Well-Played: A Songwriter's Night

Saint Matthew’s Haiti Ministry proudly presents…

Saturday, September 14 at 6 p.m.
Saint Matthew Courtyard
21+ Event

For the past 25+ years, Saint Matthew has ministered to the Haitian community of Gobert through a partnership with Our Lady of Miracles parish and sister chapels. These parishes serve approximately 25,000 people and are located in a northern, rural area of Haiti.

Our continued support, alongside the leadership of Father Nicolas Floreal, and Dr. Librice, the doctor at the Gobert clinic, is helping the community meet its medical, physical, spiritual and educational needs.

Our largest annual appeal and fundraiser is Well Played: A Songwriters Night, which is now in its 14th year. We are hoping to build on the success of last year’s event, which raised over $30,000. To do that, we have secured our most decorated lineup of songwriters in the history of this event. Together, these three hall of fame songwriters have written 28 number 1 hits for some of country music’s biggest stars. Click on the artists’ names below to learn more about each of these iconic songwriters.

This event is adults only as beer and wine are included with your ticket.

Join us on Saturday, September 14 for a night of music, fellowship and fun! Tickets are on sale now!

Purchase Tickets Now

BECOME A SPONSOR

Our Songwriters

Beth Nielson Chapman

Beth Nielsen Chapman’s co-written “This Kiss,” recorded by Faith Hill, earned the songwriter a Grammy nomination and Song of the Year honors from both the Country Music Association and ASCAP. Chapman has also provided major hits to Martina McBride (“Happy Girl”), Willie Nelson (“Nothing I Can Do About It Now”), Lorrie Morgan (“Five Minutes”), Alabama (“Here We Are”), Tanya Tucker (“Strong Enough to Bend”) and many other top Nashville stars.

Chapman’s songs have been recorded by such diverse talents as Bette Midler, Neil Diamond, Barbara Mandrell, Michael McDonald, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Roberta Flack, Olivia Newton-John, Waylon Jennings, Keb Mo, Brenda Lee, Amy Grant, Anne Murray, Mary Chapin Carpenter and The Indigo Girls. As a solo recording artist, Chapman has been a regular visitor to the adult-contemporary charts singing her own self-penned tunes.

The middle child of five in an Air Force family, Chapman was brought up on military bases. Music was her source of stability from an early age. While the family was stationed in Germany, she picked up guitar and piano at age 11 and began writing songs. By the time she was a teenager, she was performing in Montgomery, AL, club bands.

She landed a songwriting contract at age 20 and recorded Hearing It First as her debut LP in 1980. She moved to Nashville in 1985 and by the decade’s end was regularly providing hits to others.

Her songs have appeared on the soundtracks of such films as The Rookie, Where the Heart Is, Practical Magic, Calendar Girls, We Were Soldiers and Message in a Bottle. The television series Dawson Creek, ER, Touched By an Angel, Providence and Felicity also included her compositions. Chapman’s “All I Have” became familiar to millions as the recurring love theme on NBC’s Days of Our Lives.

After her husband died of cancer in 1994, Chapman worked through her grief by writing ever more emotionally profound songs. One of them was “Sand and Water,” which was picked up by Elton John. Then she was diagnosed with cancer, herself.

These experiences deepened her spiritual side. Her albums Beth Nielsen Chapman (1990), You Hold the Key (1993) and Sand and Water (1997) were followed by the even more contemplative Deeper Still (2002) and Look (2005). She also released Hymns (2004), a collection of Catholic liturgical tunes sung in Latin. Prism (2007) was an album of devotional songs from a variety of the world’s religions.

She entered the new millennium with Back to Love (2010), The Mighty Sky (2012) and Uncovered (2014), which contained her own versions of her songs that others had popularized.

Chapman is also a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

Bob DiPiero

Bob DiPiero has been one of country music’s most consistently successful songwriters from the 1980s to the present. He joined his first rock band at age 14 and put himself through college by continuing to play in rock & roll groups. One of his bands, Joy, recorded an LP in Shreveport, Louisiana, for Paula Records in 1971. After graduation from Youngstown State University, he wrote local ad jingles and bartered studio time to record tapes of his songs to take with him on his trips to Nashville.

He moved to Nashville on Halloween Night in 1978. During his first five years in town, he made a living as a guitar instructor. One of his students kept bringing him the classic country songs of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow. As a result, the former rocker became a country convert. In the meantime, he got a writer’s contract from a song publisher, and country stars began recording his tunes in 1980.

When the Oak Ridge Boys took his “American Made” to #1 on the country chart in 1983, and the song subsequently became a lucrative national Miller Beer ad jingle, DiPiero was able to quit his guitar instructor job.

In the years 1989-1991, he was a member of the country group Billy Hill alongside fellow songwriters John Scott Sherrill and Dennis Robbins. The group’s rocking brand of country was typified by “Too Much Month (At the End of the Money)” and “I Am Just a Rebel,” both co-written by DiPiero.

Since then, DiPiero has become one of the most consistent and prolific hit songwriters on Music Row. He placed songs on the charts every year between 1988 and 2010. In 1995, he earned a Triple Play award from the Country Music Association for writing three #1 hits in a year, “Wink” (Neal McCoy), “Take Me as I Am” (Faith Hill) and “Till You Love Me” (Reba McEntire). He repeated the feat in 1996 and was honored by the CMA for “Blue Clear Sky” (George Strait), “Daddy’s Money” (Ricochet) and “Worlds Apart” (Vince Gill).

In 2010, “Coming Home,” his song from the film Country Strong, was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2012, he placed three songs on the first soundtrack release from the ABC-TV series Nashville.

As a performer, Bob DiPiero is noted for the wit and élan of his personal appearances. He has marketed a series of solo albums via his Web site.

Marcus Hummon

Washington, D.C.-born Marcus Hummon has enjoyed a successful career as a songwriter, recording artist, producer, studio musician, playwright and author.

A diplomat’s son, Marcus spent his youth in Africa and Italy. After several years playing in various bands, he found his way to Nashville.

As a songwriter, Marcus has co-written hits such as “Cowboy Take Me Away” and “Ready To Run” by The Dixie Chicks, “Born To Fly” by Sara Evans, “One Of These Days” by Tim McGraw, “Only Love” by Wynonna, “The Cheap Seats” by Alabama and “Love Is The Right Place” by Bryan White. “Bless The Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts earned Marcus a 2005 Grammy for Best Country Song, as well as NSAI Song of the Year. A 2007 version by Selah w/ Melodie Crittenden, was a Top 5 Christian song and earned NSAI’s 2007 Song of the Year.

Marcus has written an opera (Surrender Road, staged by The Nashville Opera Company in 2005) and six musicals, three of which were featured as part of the New York New Musical Festival in 2005, 2006 and 2011 respectively.

Marcus has scored two films: Lost Boy Home and The Last Songwriter, a documentary that he co-produced. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.