From now on out,” says local rocker Marshall Chapman, “my life will be divided in terms of before and after prison.” No, Chapman hasn’t just been sprung from the pen; she’s talking about the shot in the arm her career has received from her latest album, It’s About Time—which was recorded live at the Tennessee Prison for Women. But the impact of Chapman’s prison experience actually went beyond getting signed to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville label. Setting foot behind bars radically changed the way she viewed the world.

“It was an incredible experience,” Chapman says of meeting the prison’s inmates. “I’d never been in any kind of prison or jail in my life. It wasn’t ‘us’ and ‘them’—it was all us. They were just like women you’d see anywhere.”

It’s fitting, then, that this Thursday at the Ace of Clubs Chapman headlines the annual Valentine’s Day benefit for Reconciliation, a local nonprofit organization that has served the families of inmates since 1984. The benefit always takes place around Valentine’s Day in honor of St. Valentine, the patron saint of inmates who was incarcerated during the third century for defending his religious beliefs. During his imprisonment, the jailer’s daughter visited Valentine faithfully until his execution, and the prisoner, deeply moved, expressed his appreciation in a parting note simply signed, “Your Valentine.” From this legend comes the tradition of exchanging Valentines as a sign of friendship and love.

Chapman herself knows a thing or two about love, both good and bad. Her upcoming album, tentatively titled Love Slave, will again concern matters of the heart. “I’m a slave to love,” admits Chapman. “It’s the common denominator that connects us all.” Chapman will appear with Gary Nicholson at the Ace of Clubs 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Tom T. Hall will release an album of original material on Mercury Records in March. Not counting children’s albums, it will be his first new collection of tunes since 1985’s Songs in a Seashell. The timing seems right: A two-CD retrospective, Storyteller, Poet, Philosopher, has received critical praise and perhaps rekindled interest in this remarkable, one-of-a-kind songwriter. Hall will perform locally for the first time in many years when he sits down at the Bluebird Cafe for a special in-the-round performance with Billy Joe Shaver, Steve Forbert and R.B. Morris as part of the Nashville Entertainment Association’s annual Extravaganza event.

The show will be a reunion of sorts for Hall and Shaver. Hall was among the first Nashville songwriters to champion Shaver’s work in the early ’70s. At the time, Hall rarely recorded songs by other people, but he put two of Shaver’s compositions down on record: “Old Five and Dimers” and “Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me.”

Speaking of the NEA Extravaganza, to be held Feb. 15-17 at clubs all over Nashville, sneak peeks at the lineup for the three-day event have revealed an impressive array of talent. Among those acts slated to appear thus far, according to the NEA’s Web site: Steve Earle, Marshall Crenshaw, Graham Parker, Don Dixon, Lisa Loeb, Jill Sobule, Count Bass D, Paul Burch, BR5-49, Freakwater, Gillian Welch, Daniel Cartier, David Olney, Collin Wade Monk, Dennis Brennan, and a Green Linnet Records evening featuring Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers and Johnny Cunningham.

Want more? Try Janis Ian, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Kool Daddy Fresh, Tom Littlefield, Nine Parts Devil, Tommy Womack, Will Kimbrough, Doug Hoekstra, Hank Flamingo, Shazam!, Duane Jarvis, Tim Carroll, Self, Sue Medley, Crystal Taliaferro, the Evinrudes, Greg Garing, Afrikan Dreamland, Greg Trooper, and about a hundred more.

Is this the year the Extravaganza finally kicks South By Southwest’s butt? The jury’s still out. In the meantime, consult the NEA’s Web site at http://nea.net for more information—and check next week’s Scene for a handy guide to Extravaganza events and performers.

The critically acclaimed band Vigilantes of Love, who hail from Athens, Ga., make a Nashville appearance Feb. 9 at 12th & Porter. Although the Vigilantes’ brand of cranky, cerebral rock has become a college-radio staple—their Capricorn LP Blister Soul even picked up a ton of airplay on FM 100—an even better reason to attend is the show’s coheadlining act, a nifty folk-rock band called Blue Mountain.

An amalgam of bluegrass, blues and surprisingly crunchy rock, Blue Mountain released a Roadrunner Records LP last year entitled Dog Days, which was produced by roots-rock wildman Eric “Roscoe” Ambel. On Dog Days, the trio sings of hapless bands, favorite radio stations and Jimmy Carter alongside a cover of Skip James’ “Special Rider Blues.” They’ll be coming all the way from Oxford, Miss., home of William Faulkner and Bernie Sheahan, so make ’em feel welcome. Show time is 10 p.m.

Upcoming releases: RCA Records will release retrospectives of Foster & Lloyd and Connie Smith April 16 as part of its “Essentials” series. The Lounge Flounders’ Imaginary Saints will be out Feb. 27 on Kudzu Records as a prelude to a Mercury Records CD. Jeff Finlin’s fine Highway Diaries will be issued by producer Pete Anderson’s Little Dog Records the first week of March. Around the same time, local pop-rockers Joe, Marc’s Brother will put out their own CD with distribution by Select-O-Hits from Memphis.

Vince Gill and producer Tony Brown have been finishing up final mixes for Gill’s next studio album. Brown suggests that the time off allowed by Gill’s recent best-selling hits collection, Souvenirs, gave the perennial award winner an opportunity to devote extra time to his songwriting. The album “is going to blow people away,” he says. “Vince is one of those guys who, when he focuses, can just do it. It just pours out of him. He’s such a natural. Once he sets himself to it, he starts treating songwriting like he does his golf game. He just devotes all of his energy and time to it, and to being the best at it.”

To paraphrase Charlie Gearheart and fans of Goose Creek Symphony, the Goose is not only loose, it now has wings to fly. Goose Creek Symphony, local residents since reforming a couple of years ago, have signed with Nashville-based Winter Harvest Records. The band’s first release on the label will be culled from last year’s self-produced two-CD live collection, which was put together to commemorate Goose Creek’s 25th anniversary. Two new studio cuts will also be included.

Elliptical dispatches: Summit meeting of the month, at the Ace of Clubs Jan. 24: Rockabilly colossus Sleepy LaBeef backed by bass virtuoso Dave Pomeroy and BR5-49’s Chuck Mead, Jay McDowell and Shaw Wilson. Pomeroy toured with LaBeef’s band after he moved to Nashville 19 years ago, and LaBeef and BR5-49 had shared the stage the week before at New York’s hot Rodeo Bar. The band members showed up for an after-midnight romp through standards like “Baby, Let’s Play House” and Charlie Rich’s “Lonely Weekends.” We’re tellin’ ya, brother, it hurt. Don’t miss the man the next time he swings through town....

DC Talk, which received a Nashville Music Awards nomination for band of the year, recently got a nice plug in the Jan. 22 edition of Time. Not only did the Nashville group feature prominently in a substantial article on contemporary Christian alternative music, the band’s picture took up an entire page. That should boost ticket sales nicely for the band’s hometown return show at Municipal Auditorium March 7. Next stop: U.S. News & World Report....

Upstart Records recording artist The Amazing Delores returns to wreak havoc in Nashville once more, this time—in an ideal match of artist and venue—at Cowboys LaCage for an NEA Extravaganza show on Feb. 15. At 12th & Porter last year, the Amazing Delores, a thoroughly uninhibited West Virginia performance artist—think nine parts Mae West in Sextette to one part G.G. Allin—stomped and shimmied her way through deranged covers of “Sweet Dreams” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” kicking her shoes off into the sardine-can audience and speaking in tongues. You know, the usual....

Memphis groove-rockers Big Ass Truck return with their sophomore effort on Upstart Records, a 14-song CD entitled Kent. The record is coproduced by frequent Nashville club performer and former Human Radio frontman Ross Rice. Last time through town, the band filled Springwater to capacity; they’re on the bill for one of the NEA Extravaganza’s hottest events, a Feb. 16 show with Steve Earle, Freakwater and the Viceroys at the Exit/In. As for the record, check local stores Feb. 20....