Beth Nielsen Chapman

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #137 (August/September 2008).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Songs for the Human Family

by Kerry Dexter

Beth Nielsen Chapman's latest project, Prism, is a two-disc, 23-song package that includes, among other things, a Tibetan hymn, a song from the Zulu tradition, two songs that suggest that God is in the atheist as much as the believer, and a variety of songs, recently created and older, which deal with how people connect with and express faith. That's not exactly what one might expect from a Nashville-based songwriter who has seen her songs top the charts for artists such as Trisha Yearwood, Bette Midler, and Faith Hill, and seen her own solo recordings rate high with adult contemporary listeners. As much as she has a gift for commercial music, Chapman has not always stuck with that. One of her best known albums, Sand and Water, is a collection of songs she created while dealing with her young husband's unexpected struggle with cancer and his subsequent death, "songs I never thought would make it out the door of my house," she said. Several years ago she also recorded an album called Hymns, mainly music from the Catholic tradition, and mostly sung in Latin. Meanwhile, she continued to write radio-friendly material that's been covered by a range of artists, while working intermittently on what would become Prism.

"Prism is something I had planned on ever since I was a kid," Chapman said. "I grew up on Air Force bases, and they had this building that was the church, and the church would change. They would roll in the star of David for the Jewish services, and roll things in for the Protestant services, and then they'd roll in the crucifix and Mary for the Catholic services. Even then, from a young age, although my family was Catholic so we went to the Catholic mass, my sense of spirit was that it showed up in all sorts of cultures."

Music was there, too. "I always thought music was the greatest connector. It didn't have to be a religious song per se, just anything musical," said Chapman, who recalled figuring out guitar chords by ear while the family was stationed in Germany and being busted from piano lessons because "the teacher told my mom, 'Beth's acting like she's reading music, but really she isn't, she's learning it all by ear.' "

[cover #137]