Todd Chappelle is home-grown.

The singer-songwriter, who describes his work as "moderately funny acoustic comedy," recently celebrated the release his new CD, "I'm From Delaware," which is flying around the Internet faster than an airborne gourd at Punkin' Chunkin'.

As his song--a parody of the 1962 Hank Snow country hit "I've Been Everywhere"--suggests, Chappelle has local roots. Born to a father from Dover and a mother from Harrington, Chappelle graduated high school in Chappaqua, New York, then got a degree from the University of Delaware. He spent the remainder of the 1990's performing cover songs in bars, coffeehouses, and other venues in Delaware and Southeast Pennsylvania. As a member of the popular 50s-60s-70s cover band Legends, he toured throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland until the group disbanded in 2005.  He then began writing and assembling a repertoire of comedy songs designed for adult audiences without being offensive. Chappelle's music is often compared to national musical comedians such as Stephen Lynch, Rodney Carrington, and Adam Sandler.

After Chappelle posted "I'm From Delaware" on his MySpace page, the song began popping up on Delaware radio stations from Wilmington to Lewes, and Chappelle is often invited to live performances of the song.  With references to towns from Dagsboro to Claymont, "I'm From Delaware" is a musical tour of the First State.

"It's really been amazing how many people have heard the song over the internet – either by MySpace or by email, and how much they are really into the song," Chappelle said.  "And they are very happy to let me know if I've inadvertently missed their town! The cool thing about 'I'm From Delaware' is that whenever we play it live, it's never the same twice – the song really lends itself to having fun with it."

The song Chappelle parodies, the No. 1 hit "I've Been Everywhere," was written by Geoff Mack in 1959 and has been recorded by Johnny Cash, Lynn Anderson, Asleep at the Wheel, Willie Nelson, and the Statler Brothers. 

"I've always loved the original song, and when over the summer I saw a television commercial for a hotel chain that featured Johnny Cash's version, a light went off in my head," Chappelle said.  "My wife Anne and I started putting together lists of places we had been in Delaware, and then, lists of bars and then lists of things that were uniquely Delaware, like the Blue Rocks, Apple Scrapple,  Punkin' Chunkin', and black and white license plates. The song almost wrote itself. The song took about two months from original idea to the final recording, so things moved pretty fast for us."

In fact, since the CD release, Chappelle has booked gigs from Lewes to Wilmington, and in surrounding states.