Today, Grammy Nominated singer/songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman releases her 15th studio album. The album, released via Cooking Vinyl is titled Crazy Town and is produced by Ray Kennedy.

Listen to Crazy Town here

The album is a wonder of delights full of well written and well produced tracks and absolutely no fillers. Each song is engaging and wonderfully compelling. It’s a “no skip” album that screams ‘live music’. Crazy Town is a masterclass in songwriting – Artistry at its very finest.

Stand out songs include;

Put a Woman in Charge – a fast favourite. It’s a brilliant song with a wonderful guitar riff and great story telling lyrics. Beth’s voice has an incredible way of delivering a story and having the audience invested in every word she has to sing. The experience in her voice delivers depth, authenticity and a natural ability to flow easily between words with what seems effortless.

With Time – a stunning ballad which is rather hypnotic and wonderfully emotive.

Dancin’ With Past – this has a Travelling Wilburys/Rod Stewart feel to it. It’s rootsy melody is fantastically strong with a timeless edge to it.

The Universe – written with Kimmie Rhodes has a 60’s rock sound to it and would be unbelievable live, whether that be with a full band or acoustically.

The Edge – a painfully beautiful ballad written about the loss of her first husband to cancer in 1994. The song is perfect in its simplicity. The piano accompaniment is gracefully melancholic and Beth’s vocals soar through the heartbreaking lyrics.

Hey Girl (We Can Deal With It) – a great track full of attitude and sass. A catchy verse and chorus with fiery vocals.

Walk You To Heaven – written with Kimmie Rhodes and Mindy Smith. We are HUGE Mindy Smith fans and you can really really hear Mindy in this song, albeit not literally but her style and sound is definitely marked in this song. I can even hear her singing it. This is such a beautiful song and Beth delivers it perfectly. A gorgeous way to close the album, this song is powerfully emotional and relatable. I can imagine Mindy and Beth put a lot of their experience in heartbreak from loss in this song from the passing of Mindy’s mother and Beth’s late husband. All three writers have such a exquisite way of translating those emotions into words. The writers also stated the song was inspired by John Prine.

“We were talking about the depth and beauty of the songs written by John Prine and his body of work and how exquisitely simple he could be while also bringing us to such a rich place with his lyrics,’ says Beth. ‘He had just passed not long before the day we were writing this song and we sent up an invitation to Heaven for him to feel free to send down any hints on how to write it.’ – Beth Nielsen Chapman

The stand out tracks are likely to grow the more we listen to it.

Beth is a true musician and singer/songwriter that you can’t help but have the utmost respect for. She is an artist you want to learn from whether you are a fan or artist.

Beth is generous with her time and talent as has written for and with so many other artists. Notable songs include This Kiss for Faith Hill but more recently on our radar are her writing credits on UK singer/Songwriter Megan McKenna’s songs. In fact, Beth was one of the first people to write with Megan and gave Megan somewhat of a lesson in the craft which has helped shape Megan into the artist and songwriter that she is today.

Beth embarks on a UK tour this autumn and is definitely worth catching if you want an experience as well as a live show.

Check out the dates here