Beth Nielsen Chapman

Beth Nielsen Chapman

THE MYSTERIOUS SONGBIRD
Pop Priestess Beth Nielsen Chapman Reveals Her Folk Roots
Nashville and Hollywood love her. Her fans include Bonnie Raitt and Elton John, who sang her song, "Sand and Water," as a tribute to Princess Diana. Her name is Beth Nielsen Chapman, and her pristine, heartfelt songs are all over the place -- in movie soundtracks for "The Prince of Egypt," and "Practical Magic," on TV's "Dawson's Creek," and on the records of Martina McBride, Faith Hill, and Willie Nelson. Though she may use synthesizers and drum machines on her own genre-busting records, folk is where Beth started out, and her roots still run deep in the genre. barnesandnoble.com's Kerry Dexter caught up with her just after the release of her GREATEST HITS, and talked about the methods to her music.

barnesandnoble.com: How would you describe your music?

Beth Nielsen Chapman: I think folk is the root of what I do, and when I got out as a solo artist I play folk clubs a lot, but I'm the worst one for categories. If it were up to me, they'd just put everybody in alphabetical order in the record store. Maybe speak of a style of music, but not speak of it as you can't do something or use some instrument if you want to do a particular style. The song is the most important thing.

bn: Do you remember the first song you wrote?

BNC: When I was about 11 I had this guitar -- it was supposed to be a gift for my father and my mother had stuck it in my closet and I just decided it was gonna have to stay in my room. I wrote a song about cowboys. I remember coming down the stairs and playing it for my mother who was lying on the couch at the end of a long day -- she fell asleep while I was singing it! I've improved since then.

bn: What kind of music did you listen to growing up?

BNC: Joni Mitchell. I was a big, big Joni Mitchell fan. I'd spend hours on the guitar trying to figure out her tunings. I liked Leonard Cohen. I Iistened to a lot of bluegrass. I've had a lot of success with pieces I've written in country music -- "Strong Enough to Bend" that Tanya Tucker recorded is an example -- with songs that to me are technically, legalistically, bluegrass songs.

bn: How do you go about writing a song?

BNC: I tend to be more folkie on guitar, and more pop or jazz or classical on piano. This is so weird, and it drives my cowriters crazy, but basically I'll hear the way the vowels lay into the melody. I'll just be singing nonsense syllables, la-la-la. It's like it comes up from the sand, you know -- it just sort of appears and you can see the shape of it before you see the detail or the edges.

bn: You wrote some of these songs during a very difficult time in your life...

BNC: When my husband, Ernest, was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live, my world went upside down. It was like going into the gray, you know...after he died the only time I could really connect with my grief was when I was writing songs, and at the time I thought that they would never go out of my house. But now I think it's a gift that I've been given that I could exchange something so painful for something that would turn around and help other people.

bn: What's your favorite book?

BNC: I can't really pick one favorite, but the books of Steven Levine are pretty Incredible: "Healing Into Life and Death," "Who Dies," or any other one by him. I've been pretty drawn to philosophy lately. I'm reading "Gravity And Grace" by Simone Weir right now, and the poetry of Steven Dunn.

Kerry Dexter