PREVIEW: Songwriting Hall of Famer, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Comes to Saratoga
10/08 @ Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs
Photos by Paticia O’Driscoll
“The greatest thing you can do is get out of your comfort zone and [say] ‘What is that chord?’”
Coming to Caffe Lena on October 8 is singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman. Chapman has written seven #1 hits during her career, and has had many notable artists, such as Elton John, Faith Hill and Willie Nelson, perform her material.
As part of her live show, Chapman performs the hits everyone expects, and tries to cater the experience to include any requests the audience may have. In addition, Chapman uses the stage as a way of trying out new tunes she is in the process of writing. And, with three albums of material currently in the works, the artist is showing no signs of slowing down.
“My last album came out in 2022, and it’s been the longest I’ve ever gone between albums,” Chapman said. “I have quite a backlog of songs.”
Chapman, a 2016 inductee of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, has quite the interesting origin story. Music has always been a huge part of Chapman’s life. In our interview, the artist reflected on her time sitting in front of the family victrola, listening to artists such as Eydie Gormé and Robert Goulet. As she got older, she began listening to singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Motown music.
At age 11, Chapman began learning how to play music after her dad got a Framus guitar for Father’s Day. Living in Germany at the time, there weren’t any instruction books available in English that she could read, so she had to learn by ear.
“I just started putting my fingers down where it sounded good,” Chapman said, laughing. “I was desperate!”
One of the chords, she reflected, she named ‘circle with a dot in the middle of it.’ Idiosyncratic, to say the least.
Soon after, the family moved in 1969, relocating to the ‘hotbed’ of the Civil Rights movement — Montgomery, Alabama. From there, the passion of the craft continued to blossom. Chapman stated that she underwent ‘culture shock’ and quickly turned even further to music, writing many anti-war, protest and civil rights songs.
Playing weddings and other types of gigs, the artist was continuing to get her name out there. It wasn’t long before the artist received her first record deal. Unfortunately, the release coincided with the burgeoning disco craze. As a result, the record ultimately did not perform well, leading to Chapman going on a three-year strike from writing music.
“I was so hurt that the world did not care [about] what I had to offer,” Chapman explained.
It was her late husband, Ernest Chapman, who helped end the artist’s strike. He took her to see the Loretta Lynn movie, Coal Miner’s Daughter, and that’s when her viewpoint shifted dramatically. Seeing Lynn writing hit songs while managing to take care of her family and her garden reinvigorated Chapman.
Realizing that her story in music was not over, the artist began writing again. Moving to Nashville in the mid-1980s, it wasn’t long before she struck something big.
In 1988, Chapman co-wrote the song “Strong Enough to Bend” with Don Schlitz, which ended up being a #1 hit for Tanya Tucker. From there, songwriting credits grew, as artists like Willie Nelson used her songs. Many of them became hits.
Chapman’s method of songwriting, as she explained, is one that involves taking chances and being open to new ideas. Many times, she’ll let her ears guide the process. Rather than play just the chords she knows, she’ll play something that ‘sounds good.’ Often, she’ll not even know what she’s playing. When she teaches songwriting, she makes an effort to impart this way of thinking on her students.
“The greatest thing you can do is get out of your comfort zone and [say] ‘What is that chord?’” Chapman said.
While some songs come quickly to the artist — she wrote “Strong Enough to Bend” with Schlitz in 20 minutes — others take much longer. Her song, “Epitaph for Love,” took 18 years to write. But Chapman told me that writing the song isn’t the goal; the goal is to constantly exercise your ‘showing-up muscles.’
“It’s kind of like being married. It’s not always fun but you have to stay checking in on the other person and engaging,” she said. “[Songwriting] is not going to happen without some intention like that, I think.”
Despite her consistent commitment to the craft, songwriting began to slow down for Chapman around 2009. One morning, she woke up with a ‘weird buzzing’ in her ear that would not go away. While the doctors tried to figure out what this sensation was, she noticed that her ability to write new tunes had severely been dampened.
Eventually, they found a tumor on the left frontal lobe of her brain that was affecting her language center. Thankfully, they were able to perform surgery, effectively removing it.
Since then, songs have been flowing out of her.
“The creativity thing was working, it just couldn’t get to the post office of my brain,” Chapman explained.
Now, with three albums in the pipeline, Chapman continues to dive face-first into a never-ending well of creativity. With seven #1 hits in her arsenal, the singer-songwriter has nothing to prove, yet she still continues to do so. It’s anyone’s guess what song is in store for her next.
For more information on the show at Caffe Lena, please go to www.caffelena.org.
