Two-time Grammy nominee Beth Nielsen Chapman is back with her 15th album, CrazyTown and an extensive run of UK dates this Autumn, including Lytham’s Lowther Pavilion on 15th November.
With a career spanning nearly 40 years, Beth proves she’s still as vital as ever with an essential new album CrazyTown and an enviable back catalogue. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016, the Nashville-based singer has also recorded by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Elton John and Neil Diamond, plus many more.
What inspires your music and songwriting?
My life inspires my music and songwriting, probably more than anything else, but I have been known to borrow other peoples lives in stories, when I am inspired by something that someone else has gone through.
How did the pandemic impact your music and how does it feel to be back on the road?
The pandemic has been a huge shift in so many things for so many people. Aside from being furloughed from touring, I was kept busy with learning how to live stream from my studio and call riding with people over zoom, which was an interesting experience. I managed to also teach workshops on voice and songwriting so that was a great distraction from the intensity of the times we were going through.
I keep having to pinch myself just embarking now on my UK tour. I feel a level of gratefulness that I have never approached.
What are you up to at the moment artistically?
Well, mainly, I have been preparing for my tour and woodshedding getting ready to play the songs live. Songwriting is always going on in the background, however!
Tell us your most embarrassing or surreal experience.
Oh wow, so many things to choose from… Probably one of the biggest was early in my career on a promo tour. I was in a tiny little club somewhere on the outskirts of Dallas in an area of town that even the record company didn’t want to go to… Don’t ask me how that got arranged, but there I was performing with a band in a beer soaked club with black lights and there were these really strange posters of scantily clad women riding cactuses and I could describe the aspects of this more in detail, but you probably couldn’t print it. I performed two songs, and decided that I was going to get out of there and I headed back to my hotel.
If you weren’t a musician what would you be doing with your life?
I love all the arts, painting, jewellery, making, sculpting, etc. I always say I’m threatening to go to college when I’m in my 80s and I have time to go and really study fine art. I would never be bored.
What’s on your rider?
Everything it takes to make a proper cup of tea and some organic fruit & bits.
What song do you wish you’d written?
So many… but if I had to pick one, in this moment, I would say Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
What’s your worst lyric?
It’s a song I wrote when I was 12 called the Islands of Saint Jericho. I actually remember this song about throwing a man out of the house who was a drunkard. Don’t ask me how I had any knowledge of this as a 12 year old I just had a very big imagination.
“So I left him in the island of Saint Jericho.
To be eaten by sharks or burned at the stake.
And if he’s still living somewhere, he’s a-starving to the bone
Being repaid for all his awful selfish hate.”
Are you looking forward to playing Lytham and what else would you like to check out while you’re here?
Yes, I can’t wait to be there and I will be lucky if I have time to wander around between soundcheck and the show. It’s such a lovely area, but on the road does not provide a ton of time. I’m thrilled to be near the sea!
What can we expect from your live show?
First of all, I have an absolutely insanely talented band and we’ve been rehearsing and having a blast so I can guarantee you there’s going to be lots of rollicking fun! I’ll be doing quite a few songs from the new album, as well as several old favorites, of course!
For show details and to book your tickets, visit the Lowther Pavilion website.
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