Beth Nielsen Chapman Queen's Hall Edinburgh 8th August 2023 Review
Beth Nielsen Chapman at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh was a chance for everyone in the audience to catch up with songs both old and new from this two-time Grammy nominee, and Songwriters’ Hall of Fame singer/songwriter.
Beth’s latest album “Crazy Town” was released in September 2022, so no surprises here that a few of the opening songs came from this album, including “All Around The World”, “Put A Women In Charge” and “4LeafClover”.
With so many fine songs in the back catalogue, it must always be difficult to choose a set list that will please everyone in an audience, but this one seemed to do just that with classics including “Sand and Water” and “Emily” (an audience request song). Probably the most recognisable song of the evening though was “This Kiss”, co-written by Beth Nielsen Chapman, Robin Lerner and Annie Roboff and a huge hit for Faith Hill. A good cover too of “Woman’s World” by Squeeze.
Whatever the song though, old or new, there is always that sense of a true story-teller at work in Beth Nielsen Chapman’s writing and sometimes that can take us into spaces of light and joy and sometimes into far darker realms of emotion. Light or dark though there is, like Pandora’s Box, always hope somewhere in a Beth Nielsen Chapman song, that belief that no matter how dark things might get there is always enough light at the end of the tunnel to walk towards it and slowly rebuild anew. In this often very informal performance from Beth, she was not afraid to share with this audience some of the darker moments in her life and how her music helped her through those times, and I suspect, judging from the reaction to some of these songs performed tonight, that the music and words of Beth Nielsen Chapman have helped many other people through their own difficult times in their lives and brought hope to them too.
Opening this show this evening were, individual (and combined) performances from Ruth Trimble and Mia Morris (who are also in Beth’s band) and the musical contrast between both multi-instrumentalists was an interesting one. Many Scottish fans would also have recognised Gregor Philp (Deacon Blue) on guitars this evening.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Beth’s latest album “Crazy Town” was released in September 2022, so no surprises here that a few of the opening songs came from this album, including “All Around The World”, “Put A Women In Charge” and “4LeafClover”.
With so many fine songs in the back catalogue, it must always be difficult to choose a set list that will please everyone in an audience, but this one seemed to do just that with classics including “Sand and Water” and “Emily” (an audience request song). Probably the most recognisable song of the evening though was “This Kiss”, co-written by Beth Nielsen Chapman, Robin Lerner and Annie Roboff and a huge hit for Faith Hill. A good cover too of “Woman’s World” by Squeeze.
Whatever the song though, old or new, there is always that sense of a true story-teller at work in Beth Nielsen Chapman’s writing and sometimes that can take us into spaces of light and joy and sometimes into far darker realms of emotion. Light or dark though there is, like Pandora’s Box, always hope somewhere in a Beth Nielsen Chapman song, that belief that no matter how dark things might get there is always enough light at the end of the tunnel to walk towards it and slowly rebuild anew. In this often very informal performance from Beth, she was not afraid to share with this audience some of the darker moments in her life and how her music helped her through those times, and I suspect, judging from the reaction to some of these songs performed tonight, that the music and words of Beth Nielsen Chapman have helped many other people through their own difficult times in their lives and brought hope to them too.
Opening this show this evening were, individual (and combined) performances from Ruth Trimble and Mia Morris (who are also in Beth’s band) and the musical contrast between both multi-instrumentalists was an interesting one. Many Scottish fans would also have recognised Gregor Philp (Deacon Blue) on guitars this evening.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com