Chapman brings music, memories to NCC

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Steven Curtis Chapman performs Feb. 9 at North Central College. | Courtesy of NCC

Updated: February 3, 2012 12:00PM

When Steven Curtis Chapman comes to Naperville, he will treat audiences to a relaxed evening of music and memories.

“Steven Curtis Chapman: Songs and Stories” begins at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 in Pfeiffer Hall at North Central College. For an extra $25, fans can purchase a ticket to “Soundcheck and Stories” at 5 p.m.

Chapman is one of the world’s most well-known Christian musicians. During his 25-year career he has won five Grammy Awards and a record-breaking 56 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, along with 16 Grammy nominations and multiple gold and platinum albums.

He tragically lost his five-year-old daughter in 2008.

His newest album, “re:creation,” Chapman touches on that pain and the healing that has taken place since then. The album contains six new songs, as well as new recordings of some of his past hits.

This concert will feature a smorgasbord of music, and features special guests Andrew Peterson and Josh Wilson, whom Chapman calls “great musicians and singer-songwriters.”

“Andrew is one of my favorite songwriters on the planet — an amazing poet and storyteller. Josh is a great songwriter as well, and particularly a master guitarist and great musician,” he said. “We’re all backing each other up and playing for each other on different songs. We’ve got three guys in a band behind us as well. There are three of us onstage the whole time, doing something a little bit exciting and unique for me. The idea for this was sort of an all-for-one one-for-all sort of thing.”

The idea originally came from singer-songwriter nights in Nashville, he said, where they “sit in a circle and tell a story.”

“It’s a really cool, fun and interesting way to hear a song, because you get the back story,” he said. “All of these songs that have been written … sometimes have years and years of story that go into a three-and-a-half-minute song. I love being a part of those songwriter nights, and I thought it would be so cool to take that experience on the road and give friends who have heard my music over the years the opportunity to hear the stories that go along with them.”

Don’t get the wrong idea — it’s not three guys talking for two hours. There are 46 instruments on stage and six guys playing them, he said.

“We do a lot of switching and swapping off, and it gives the audience a very unique experience,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever played a banjo in concert. I grew up with banjo music played around the house because I grew up in Kentucky. It’s the first time I’ve ever played a ukulele onstage; it’s my little moment to imagine I’m in Hawaii. Musically, it’s a unique night.”

For the most part, he sticks pretty close to a set list, he said, but he doesn’t rule out requests.

“It’s gotten harder and harder because I have 15 or 16 albums and I would love to do all of them, because I know somebody out there is going to come up to me and go, ‘My favorite song is cut number seven from your third album.’ It’s an attempt to get as much of that music as I can.”

The tour will go into mid-March, he said. While his family won’t be out with him, he plans to get home every few days.

“For the most part, they’re happy to send me out to work,” he said. “They stay pretty involved at home with all that they’ve got going on.”

He has been married to his wife Mary Beth for 27 years. Their children include Stevey Joy, 9; Shaohannah, 12; Will, 20; Caleb, 22; and Emily 25, who gave birth to the Chapmans’ first grandchild in November.

The Chapmans are vocal about their adoption advocacy, and head an organization called Show Hope, which aids international orphan care as well as adoption efforts in the U.S.

He hopes his music give a voice to peoples’ own experiences. He hopes his concerts to be like hanging out with a friend, and wants people leave encouraged and reminded of what is true and what really matters in life, he said.

“God has been faithful in getting us through, and that is what I write and sing my songs about, and my concerts are really about that,” he said. “My hope is when people leave … is that they sense the presence of God there and that it’s about a lot more than just music and songs.”