Beth Nielsen Chapman

BNC was performing at the Barbican tonight, and I told myself I couldn't let this chance to watch her live go by! I've been a fan of her music for the longest - I'm listening to her Sand and Water album even as I type this post. It's my fav, the album she wrote after her husband succumbed to cancer. She's (and others like her) filed under 'Girls with guitars' in my iTunes, but most sensible people would call her a singer songwriter - softer, without a Joni-Mitchellian grit, very sensitive, a poet on musical crochets. The biggest surprise tonight was that she had the London ____ Choir singing with her for two tracks! People were asking for "Emily" and "Happy Girl" for the encore - I wished I had had the courage to shout out "Fair Enough", which was the song that drew me to her at my lowest point. BNC helped me through some very dark times, and I'll never forget it.

Her new album "Prism" is out. There a particular track "Prayers of An Atheist" that has a very moving story behind it.