I'll have to look into that!
did come across this tho:
http://cityguide.greatlakesescapes.c...12-2133019.asp
it may have been posted before-can't remember:
Thursday, May 19, 2005
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Singing for a cause
Beth Nielsen Chapman bringing her hits and heart to Battle Creek to give local food bank a boost
By Robert Warner
The Enquirer
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Singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman will perform Saturday at Lakeview High School Auditorium. About 50 tickets still remained as of Wednesday.
Beth's special guest
Cory Ryan, who'll be part of the show with Beth Nielsen Chapman on Saturday, will be performing at the school where his father, Bill Ryan, once was a teacher and varsity swimming coach. He is the grandson of early Kellogg Community College President Richard Whitmore.
Between stops in Boston and Philadelphia, Beth Nielsen Chapman said she's psyched to be playing Battle Creek on Saturday night.
"This is sort of my kickoff little tour this week," said the songwriter-singer with a big place in her heart for the Food Bank of South Central Michigan.
After Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., club dates Tuesday and tonight, Chapman is headed for the 750-seat Lakeview High School Auditorium to play songs from her new album, "Look," due out June 7. It's a benefit for the Food Bank, and concertgoers are asked to bring cans of food to the show.
Besides her new stuff, Chapman will play old favorites from a catalog of songs you know from other people's recordings.
"This Kiss," a knockout No. 1 hit for Faith Hill? It's one-third Chapman's song. Martina McBride's "Happy Girl"? Chapman. Tanya Tucker's "Strong Enough to Bend"? Yep. Chapman, along with Willie Nelson's "Nothing I Can Do About It Now," Lorrie Morgan's "Five Minutes" and Trisha Yearwood's "Down on My Knees."
She's talking reverently about a legendary songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot, when she distills some pure Chapman:
"I've never tried to write anything for the radio. I've only written for the song, and try to serve the song and try to be writing something that will transcend me. It doesn't even have to be some big important song but just a song that will live through many people's voices, that will work in many different styles. And Gordon Lightfoot is just a great example of that depth of songwriting, as is Jimmy Webb and so many others."
And while she performs her material on smaller stages, is it enough to be the songwriter to the stars?
"Oh yeah. I will definitely go down as not complaining. The thing is I've really felt like I've been able to have my cake and eat it, too. ... I've been free to do what I felt like as an artist ... and fortunately, in addition to that, sort of on a parallel universe, has been the good fortune of having other artists record my songs and have big hits on them, which has put me in a place where I can afford to be more experimental and not have so much pressure on me as an artist to have to go out and generate the income from that source.
Chapman said the quality of the work done at the Food Bank keeps her coming back to do benefit shows here.
"It's been an amazing thing to witness, actually," she said. "You know, there's food banks all over the country and it's a wonderful organization nationwide, but I've had different experiences at different ones and I think Battle Creek is one of the best-run. There's a special quality to the attention to detail that seems to be going on up there. I think Bob Randels (the Food Bank's executive director) is a wonderful catalyst for combining a lot of people strengths and making things happen...."
And Randels has helped to inspire a creative venture on Chapman's part, she said.
"He really is one of the reasons that I started thinking about this idea of philanthropic touring -- which is something I'm continuing to work on all the time, where I do what we did in Battle Creek, sort of combining a concert with a fundraiser. I've sort of replicated that, and I've pulled a lot from the model of Battle Creek, and also one other charity, Ele's Place in East Lansing, Michigan.
"Between Bob and Lori Bosch, who runs Ele's Place, there was just a sense that so many artists could do this almost all the time, really end up with more of a crowd, because it pulls a lot more people who just want to support the charity, and then they discover your music. So it's a wonderful way to build an audience while also giving something back, you know, being able to do that and still get paid. ...
"It's not like you have to go and just donate your whole time and energy. So musicians who are running around and playing in little clubs and stuff to a lot fewer people really aren't taking advantage of this as a real opportunity, as well as the fact obviously that it helps a lot of people.
"I'm still sort of fine-tuning it because I want to put something together like a toolkit for other artists."
Saturday's show will feature her son, Ernest Chapman III, 24, as part of the band.
"He plays guitars and sings and mostly stays out of trouble, we hope," she said.
"I'm dragging him all around" on tour, Chapman said. "He's digging it now. He went through all those periods of time when he'd say 'Mom, don't come in -- stand over there.' When he turned about 20 he decided I was cool again, which was great. So we've been getting along great. I just really have enjoyed watching him grow and see all the things he's learned about music that I never learned -- like I don't really know how to read music, so it's been great to see him really get those tools, and he'll have a lot of opportunities to do a lot of different things I wouldn't have had a clue as how to do."
Chapman said she'll be bringing some pre-release copies of "Look" to sell and autograph for her fans here.
Originally published Thursday, May 12, 2005
