Nashville country great Beth Nielsen Chapman to play Leeds City Varieties

Beth Nielsen Chapman: Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame inductee, heading for Leeds

NASHVILLE singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman will play Leeds City Varieties Music Hall on August 30 on her British summer tour.

Born in Harlingen, Texas, 65-year-old Beth has recorded 15 albums and her compositions have been recorded by Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mindy McCready, Trisha Yearwood, Waylon Jennings, the Indigo Girls, Barbara Mandrell, Roberta Flack, Brenda Lee, Anne Murray and Keb’ Mo’, among others.

Amy Grant, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris and Kimmie Rhodes, John Prine, Michael McDonald, Paul Carrack and Vince Gill have all performed with her on her albums. Her music has been featured in films and in television series too, such as ER and Charmed.

This Kiss, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ 1999 Song of the Year, sung by Faith Hill, garnered Beth a Grammy nomination, as did her song The Mighty Sky in 2012.

She was Nashville NAMMY’s 1999 Songwriter of the Year and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2016.

Having lost her first husband, Ernest Chapman, to cancer in 1994, Chapman survived breast cancer herself in 2000 and a brain tumour in 2009. Her concerts, workshops and Keynote presentations draw from direct experience in her “fascinating dance between cognition, healing and the creative flow, her songs taking you on a journey through the depth, humour and the wonder of life”.

She recorded the 2016 album Liv On with Olivia Newton-John and Amy Sky, featuring songs about loss and moving on from grief that they performed on tour in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2017.

Beth, who is an ambassador for the Buddy Holly Foundation, has taught songwriting and creativity masterclasses at universities and colleges internationally, such as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts.

Beth’s latest album, CrazyTown, was released on Cooking Vinyl, in 2022, the year when her second husband, psychologist and photographer Bob Sherman, died from leukaemia. 

Tickets for her 7.30pm Leeds concert are on sale at bethnielsenchapman.com.

Beth Nielsen Chapman: Which country star hasn’t she written for?!

Songs written by Bethy Nielsen Chapman for other acts

Here We Are, Alabama; The Colour Of Roses, Bette Midler; What’s The Matter With You Baby, Claudia Church; When Love Is New, Crystal Gayle; All The Reasons Why, Long Way Down, for Highway 101; You Say You Will, Holly Dunn; World Of Hurt, Ilse DeLange; Simple Things, Jim Brickman and Rebecca Lynn Howard; The Moment You Were Mine, Juice Newton; Five Minutes, Lorrie Morgan; Happy Girl, Martina McBride; Almost Home, Mary Chapin Carpenter; Far Cry From Love, Megan McKenna; She Walks With Me (co-written), Michael W Smith; One In A Million, Mindy McCready; Deep Inside Of You, Neil Diamond; Save Yourself, Suzy Bogguss; Strong Enough To Bend, Tanya Tucker; Sometimes Goodbye, Terri Clark; Down On My Knees, You Say You Will, Trying To Love You, Trisha Yearwood; Shine On Me, Old Church Hymns And Nursery Rhymes, Waylon Jennings; Nothing I Can Do About It Now, Ain’t Necessarily So, If My World Didn’t Have You, Willie Nelson.

Beth Nieslen Chapman will go All Around The World to play Pocklington next autumn

Beth Nielsen Chapman: New album and Pocklington gig next autumn

BETH Nielsen Chapman’s All Around The World Tour of songs and stories will land at Pocklington Arts Centre on October 23 next year.

Autumn 2021 will bring the release of the Nashville singer-songwriter’s 15th solo album, to be recorded with legendary producer Ray Kennedy, who has worked previously with Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle no less.

Twice nominated for a Grammy, Beth, 62, has written seven American number ones and had her songs recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Michael McDonald, Keb Mo’, Roberta Flack, Waylon Jennings, Indigo Girls, and Faith Hill.

Inducted into the USA’s Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016, the Texan musician is a breast cancer survivor and environmentalist and considers herself a “creativity midwife”, passionate about inspiring others to blossom into their creative life.

In demand in America as a keynote speaker and teacher of workshops on creativity, song-writing, grief and healing through art, she uses her inspirational approach to tap into the creative process. She has taught at universities and colleges internationally, such as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama and Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, as well as Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

On her last album, 2018’s Hearts Of Glass, she “reached into the place within us where vulnerability meets strength, taking you right into the centre of the full beautiful dance of contradictions that inhabit love and life”.

“I always say I know a song is finished when I play it live and feel it in my gut,” says Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Beth Nielsen Chapman

Latterly, Beth has been invited to be an Ambassador for the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation.

Early next year, she will debut The SongSchool Podcast, featuring legendary guest songwriters describing what they consider “the perfect song”, as well as on-the-spot critiques for songs submitted, both live in the studio and down the phone line from the other side of the world. After the feedback, any songs that are rewritten and improved will be brought back to the show.

Beth last played Pocklington Arts Centre on her Hearts Of Glass Tour in March 2018, having earlier performed there in 2014.

“We came to Pocklington on the Red Sky July tour and it was a great night. To me, the feeling of a place is more important than the size,” she said ahead of that 2018 gig.

What can you expect on her return, as well as new songs? “When you come to one of my shows, you’re going to hear about what’s happened in my life. It’s part of the tapestry of the evening,” she says.

As for playing those new compositions: “I always say I know a song is finished when I play it live and feel it in my gut,” Beth concludes.

Tickets for her 8pm Pocklington show cost £30 at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.