Hey kids, welcome to the Phile for a Thursday. How are you? Okay, let's start off by talking about the government worker who has been rationing insulin thanks to the shutdown. It would be remiss to suggest that Trump's approval rating is the real victim of shutdown, when the people most hurt by the temper tantrum are the ones who need to get paid. NBC reports that Mallory Lorge, a Department of the Interior employee with Type I diabetes, has only two vials of insulin left and can't afford the $300 copay while furloughed. While most people get their insulin for free from their pancreas, Lorge needs to pay for hers, and she can't pay for it without a paycheck. Lorge said that she suffered from high blood sugar last week, but was forced not to treat it so she can save her insulin for later. "When it gets that high you can go into diabetic ketoacidosis, you can go into a coma," she told NBC. "I can’t afford to go to the ER. I can’t afford anything. I just went to bed and hoped I’d wake up." NBC didn't ask Lorge whether she'd rather have a border wall with Mexico or live, but I'm assuming it's the latter. Pump it.
The latest company capitalizing on the #MeToo era seeking to put something out in the universe that isn't sexist, toxic sludge is Gillette, which is calling on men to smooth out their stubble and their sense of entitlement. Gillette's ad starts out with men looking in the mirror... literally and figuratively... before launching into toxic masculinity's greatest hits: bullying, sexual harassment, and mansplaining. The razor company then offers solutions, other then buying their razors, telling men to hold one another accountable for their bad behavior. Now a lot of people are pissed that a commercial, which historically has reflected such bad behavior, is telling dudes to be better. Toxic masculinity's foremost spokesman, Piers Morgan, has already rage-tweeted a bunch, providing the material for the next ad.
A lot of dudes have really thin skin about this, not that there's anything wrong with being sensitive! Some dudes to took the the opportunity to prove the need for the ad. Men's Rights Activists have also already called for a boycott, which if their Nike boycott is any indication, will make Gillette a shit ton of money. Hopefully they're not too dense to realize just how hilariously they're being trolled.
It looks like Tomi Lahren is at it again, being the absolute worst. The blonde Barbie dream house of Fox News' millennial chapter had an opinion on Twitter about Gillette's new commercial on toxic masculinity. It's unclear what Fox News would be discussing if Gillette didn't run this ad as their coverage in the last week has been 90% complaining about a razor commercial and 0% worrying about Trump's temper tantrum shutdown. While Lahren is famous for her controversial opinions, this seems like a bizarre hill to die on. Even if there was a universe where Gillette was going too far to prove that treating women like garbage isn't a good look, the worst case scenario is that men would be scared of treating women like garbage. Tomi, why are you so angry about this? Who hurt you? Here's her tweet...
For the record, there is no part of this ad that addresses gender neutral pronouns, men wearing makeup or playing with dolls. Even if it did, though, it's still confusing as to why Lahren would be so angry. The goal of feminism isn't for men to act like women, it's for men and women to be equals. Tomi, are you okay? Is this all a big act for fame and a Fox News career? Please wink twice. Better luck next time, Lahren.
Last Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published a report on convicted felon Michael Cohen's dirty deeds for President Trump, which included a revelation that is like to surprise absolutely nobody. During the 2016 campaign, Cohen recruited John Gauger, the chief technology officer at the evangelical Liberty University, to help rig polls in Trump's favor, and while he's at it, create a fan Twitter that celebrates Cohen as a sex symbol... "During the presidential race, Mr. Cohen also asked Mr. Gauger to create a Twitter account called @WomenForCohen. The account, created in May 2016 and run by a female friend of Mr. Gauger, described Mr. Cohen as a 'sex symbol,' praised his looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting Mr. Trump’s candidacy." That's right. At Cohen's request, the account @WomenForCohen was born, and these fake women loved their "Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense" man! In this fantasy world, Cohen and Trump were hot stuff. The contractor paid by Trump for both the polling and thirst trap services says that he was paid with “a blue Walmart bag containing between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and, randomly, a boxing glove that Mr. Cohen said had been worn by a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter," The Wall Street Journal reports. He was promised $50,000. The sexy pitbull Michael Cohen confirmed the poll-rigging stuff, but made no mention of his imaginary fan club. If you think he's hot now, just wait until he gets out of prison.
Elizabeth Darlene Wilson, 31, of Minerva, Ohio showed up to court for her hearing on drug charges with a backpack full of drugs, immediately setting up a follow up appointment. ABC News 5 Cleveland reports that Wilson brought evidence to her court appearance that included ".53 grams of meth and MDMA, 11 blue capsule pills stamped R 3060 which appear to be amphetamine and dextroamphetamine extended release pills according to Drugs.com, a pipe with residue used to smoke or inhale methamphetamine, along with a paperclip with residue, 11 pills identified as gabapentin, a clear bag with marijuana buds weighing 2.32 grams and a glass pipe with burnt marijuana residue." Now that's one way to bribe a judge.
Some people are so dumb they made the entire Internet face palm in 2018.
Welcome to the OC, bitch. If I had a TARDIS I would go see Marilyn Monroe filming her iconic scene in The Seven Year Itch in New York City in '54.
That was probably the highlight of the bystanders life! You know what bugs me? Millennial's with obnoxious t-shirts. Like this girl...
I wonder how many guys kissed her. I was thinking today raccoons are such smart and fascinating animals. You don't believe me? Take a look at this...
See? I told you. So, are you people up north prepared for the snow? If not this book might help you...
That book should be the 92nd book in the Phile's Book Club. Nah. Hey, it's Thursday... you know what that means.
Ack! Gross! That's gonna make me sick. Alright, it's time to talk football with my good friend Jeff.
Me: Hey, Jeff, welcome to the Phile. How are you?
Jeff: Hey, Jason, always glad to be back on the Phile. I'm doing alright. How about yourself?
Me: Not too bad. Okay, so, I thought this was really funny... Alshon Jeffery’s name on his Wikipedia page has been changed to "Alshon Butterfingers Jeffery." Look...
Me: I was trying to think of other nicknames for football players, but couldn't come up with any. Can you?
Jeff: While I understand the point of that, the dude messed up. We all have screwed up on the job. I know I have. I know you have! We just don't do all in a public setting on TV. Are we talking positive nicknames? Or negative fan created nicknames?
Me: Either...
Jeff: Not off the top of my head.
Me: Ditto. Did you see Michael Bennett freak out on a camera man for filming him after the Eagles loss to the Saints?
Jeff: Yeah, I saw Bennett's reactions. The guy is passionate about the game. Can't say I blame him. I'm not sure I would want the camera on me after a crushing defeat like that.
Me: What NFL news do you have, Jeff?
Jeff: The biggest news is the train wreck in Pittsburgh. One of the best players in the league is proving to be a diva and may be forcing his way out. More and more details of Antonio Brown are are emerging and it's not pretty. I don't wanna talk about it. So we'll talk about the coaching vacanies that got filled. The Jets hired former Dolphins coach Adam Gase. The Broncos hired former Bears defensive coach Vic Fangio. The Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury, former Texas Tech coach in college football and the Bucs hired former Cardinals coach Bruce Arians. There's still several coaching spots to fill.
Me: Okay. Great Britain has taken over another team by the way...
Me: What do you think?
Jeff: Well, that's quite a mouthful of a team name. But it fits. I'm not going to argue it!
Me: Okay, so, how did we do last week? You're still winning by 10?
Jeff: We both went 1-1 last week, so yes, I'm still in the lead. Mathematically there's no way for you to win. Sorry, but not sorry. Cue Queen... I AM THE CHAMPION MY FRIENDS. Oh wait, copyright. Don't wanna get you in trouble!
Me: Ha! Okay, there's two games this Sunday... I say the Chiefs are gonna beat the Patriots by 8. And I say Saints by 5.
Jeff: As usual I will go with the opposite teams. So I will go Rams by 5 and... nope... I can't do it. I can't pick New England. I'll go Chiefs by 10!
Me: Okay, I will see you back here next Thursday. I think this is gonna be a good Super Bowl this year, Jeff.
Jeff: Looking forward to the Super Bowl! And the Super Bowl commercials! So many great movies should have a spot this year!
If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. So, I mentioned the whole Gillette thing earlier. well, a friend of the Phile has something to say about it. I wonder what his take is. He's a singer, patriot, and renaissance man. You know what time it is...
Dear Gillette... I don’t need some company advertisement telling me what I need to do, in order to be a “real man." I treat everyone (including women) with the appropriate amount of respect that they’ve earned and deserve. No more, no less. If a woman walks around acting in a disrespectful manner... I will treat her as such. If a woman walks around acting like an ill mannered tramp... I will treat her as such. If a woman walks around acting like a poorly educated loudmouth... I will treat her as such. And if you have a problem with that, you can blow me in Macy’s window. #BoycottGillette.
The president is at it again, doing something embarrassing. When the Clemson University football team was invited for dinner at the White House to honor their national championship win, Trump thought it would be a nice gesture to serve them stacks of cold fast food from McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and Domino's on silver platters by candlelight. Is this some sort of ironic rich person thing where they think it's hilarious to eat food that costs a dollar in the most famous McMansion in the country? Trump's reasoning for the menu was that he had to pay for the dinner himself, as much of the White House staff remains furloughed due to the longest government shutdown in history. Keep in mind, the shutdown was also his idea. He told reporters, "Because of the shutdown... we went out and we ordered American fast food paid for by me." Remember when Michelle Obama was trying to get kids to eat healthier? This feels like a slap in the face. The young men at Clemson are athletes... their bodies are incredibly important and the president of the United States thought it'd be fun to serve them piles of processed salt sludge. In a video, he claims to have ordered 300 burgers...
In his later tweet, the amount of burgers shot up to 1,000.
Carol Channing
January 31st, 1921 — January 15th, 2019
Goodbye, Dolly.
Mel Stottlemyre
November 13th, 1941 — January 13th, 2019
There’s simply nothing funny about a well-respected pitching coach.
The 92nd book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...
The author Cathy Rudolph will be the guest on the Phile in a few weeks. Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, here is...
Top Phive Hymns For Professions
5. Dentist's Hymn: Crown Him with Many Crowns
4. Weatherman's Hymn: There Shall Be Showers of Blessings
3. Contractor's Hymn: The Church's One Foundation
2. Tailor's Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy
And the number one him for professions is...
1. Golfer's Hymn: There's a Green Hill Far Away
Today's pheatured guest is an American singer and songwriter who has written hits for country and pop music performers. Her latest album "Heart of Glass" is available on Amazon, Spotify and iTunes. Please welcome to the Phile... Beth Nielsen Chapman.
Me: Hello, Beth, welcome to the Phile. How are you?
Beth: Hello, Jason, I'm doing good.
Me: So, I read you do a lot of songwriting teaching, am I right? I need that. Haha. What is that like?
Beth: There are geared from songwriting which is the launch pad that I use but it's really about creativity. A lot of the people that come to my workshops have never written a song before so it's like I never cooked, so I don't know to cook kind of thing. I think creativity is this thing that is available to be used like raw material, like air it's around us. It's literally ever present. If anyone feels uncreative the door is normally locked from the inside. Even if you hadn't written a song you can come to one of my workshops and learn how to get that flow going and how to lead more of a creative life. Interestingly people that have never written a song have written the most amazing stuff. I guess they don't feel any pressure to be a songwriter than they do. It's great, it's really exciting to watch. Do you write songs, Jason?
Me: Yeah, I have a whole album of songs I wrote with my music project Strawberry Blondes Forever. Check us out on Spotify, iTunes, CDBaby... It's fun to write lyrics. What instrument did you first learn to play and when? I play kazoo. Haha.
Beth: Piano and guitar when I was pretty much 10 or 11.
Me: How and when did you start to write songs?
Beth: I really started writing songs when I started playing them. My dad got a guitar for Father's Day and I ended up stealing it and putting it into my area. We lived in Germany at the time, my dad was in the Air Force, so I couldn't even find a book in English so I had one of those little round things you blow into and got different notes, called a pitch pipe. I had my little pitch pipe and got the thing in tune but I didn't know any chords so I just put my fingers down in different places which sounded good in other places and I called it something like "circle with a dot in the middle" or something. I had all the major chords picked out by that process. I would go to other people playing the guitar and I would see them playing my chord even though they were using different fingers and I'd be like "what's that chord you're playing there?" "The C?" "Yeah, the C." I would write it down so embarrassed by my lack of knowledge. It actually gave a me a funny way to learn music I learned it fearlessly, except my fear of people finding out how little I knew.
Me: Did you write music first or lyrics first?
Beth: I started wring poems before, but when I started writing songs I was writing music first and then putting words to it. I haven't written a poem since.
Me: Your music is mostly country, Beth. Is that what you grew up listening to?
Beth: I was really raised in an environment of lots of musical styles when I was coming of age. Beatles and stuff like that was happening, and Motown, I just dove in all that. My parents had fantastic records like Frank Sinatra, Gershwin... both of my parents were very musical, not professionally but had beautiful voices. So, I was exposed to all kinds and I really think it had a big impact on my inability to pick a category and stick with it. As an artist and songwriter I have done such a diverse crazy catalogue if you actually go and look at the stuff I've done. I've done an album in nine languages, an album all in Latin, an album with children's songs about astronomy, then regular singer songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman songs about love and life. I love trying out all different things.
Me: Didn't you do an album for or with Deepak Chopra once? What the hell was that about? Any radio hits with that one? Hahaha.
Beth: Yeah, I did an album of Sanskrit chants with Deepak Chopra. That was fun. LOL. Not so far with radio hits, but I got a lot of comments from yoga teachers saying they loved that record.
Me: Why and how did you get into this chant world, Beth?
Beth: I was always so fascinated by the vowels. A lot of the times when I write a song I hear the melody and then I just make up some nonsense language that is not in existence and often, this is true for many of the songs that I consider my best songs, like a song like "Sand and Water," literally you can listen to the very first time I threw it down you can end up hearing the vowels which ended up being the final song the vowels are already there. Really the song rises up through the sand and anyone can make out the shape of it. It's very naive way to discover what the song wants to be, it gets born through my openness to that wacky way of doing it.
Me: I was surprised, and I don't know why, you wrote that Faith Hill song "This Kiss." I actually like that song a lot, it's so bloody catchy. What was it like writing that song?
Beth: I actually wrote that song with two other songwriters, Robin Lerner and Annie Roboff. We've written the first verse and the chorus and really thought we had written a great song, which we did, it put my son through college. We were allll so precious about it now, now we had to write the second verse. Writing the second verse is like nightmare, especially when we've done a really good job up to this point, then we pretty much got the whole song incapsulated first verse and the chorus, we had something whole right there. That's a great song, but guess what? We had to write something else. I just went back to base one, which is to play. I went back to the playful, don't think about it, we just sang the song and blurted out whatever came to my mind. So I blurted out "Cleopatra was a snowflake." Both Annie and Robin looked at me and said, "No, Cleopatra was not a snowflake." We're not putting that in this song, and I was like, "I know, that's not it, but something like that." They were like, "You need a break." I said, "No, no, no, there's something in that." They said they were going to eat lunch, bye-bye, and they left me. With "Cleopatra was a snowflake" in my world that's a clue. It had something in it. They came back and I was still hitting that line. Annie looked at me and said, "Beth, look at me, we are not putting Disney characters in this song." When she said "Disney" I went "Cinderella." It's not Cleopatra it's Cinderella, and it's not a snowflake it's Snow White. They'e talking about love wondering what's the deal here and then all of a sudden Cinderella says to Snow White, "How did love get so off course?" There's this conversation between two iconic girls talking about getting kissed, and it fit beautifully and they were all on board at that point. They were like, "Oh, what a great idea." I was like, "It wasn't my idea, it was Cleopatra's idea!" You have to listen to Cleopatra when she comes through.
Me: I think that is the first song or time I ever heard the word "centrifugal." Am I right?
Beth: That's probably true. And you spelt it correctly.
Me: You live in Nashville, and interviewing different people over the years here about songwriting or recording in Nashville they work from 9 to 5. Do you work that way?
Beth: Absolutely, I have to take all that crazy whimsy floaty stuff and out it into containers of time because we have lives. We have to pay bills, we have to go to the dentist, we have to take the kids to school. It's not romantic, I don't just sit down and go now I'm floating, I have to actually work a little bit to create the atmosphere. I have a whole system that I talk about, creating a space to write in. Go back to a space that feels good, light a couple of candles if you're into that. Sometimes I actually take break and get a pot of tea and if I have a hard time feeling that flow I just pour a cup of tea with the fear that I'm not going to be able to write today and hand it to that part of myself over in the corner with the magazine. I do these little rituals to create the space and let the stuff come through. Every single day I don't write the greatest song of my life.
Me: What was your first big hit, Beth?
Beth: Tanya Tucker's "Strong Enough to Bend" which I wrote with Don Schlitz who wrote "The Gambler" and millions of other hits. That song went to number one and all of a sudden my phone starts ringing. Tons of people called me saying congratulations, blah blah. A lot of producers called me saying what else do I have like that. It shut me down, it made me creatively go whoaaaa. They wanted me to create something I didn't know how to do the first time I did it. It was terrifying.
Me: You wrote and worked with Willie Nelson. That must've been fun. What was that experience like?
Beth: That was amazing like a dream come true. It was because "Strong Enough to Bend." He heard that on the radio and told his producer, Fred Foster, who is a legend himself. He signed Kris Kristofferson, Dolly, and he ran Monument Records. He actually was the producer of "Pretty Woman," with Roy Orbison, and was an amazing musical genius of many, many, many legendary records. He was producing a record for Willie and Willie wasn't writing at the time. I think his marriage had blown up and lots of things were changing in his life and he just wasn't feeling creative but he had to turn in a record. He said, "I like that song 'Strong Enough to Bend,' get whoever wrote that to write something for me." I was so blown away to be asked to write for him, I couldn't believe it. I went home and literally spent the entire three months I had day in a day out working on that song. I got the title first, "Nothing I Can Do About It Now," and I was like oh my God, now my brain is all activated, trying to figure it out. I didn't want to write it that way. I used to go out running and jogging and took a little dictaphone and I'd try to sing in it. It was very hard work trying to finish that song but I'm proud of it. Then I got to play guitar on it, got to go into the studio... I was completely blown away invited to do that. Then his drummer, when he heard the demo, it was like a train beat, like "On the Road Again," but his drummer kicked it off and it was like a shuffle. He changed the beat so I was trying to stay alive on guitar. At the end of the very first take Willie said, "That was great, let's go to lunch." I was like, "No! No! It's wrong, it's wrong!" I was still there arguing with Willie Nelson about his record. It was amazing. He looked at me with these dark eyes and asked, "What's the problem?" I said, "It sounds to me like Paul might have heard it like a shuffle." And he goes, "Hey, let me ask him, Paul, did you hear that as a shuffle?" Paul goes, "Yep, I sure did." Willie said, "That's what I thought. Well, let's go to lunch!" LOL. So, when that record came out, since I was so attached to my version of it, I was thrilled Willie had recorded it, but was deeply concerned it would never see the light of day. What did I know, it went to number one. What was fascinating the more it went up the chart the more right it sounded to me. I was like actually that's pretty darn good. That was a big learning experience for me. Letting go, and being open to creative geniuses that have other ideas that might be really good.
Me: I have to ask you about working with Neil Diamond, which I'm not a big fan of, but one of my best friends is. What is it like working with him and how did that happen?
Beth: It was an incredible and amazing experience because I had some success but I'm in a town full of songwriters of such quality living in Nashville. Neil came to Nashville to write a record with Nashville songwriters and to record it there. "Tennessee Moon" I think is the name of the record. I heard a rumor he was doing that and I never expected to get a call because there's just so many songwriters to choose from. I have to tank my friend, Waylon Jennings, he actually made a call to Neil, and they went waaayyy back. He said, "You don't go to Nashville without calling Beth Nielsen Chapman. You've gotta write with her." Neil called me and I was so intimated by the iconic stature of this incredible songwriter genius. To sit in a room with him, he was the nicest guy, down to earth, definitely not full of himself, but I couldn't get over the fact I was sitting there with Neil Diamond. I clammed up, sitting at the piano and trying to muddle around and thinking nothing I could come up with is good enough for this guy which is not a good place to start. Usually I was much more sick with lyrics and he was writing some of the lyrics and finally I said, "Listen, Neil, I have to tell you something. It's like I'm sitting here with you and I'm shutting down because it's just so overwhelming because you'e Neil Diamond." He said, "You know what, I totally get that what you're talking about. A lot of times when I sit down to write I just stop and think oh my God, I'm Neil Diamond." LOL. It made me laugh so hard and I was like okay, we can do this now. He totally did it with a straight face. I love that guy, he's such a deep soul. I hope he gets better soon.
Me: You as well had some serious challenges with your health over the years, Beth. I am fascinated by how your lyrical abilities were affected by a brain tumor. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Beth: Yeah, that was an amazing period of time in my life. Here I was, I've been through the loss of my husband, and wrote a lot of songs about that, and I talked about how creativity helped me through grief. Six years later I went through breast cancer and survived that and was in perfect health. A lot of my shows, my career, was talking about that, it just was part of who I am as an artist. In 2009 I just couldn't finish a couple of songs and I was going back and back and back to try to finish them. I was trying to finish the album "Back to Love," which had two songs that needed to be finished in order to be finished with it so it was very frustrating to me as I would sit there for hours. It was different in a normal amount of time I would say, "It's okay, I'm lifting 'weights.'" Well, I was lifting the "gym" off the ground. When it still wasn't happening I knew it was something weird. I started to go through this period where it almost seemed like a little bit of depression like maybe I've been preaching was wrong. Maybe actually the muse gets up and leaves one day. Then I don't have it anymore. I just lost all this confidence in myself as a teacher, I felt like I was really stuck. And then I woke up one morning in the middle of all that and I had this terrible drone in my ear and it was really loud like an airplane meets a Tibetan bull or lawnmower. It was very disturbing, I could barely hit pitch, barely hear myself think. I went to my doctor and said there's something really wrong. He sends me to the emergency room and I have an MRI, and they come around the corner and say, "Well, there's nothing wrong with your ears but you do have a brain tumor." I was like what? That is just not possible. I can't have a brain tumor, I had all this other stuff, it's all in my show, there's no room in my show for a brain tumor! LOL. I'm thinking no way, make sure you got the right name on the chart. I'm not due for that. I did have a brain tumor and it was pressing on the left frontal lobe. They said, "That's your language center, have you had trouble with language?" I was like no, then wait a minute. All of a sudden my ego rose above in the air and said, "Wait a minute, do you think that's something that would make it hard to finish a lyric to a song?" They said, "Yeah, you wouldn't be able to write poetry or lyrics." I was like, "That's great news! Oh my God, I'm so excited!" They looked at me like I was crazy. They said, "Not the part about the brain tumor, right?" "No, but still..." I was terrified about the brain tumor and fortunately it was not malignant and it as actually caught just in time because it was fast growing, They got it all out and I woke up from that surgery and I was kind of out of it. The very thing I was conscious of was this third verse of this song hovering in my mind completely written, just hanging there. The first thug I said was I got to have a pencil. What was amazing to me was all the other songs I couldn't finish boom, boom, boom, I finished.
Me: Sheesh. You did a project with Elton John, am I right?
Beth: Well, I met Elton in '91, my husband was still living, and it was before we knew he was even sick, we went to Atlanta, met him and hung out one day. Several years later my husband went through this illness and died. I ran into Elton and he said, "How are you doing? I heard your husband had died." We had a little chat and I handed them this little cassette which had "Sand and Water" on it and said I had written a few things. Some more time went by and in '97 the time my record came out he was in Oprah one day and she said, "How are you doing with the loss of Diana?" In the interim Princess Diana had died, Versace had died, all these things happened. He said, "I listened to this album by Beth Nielsen Chapman" that just came out called 'Sand and Water' and this song had helped me." All of a sudden the phone started ringing... when Elton goes on Oprah and starts talking about you things happen. I was so trilled it was my music that helped him through that time. Then has asked me to rewrite the third verse 'cause he wanted to sing that song in replace of "Candle in the Wind" on that tour he was going in the U.S. of course I was so honored and was like absolutely. Talking about having a heart assignment though. I was driving to Atlanta and didn't have the two lines I had to replace until two exits before I got to the rehearsal studio. I was sweating bullets by then. I did write the new lyrics and it worked well. Nowadays what's ironic about it he's got two kids, he could of left it alone. We didn't know at the time the world was going too change so much between now and then. In fact, a few years ago I saw someone that works with him and put a big in his ear and said, "You know, by the way, wink wink, Elton could cut that sing unchanged."
Me: Didn't you redo the song yourself?
Beth: Yeah, with Olivia Newton John and an artist named Amy Sky.
Me: Ahhh. So, you have a new album out called "Hearts of Glass." What can you tell us about it?
Beth: "Hearts Of Glass" is a powerful collection of songs that dig deep into the place within us where vulnerability meets strength. It was produced by Sam Ashworth.
Me: Did you write all the songs on it?
Beth: Well, they were mostly written by me alone. "Enough For Me" was written with Sam. The opening track, "Come To Mine", the only other co-written song, was composed with the legendary Graham Gouldman and Kevin Montgomery at Chris Difford's Songwriting Retreat in Somerset, England.
Me: Cool! I'm a big Chris Difford and Squeeze fan and he was here on the Phile not that long ago. The album has some re-recorded stuff from your past, right?
Beth: Yeah, but now moved from piano to guitar with minimal touches of production. In addition, the first-time release of my version of the timeless classic "If My World Didn't Have You" features Rodney Crowell on backing vocals. This song first appeared on Willie Nelson's "Horse Called Music" album along with my song "Nothing I Can Do About It Now."
Me: Beth, that's cool. Thanks so much for being on the Phile. I'm glad you are doing well and I hope this was fun.
Beth: It's always fun to talk about creativity. Speaking of Chris Difford, I also sang a song for his play Fancy Pants. Chris is so great.
Me: Cool. Please come back again soon. Take care.
Beth: Thanks, Jason, good-bye.
That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guests Jeff Trelewicz, Laird Jim and of course Beth Nielsen Chapman. The Phile will be back next Thursday with Martha Davis from the Motels. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.
I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon
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