Beth Nielsen Chapman’s name resonates powerfully with music lovers.

 

Beth was a regular on the Adult­Contemporary popularity charts in the 1990s with such hits as “The Moment You Were Mine,” “Walk My Way” and “I Keep Coming Back to You.” In 2000, she appeared on the soundtrack of the Ashley Judd film, “Where the Heart Is,” with “Shake My Soul,” landing another A/C hit. In 2004, her single, “Free,” went #1 on the BBC­Radio 2 chart, leading to her third U.K. concert tour of the year. She also has performed in Japan, Ireland and elsewhere.

 

Stateside, her CDs, “Beth Nielsen Chapman” (1990), “You Hold the Key” (1993), “Sand and Water” (1997), “Greatest Hits” (1997), “Deeper Still” (2002) and “Look” (2004) have earned her wide acclaim and a devoted following.

 

Such stars as Bonnie Raitt, Neil Diamond, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris, Michael McDonald, Bette Midler, Anne Murray, Amy Grant, Keb Mo, Roberta Flack, Emmylou Harris, Patti Griffin, and Brenda Lee have recorded Beth Nielsen Chapman songs.

 

“This Kiss,” as recorded by Faith Hill, won ASCAP’s 1999 “Song of the Year” award and was nominated for a Grammy.

 

Country hits “Happy Girl” (Martina McBride), “Nothing I Can Do About it Now” (Willie Nelson), “Strong Enough to Bend” (Tanya Tucker), “All the Reasons Why” (Highway 101), “Here We Are” (Alabama), “Five Minutes” (Lorrie Morgan), “Almost Home” (Mary Chapin Carpenter) and “Down on My Knees” (Trisha Yearwood) – are all from the Beth Nielsen Chapman songbook. Elton John popularized her ballad, “Sand and Water,” during his 1997 World Tour.

 

The soundtracks of such films as “The Rookie,” “Practical Magic,” “Calendar Girls,” “We Were Soldiers” and “Message in a Bottle” included her songs. So have the television series “Dawson’s Creek,” “ER,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Providence” and “Felicity.” “All I Have” became familiar to millions as the recurring love theme on NBC’s “Days of Our Lives.” Beth also wrote and performed a duet with Randy Travis for the animated television film, “Annabelle’s Wish.”

 

“My success as a songwriter has given me the opportunity to have a lot of freedom as an artist,” she said. “Because of it, I haven’t had the pressure of having to be a slave to the charts. I’ve always been really grateful that I can make whatever kind of record I want artistically.”

Beth Nielsen Chapman has been on path rich with many musical influences throughout her life. As an “Air Force brat,” she was brought up on military bases from New England to Germany. Music was her source of stability from a very early age. Adept on guitar and piano, she began performing as a teenager in Montgomery, Alabama. She signed her first song­publishing contract in 1979, and then recorded “Hearing It First” as her debut LP in 1980.

 

Moving from Mobile, Alabama to Nashville, Tennessee in 1985 with her husband and then­five year old son, Beth began to pursue her music with more intensity. She signed a second songwriting contract in 1985 and, by the end of the decade, was regularly providing hits to others.

She signed with Warner/Reprise records in 1990, releasing “Beth Nielsen Chapman,” which included Adult Contemporary hits, “Walk My Way”, “The Moment You Were Mine” and “I Keep Coming Back to You.” In 1993, the release of “You Hold the Key” occurred simultaneously with her husband Ernest's diagnosis of a rare form of lymphoma. His illness would span 18 months.

 

When Beth's husband died in 1994, she worked through her grief by creating ever more emotionally profound songs, one of which was “Sand and Water,” which was performed by Elton John on his 1997 Tour to honor the memory of Princess Diana. The CD, “Sand and Water,” traversed the deep journey through grief and spawned many inspiring and healing songs that are regularly used in helping people to access and release the deeply held emotions of loss.

 

Incredibly, in 2000, Beth was diagnosed with stage­two breast cancer. Her next collection of songs, the already completed “Deeper Still” would be shelved for a year as she underwent chemo and radiation. During this time Beth also added acupuncture, nutrition, meditation and other adjunct healing modalities as a way of holistically coming back to perfect health.

 

Her subsequent release, “Deeper Still” (to which John Prine, Emmylou Harris, and John Hiatt, contributed background vocals), came out in 2001, and was voted “Album of The Year” by BBC Radio 2's Terry Wogan. Beth embarked on a promotional tour, sharing her experience and encouraging women to be vigilant with their health.

 

In the summer of 2004, following the release on Sanctuary of “Look,” her single “Free” was A­listed at BBC­Radio 2, leading to her third U.K. concert tour of the year. She also has performed in Japan, Ireland and elsewhere.

 

In the fall of 2004, Chapman astonished fans with “Hymns,” a collection of centuries­old Latin liturgical pieces. This CD, following an interview on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” shot up to #3 on Amazon.com and garnered a deluge of emails and letters.

 

In 2006 Beth released a live DVD in the UK, “If Love Could Say God’s Name”; a concert for peace – beautifully filmed at St Paul’s Cathedral with the London Oriana Choir (musical director David Drummond). From the opening song, “Prayers of an Atheist” (written and arranged by Beth) … (“The prayers of an atheist, sent from the emptiness—even they find the way back home….”), the tone of peace unfolds through songs in Hebrew, English, Latin and Zulu – celebrating “one human family all across the world.”

 

Punctuating these gorgeous pieces, which include a stunning a cappella arrangement by David Drummond of “The Color Of Roses,” (from Beth’s 1997 CD, “Sand & Water”), are inspiring readings and quotes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, and other Nobel Peace Laureates; all of whom have survived conflict and violence with the courage to remain peacemakers.

A portion of the proceeds for this DVD supports Peacejam, an international organization that, through meetings with Nobel Peace Laureates, teaches young adults about peacemaking.

 

Beth continues to work with Peacejam (peacejam.org) serving on their Board of Advisors, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of “Healthy World Healthy Child” (www.healthychild.org); an organization that provides a resource for learning about the effects of the environment on kids.

 

In addition to her CD releases, Beth has donated a version of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” to Terry Wogan’s “Children In Need Campaign,” and it has been a featured track on BBC Radio 2 in support of their fundraising efforts.

 

With the 2007 UK/Ireland release of “Prism” as well as the upcoming US release in Feb ’08, Beth will be traveling and promoting this collection for a while.

 

“And then I’m going to disappear to write this backlog of songs I’ve been holding inside me while finishing this huge project!” said Beth. “But ‘Prism’ is just something I had to do. I never dreamed when I first started it in 1998 how much the world would change or how timely the collection of these songs would be.”