with a rhythm and blues band getting everyone in the crowd up and dancing. His most recent recording is an EP of originals called New Day, which touch the range of human emotions, from loss and longing in I wish I Was Charlie, to the cheering hopefulness of the title track. Whatever form his music takes, you can expect to find that very thing that is so rare in today’s isolated and fragmented music scene: a community builder who makes you feel a part of something, no matter who you are or where you come from.

Sample Setlist:

Bye Bye Blackbird
I Shall Be Released
…