August 26, 2004
What's in a Name?
Chris Patterson, OnTap Online

Beaver Nelson is not the kind of name you forget, and hopefully you won't forget this musician's songs either. Chris Patterson interviews the transplanted Texan.

"One Show, One Person At A Time ..."

Austin songwriter Beaver Nelson arrives in the DC area on September 11th to play a free show at the Austin Grill in Silver Spring, MD to promote his latest effort, Motion. This album, his fifth in a series of critically acclaimed releases has proven to be his most experimental to date. The result takes the listener on a journey from roots-rock to reggae to gospel soul woven tightly together by Nelson's clever and poetic writing and a very tight band lead by long-time friend "Scrappy" Jud Newcomb who also served as co-producer on the disc.

Beaver Nelson was as he puts it, "Conceived in Lubbock, born in Norman, OK, and raised in Dallas and Houston". He picked up his first guitar at the age of 14 and almost immediately began writing songs. This passion led to two homemade, self-produced cassettes and numerous gigs while still in his teens. Upon graduation from high school, Nelson headed off to Austin where he enrolled at the University of Texas in the fall of '91. School lasted just one semester as Beaver found a niche in the local music scene and realized that writing songs and strumming a guitar made much more sense than days filled with professors and textbooks. Soon Nelson was the "Buzz" around the city of Austin. Critics soon started to take notice of this new kid in town and his writing and playing soon had his name linked with the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Bob Dylan. At the age of 19, Rolling Stone Magazine hailed Beaver as a "songwriting prodigy" and young Nelson had yet to even release his first CD.

With the notoriety and attention he was getting and a demo tape in hand, he soon landed a development deal with Columbia Records which, after recording just four tracks, fell apart. Undiscouraged, Beaver quickly found another label in Lightstorm, a subsidiary of Epic Records. He left for Los Angeles and recorded a complete album. The label however, was not satisfied with the recordings and shelved the entire project. With guitar in hand, Nelson went back to Austin and focused again on solo performances and perfecting his writing skills.

The road to fame certainly hasn't been an easy one for Nelson but when asked about this time in his life, Beaver showed no sign of ill will or regret. His only comment… "The machine turns it's wheels… Who gets caught, gets caught". Although life has handed him some tough cards to play out, it appears Nelson has learned to deal with life's lessons and taken these clues given to him and put them into his song. You get the sense when speaking with him that these obstacles have only made him stronger, more determined, and given his songs even more depth.

He's hard pressed to speak of the hardships he's had to overcome to get his records made. Knowing that it wouldn't be easy, he understandably decided that he was going to control the process. "I can pay for it and get to call all the shots", he offers. "By taking the risk myself I can do whatever I want to do". Nelson seems well grounded in reality, set on a course of realistic expectations. As he put it, "I always new it would be a slow build… One show, one person at a time".

When asked about his musical inspiration it becomes clear that Nelson is first and foremost a bard. "I'm a writer", offers Nelson. "To me it's about what people can take away from each song. Dylan and Townes made me want to do what I do. I listen to one of their songs and know 20 years from now I can listen to the same song and it will tell me something different and I'll think to myself… Holy crap, that's what he meant".

On his new CD Motion, Nelson takes his songwriting much further than before. His sense of spirituality, which has always appeared as an underlying theme in his previous efforts, now becomes a little more overt, a little less obtuse. When asked about this change Nelson explains, "As a writer I didn't want to write just to write. I felt it had to be done well. Spirituality contains subject matter that is tricky to write about in the way I like to write. With this album it was the first time it felt completely natural and easy".

The ease in this effort may have come about by Nelson's decision to take nearly a year off from writing in an effort to find some peace and not try to force the songs for his next project. Once he did begin to write, the result was almost immediate. "The material for Motion was all written in a very short period of time. I wrote five of the songs in just three days", he offered. And as for the inspiration for Motion ... "It's about the songs", states Nelson. "When it was time to let the beast out of the cage, this is where my head was at when the pen hit the paper", and from the first listen to Motion it appears his head was in a very good place.

Beaver Nelson with bandmates Scrappy Jud Newcomb on guitar, Stephan Belans on drums, and Josh Gravelin on bass will be performing at Austin Grill 919 Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring MD on Saturday, September 11th at 10pm. There is no cover for this all ages show.