Michael Chapman
Michael Chapman - Journeyman - 2CD+DVD Album
Format: 2CD+DVD
Secret Records are releasing a 2xCD & DVD double pack by Michael Chapman recorded live at Barrel's Ale House in Berwick-on-Tweed 15th August 2003.
Leeds-born Michael Chapman - alongside Caledonian contemporaries, Bert Jansch and Al Stewart - emerged in the mid-1960s with his uniquely English take on folk-blues. The era of the folk-singer-songwriter-as-pop-star was kicked off Stateside by Bob Dylan and Tom Paxton, and cloning soon followed in Britain in the shape of Donovan and Cat Stevens. But what musicians such as Chapman and Jansch then brought to the folkies' party was guitar virtuosity.
Whereas Jansch first learned from Scottish traditional folk musicians such as Hamish Imlach when he took up guitar, Michael was perhaps even more of a maverick. First playing pubs in Hull and Leeds, the musical style he carved out for himself drew from American influences as wide-ranging as Charles Mingus and John Fahey. Add to this Chapman's very North of England sense of humour and view on life, and you have the artist Michael Chapman.
In fact, he was an art and photography lecturer in Bolton before deciding to give up the day job. This happened after a summer vacation spent in Cornwall where he made equally good money as a working musician. The word "˜troubadour' perfectly describes Michael's lifestyle in the four decades since then: a world-class guitarist who has spent big chunks of his life out on the road drawing on ordinary life in order to create extraordinary music.
This 2003 recorded and filmed concert captures Michael Chapman in the kind of intimate folk club setting where he first started out, but he has played all kinds of venues throughout his career depending on the project at hand. H's alternated between playing solo and being backed by a band - sometimes featuring Hull-born Mick Ronson and Steeleye Span's Rick Kemp. What are regarded as classic four albums ('Rainmaker', 'Fully Qualified Survivor', 'Windows', and 'Wrecked Again') came out on the Harvest label in the late 1960s and early 1970s, followed by the DERAM release 'Millstone Grit' (with bassist Kemp and Keef Hartley on drums) which included the hit 'Postcards Of Scarborough'.
Other classic albums followed such as 'The Man Who Hated Mornings', 'Deal Gone Down' and 'Savage Amusement', all available from Secret Records.
Michael Chapman has remained prolific throughout the years and continues to create music that captures his wry and gritty picture of life.
Tracklisting:
CD1
1. Looking For Charlie In Nogales
2. It Ain't So
3. Sensimilia
4. One Time Thing
5. Sometimes
6. The Mallard
7. Ponchatoulah
8. Medley: Sweet Little Friend From Georgia,
Dust Devils, Theme From The Movie Of The Same Name
CD2
1. Postcards Of Scarborough
2. Memphis In Winter
3. Anniversary
4. Shuffleboat River Farewell
5. After All This Time
6. Rabbit Hills
7. Bon Ton Roolay
8. Fahey's Flag
9. Kodak Ghosts
DVD
1. One Time Thing (Intro)
2. Looking For Charlie In Nogales
3. It Ain't So
4. Sensimilia
5. One Time Thing
6. Sometimes
7. The Mallard
8. Ponchatoulah
9. Sweet Little Friend From Georgia
10. Dust Devils
11. Theme From The Movie Of The Same Name
12. Postcards Of Scarborough
13. Memphis In Winter
14. Anniversary
15. Shuffleboat River Farewell
16. After All This Time
17. Rabbit Hills
18. Bon Ton Roolay
19. Fahey's Flag
20. Kodak Ghosts