Songwriter: Beth Nielsen Chapman
On her entry Beth Nielsen Chapman launches straight into an unaccompanied version of a gospel piece, probably called In You I’ll Find My Peace, riveting and reassuring. The flamboyance to begin with an a cappella piece is in no way typical of Nielsen Chapman; the need to begin with such a song as an antidote to our crazy world, on the other hand, is very much representative of her art, even when she rocks into All Round the World for her next number.
By then her “band” has joined her, two talented young women, Ruth Trimble on piano and bass, and Kate-Lynn on guitar and percussion, their fresh voices contrasting with Nielsen Chapman’s, freighted with the authority of experience. They had filled the short first half with their own songs, Trimble’s accompanied by Bruce Hornsby-style piano or organ and offering a glimpse of her development over the past decade.
Beth Nielsen Chapman, it has been said, is a survivor. She has, in personal terms, survived the loss of two husbands to cancer and her own breast cancer and brain tumour. She also is clearly bemused by the absurdity of the world today, to the extent that her 2022 album was entitled Crazy Town. But there is nothing solemn about her performance: after all, her most famous hit, This Kiss (for Faith Hill) must be the only song to fit “centrifugal motion” into metre, the exuberance of language equalling that of the kiss. As she performed it, it was wilder, less perfect, more fun than Ms Hill.
As a performer Nielsen Chapman has never had a real hit; collaborating with other artists in songwriting is another matter. Her personal style may veer towards country, but placing her songs in the “adult contemporary” category seems about right. Her songs veer from pop to political, as in the collaboration with Keb Mo’, Put a Woman in Charge, and she even finds space to join her voice with Trimble and Kate-Lynn on I Wish I Was in Carrickfergus, a rare venture into traditional material. Above all, though, she explores the lasting power of love, as in the beautiful All I Have and, especially, Sand and Water, written after her first husband’s death and a source of consolation to many since.
Nielsen Chapman played one set of 90 minutes, conversing happily with her audience, joking about the problems of finding the right key, playing a request that by her reaction was clearly out of her repertoire now, but executed evocatively, and displaying a youthful delight in the City Varieties – to Ruth, “we’ll have to play here again!”
The tour continues at Blackpool before moving on to Ruth Trimble’s native Northern Ireland for a final three dates.
Reviewed on 30th August 2024. Touring Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
