The recent release of Ben Chapman’s self-produced Amber Sound, Vol. 1, featuring his band Ben Chapman & Co., combines dynamic guitar licks, groove-driven bass lines, guitar solos with swagger, and dreamy lyrics you’ll float away on while singing along. As direct support on Lainey Wilson’s sold-out Country With A Flare Tour, this album is becoming the soundtrack to the Ben Chapman movement, converting a room of strangers to newly established groupies feeding off the rockin’, energetic set akin to the Black Crowes while channeling the classic intimacy of Willie and soul of The Allman Brothers Band.
Ben found his way to Nashville after spending his adolescent years with self-taught guitar lessons and local VFW gigs. After landing his first publishing deal in 2021 with hit-songwriter Hillary Lindsey’s Hang Your Hat Music, a creative joint venture with Concord music, Chapman launched a monthly, year-long residency at the top of 2022 called “Peach Jam”, a name paying ode to his north Georgia roots. Hosted on the second Wednesday of the month at Nashville’s beloved venue The Basement, the residency became a place for musicians, friends, and music lovers alike to turn on, tune in, and drop out for an evening of community, musicianship, transcendent southern rock, with an array of special guests including Brent Cobb, Drake White, Joshua Ray Walker, Lainey Wilson, Daniel Donato, Elizabeth Cook, Ashley Monroe, Angelina Presley, Caylee Hammack, Aaron Raitiere, Vince Herman, Brit Taylor, Hayes Carll, and more.
Inspired by the honky-tonk influence of Roger Miller and the genre-blending enterprises of The Grateful Dead, Chapman released his debut project Make The Night Better in March of 2022 exhibiting “not only his strength as a candid storyteller but also his poise as a quickly emerging artist” (American Songwriter). Produced by publisher-turned-producer Jake Gear (Hailey Whitters, Flatland Cavalry), and featuring fellow North Georgia native, and personal mentor to Chapman, Channing Wilson, the debut record found support from radio channels like WMOT and SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country as well as Spotify’s Indigo playlist, Fresh Finds: Folk, Apple Music’s New Music Daily, Country Risers, and beyond. The debut was well-received, with a slew of acts adding Ben to their shows including Flatland Cavalry, Drake White, Marshall Tucker Band, Hailey Whitters, Joshua Ray Walker, William Clark Green, Muscadine Bloodline, The Cadillac Three, and Corey Smith. Along with supporting Ben’s endeavors as an artist, fellow creatives have cut songs written by Chapman for their own projects including Meg McRee, Drake White, Robert Randolph, Erin Enderlin, Corey Smith, Warren Zeiders, Julie Roberts, Paul Cauthen, and Jordan Fletcher.
