Born in Harlingen, Texas, smack in the middle of a family of five children, to an Air Force Major and a registered nurse, Beth grew up all over the place, a self-described “geographical mutt.” Her family finally settled in Alabama in 1969 when Beth was just going into the ninth grade, moving there from Munich, Germany. Crossing back over the ocean, along with her came her first guitar, a German made “Framus” that, though intended as a gift for Father’s Day, had ended up in her room some months earlier. Writing songs was immediate for her from the first chords she picked out by ear. “With the Vietnam war blazing, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death still fresh in the news, and my heart reeling from the shock of a school trip to Dachau (a concentration camp in Munich), the bubble of my childhood’s view of the world burst and I started to sense the existential depth of human suffering for the first time,” she recalls. “Then my Dad came home with the orders that we were moving to Montgomery, Alabama, the hotbed of the civil rights movement! I held onto that guitar for dear life!”
Alabama proved to be a place of much richness for Beth. She lived in Montgomery until she married in 1979 and relocated to Mobile, Alabama. Hearing It First, her debut album, was recorded in Muscle Shoals and produced by Barry Beckett. Alas, it was released by Capitol Records in 1980 in the midst of the disco craze. So she took a few years off and gave birth to a son, Ernest Chapman III. In 1985, with the help of music legends Mac MacAnally and Barry Beckett, her young family made the move to Nashville.
By 1990, she was writing #1 hits for Tanya Tucker and Willie Nelson and was signed as a pop artist to Warner/Reprise. Her first two albums for the label were critically lauded, sold respectably and spawned eight AC pop hits, earning her a devoted fan base at home and overseas, particularly in the UK, where she has consistently been embraced by the vastly popular BBC Radio 2.
In 1993, just before the release of her second Reprise album You Hold The Key, Beth’s world was turned upside down when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Three years after his death, the singer released a fourth album, 1997’s Sand And Water. The album’s title song, a highly moving meditation on life, loss and surviving, took on a life of its own, bringing hope and comfort to countless people struggling with grief. It was even performed by Elton John on his 1997 U.S. tour in place of “Candle In The Wind” to honor the memory of Princess Diana.
Then, in 2000, just as she was finishing a new record called Deeper Still, incredibly, Beth faced her own battle with breast cancer. Deeper Still, though not released until 2002, following her treatments and recovery, is filled with songs that seemed to foreshadow her diagnosis.
“It’s happened so many times in my writing – the songs have preceded the events,” she says. “Seventy percent of Sand and Water was written a year and a half before my husband was diagnosed. I often just follow these lyric wisps and shadows and vowels until things start to form and take shape. So I can be working on a song with lines that are just coming together and not really know yet what I’m writing it about. It was amazing to me when it happened again with Deeper Still.
Deeper Still features guest vocals by John Prine, Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, Kimmie Rhodes and Andy Bey and was voted “Album Of The Year” by BBC2’s Terry Wogan. When touring that album Beth always made it a point to stop her show and add a “public service announcement” speaking about her experience going through breast cancer and encouraging women to be vigilant in caring for their health. “Make sure somebody feels you up every month,” she would say to the hushed audience. “It’s not hard to find volunteers. Everybody loves breasts!” Although light hearted, this message resonated as Beth received several letters and emails from women who were spurred on to be checked because of her announcement and were diagnosed earlier as a result.
2004 brought Hymns a collection of ancient Latin hymns that Beth recorded as a gift to her parents. Then Beth released Look in 2005, co-produced with the legendary Peter Collins (Rush, Bon Jovi, Nancy Griffith). The title track of which was written for her long time fiancé Bob Sherman, a psychologist and photographer, who would become her husband in 2011.
Endorsed and partly inspired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in 2007 Beth released Prism-The Human Family Songbook, a double CD collection that was 10 years in the making, of sacred songs sung in nine languages, a tribute to the world’s great musical traditions. Around this time Beth also filmed a DVD If Love Could Say God’s Name which featured many selections from Prism, recorded live at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, packed to the rafters, with the amazing 100 voices of the London Orianaan Choir.
Beth released Back To Love, in 2010 which spawned 2 hits on BBC Radio 2, marking a great year for Beth in the UK, starting with a performance at Abbey Road with Robert Plant and the 100 voice London Orianana Choir and ending with her October appearance at the Mermaid Theater in London with a 60 piece orchestra performing live on Radio BBC’s Friday Night Is Music Night.
In 2012 Beth teamed up with astronomer Rocky Alvey and Annie Roboff to write The Mighty Sky, a romping collection of songs about the wonders of astronomy that earned her a 2014 Grammy nomination for “Best Children’s Álbum.”
On Beth’s 2014 release UnCovered, she decided to reclaim a batch of songs she wrote that had been covered by other artists, that she’d never recorded herself. Most had been Top 10 hits, seven of which topped the charts at #1.
Chapman’s prowess at writing in a wide range of styles shines through on this collection. From the infectious pop sensibilities of This Kiss (Faith Hill) and Simple Things (Jim Brickman) to the strains of bluegrass and country in Strong Enough To Bend (#1 for Tanya Tucker) and Nothin’ I Can Do About It Now (#1 for Willie Nelson), the true thread that runs through it all is a her great passion for the well written song. It is also clear that she has a whole lot of fun performing these songs, and has no trouble bringing them home and making them her own once again.
In 2016, Beth joined with Olivia Newton-John & Canadian artist Amy Sky to create “LIV ON” – A New Album to Aid & Comfort Those Experiencing Grief & Loss While Using the Power of Music To Heal, touring in the UK, Ireland, US and Canada. Born out of a deep friendship with Olivia, also a survivor, who had been a great help to Beth during her journey through breast cancer, Beth was thrilled to be invited into this amazing trio.
Hearts Of Glass, Beth’s 2018 album, produced by Sam Ashworth, which includes several new compositions and a few striking new versions of some rediscovered BNC gems, is riveting and sparse, a powerful collection of songs that reach into the place within us where vulnerability meets strength which is often where Beth’s songs will take you, right into the center of the full beautiful dance of contradictions that inhabit love and life.
From writing hits for other artists to recording her own, Beth has penned numerous tunes for many top artists including Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Michael McDonald, Amy Grant, Keb Mo’, Roberta Flack, Waylon Jennings, Faith Hill, Ute Lemper, Willie Nelson, Bettye LaVette and many more.
Her music has been heard on ER, Dawson’s Creek, Providence, Felicity and in movie soundtracks, including The Prince of Egypt, Message In A Bottle, The Rookie, Where The Heart Is and Practical Magic. Mega-hit “This Kiss,” sung by Faith Hill, was ASCAP’S 1999 Song Of The Year, garnered a Grammy nomination and Nashville NAMMY’S 1999 Songwriter of the Year. Beth also received a special award by The Alabama Music Hall Of Fame and was the recipient of The Distinguished Artist Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts in 2009 and in October of 2016 Beth was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, one she considers to be the highest honor she’s ever received.
As a breast cancer survivor, speaker on grief and creativity, and a teacher of songwriting, vocal, and creativity workshops, Beth, in addition to her concerts, has taught at Universities internationally including the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, and the Berklee School of Music among others, and has delivered deeply moving and inspiring Keynotes at various conferences. Her stories and delivery illustrate the power of music to heal, as she weaves her music into this theme, opening every heart to experience how resilience is fueled through creativity. That is the clear focus in her presentations as she deems herself a “creativity whisperer” with a passion for inspiring others to fully blossom into their creative potential which is the birthright of every human.
September of 2022 brought the release of Beth’s 15th solo album, “CrazyTown” on Cooking Vinyl, with legendary producer Ray Kennedy (Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle).