Michael Chapman - Growing Pains Volume 1 & 2 '2020

Tracks list

Tracklist:

Disc One (01:13:25)
Growing Pains Volume 1: 1966 – 1980 (2000)
01. Key to the Highway (Charles Segar / William Broonzy) 02:28
02. See See Rider (Trad., arr. Michael Chapman) 03:37
03. Let Me Go Home Whiskey (Shifty Henry) 03:39
04. Parchman Farm (Randy Cierly / Mose Allison) 04:09
05. Anniversary 04:02
06. It Didn’t Work Out 05:18
07. Thank You P. K. 1944 05:33
08. Daisy Bell / Naked Ladies & Electric Ragtime (Harry Dacre, arr. Michael
Chapman / Michael Chapman) 04:47
09. Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin) 03:57
10. Wrecked Again 04:50
11. Rabbit Hills 03:52
12. A Scholarly Man 14:37
13. Here We Go Again 02:42
14. Running for Cover 03:18
15. Dangerous When Sober 02:56
16. Lonely by the Mile 03:39

Disc Two (01:15:30)
Growing Pains Volume 2: 1969 – 1986 (2001)
01. Rockport Sunday (Tom Rush) 04:26
02. Andru’s Easy Rider 02:59
03. Indian Queens 04:55
04. Not So Much a Garden (More Like a Maze) 06:25
05. Time Enough to Square 04:35
06. Devastation Hotel 07:38
07. The Secret of the Locks 05:44
08. How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live (Alfred Reed) 03:07
09. Shuffle Boat River Farewell 05:25
10. Catwalk 2 Parts i) Como ii) Tussah iii) Raw iv) Kashmir v) Bourette vi)
Noile 30:18







Since emerging from the folk scene in Yorkshire, England in 1967, guitarist, and
singer Michael Chapman has gained a dual reputation as one of England’s
finest original singer/songwriters and most restless guitar players, equally
comfortable in folk, rock, free improvisation, global music styles, blues, and
jazz. With over 40 albums to his credit, this former art and photography teacher
has, in the 21st century, been embraced by a host of boundary-crossing younger
musicians who credit his influence on their work including Thurston Moore, Steve
Gunn, Ryley Walker, Meg Baird, and many more. No two albums in his catalog are
alike, and, over different decades, certain recordings from his shelf have
alternated as influential, beginning with his 1969 fingerpicking Brit folk
classic Rainmaker and his 1970 singer/songwriter masterpiece Fully Qualified
Survivor (featuring Mick Ronson on lead guitar). Later recordings, including
1976’s rock & roll outing Savage Amusement, his proto-new age 1987
offering Heartbeat, and his instrumental forays in the 21st century including
the “guitar travelscapes” of Americana and Words Fail Me, as well as
Pachyderm and The Resurrection and Revenge of the Clayton Peacock, showcase the
full range of his playing, composing, and improvising styles.
Chapman attended art school in Leeds. After graduating, he worked as an art and
photography teacher in Lancashire. Playing guitar form his teens on, he
developed a style that wove jazz, folk, blues, and ragtime, and his repertoire
at the time time was primarily comprised of jazz guitar standards. In the middle
of the ’60s he began listening to the new wave of British folk
revivalists such as Ralph McTell, Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, and John Renbourn.
By adapting what he already knew to what he was learning, Chapman developed a
distinctive playing style that incorporated all of his chosen styles as well as
East Indian modalism.
He first appeared on the London and Cornwall folk music circuits in 1967,
including at the Piper’s Folk Club in Penzance on a bill with John Martyn
and Roy Harper. His incendiary live perfomances resonated not only with club
audiences but also with A&R men. He accepted a contract offer from Harvest
(EMI’s “underground” boutique label) that led to the release
of his debut long-player Rainmaker in 1969. The album featured the support of
Rick Kemp (who played bass with Chapman for many years) and Danny Thompson.
Window followed in short order, with Fully Qualified Survivor completing a debut
triptych that sent waves of critical appreciation through the music
industry—influential BBC disc jockey John Peel supported Chapman whenever
possible. Sales, however, did not match the critical acclaim for
Chapman’s work, leaving Fully Qualified Survivor as a high point, with
“Postcards of Scarborough” generally being the one cut most often
remembered when Chapman is discussed.
After the release of Wrecked Again, Chapman parted company with Harvest,
choosing to sign to Decca’s Deram subsidiary, where he altered course
somewhat, adding electric guitar and harder rhythms to his work. The first
result, Millstone Grit, offered Chapman’s trademark gloomy writing mixed
with a couple of lively instrumentals, some almost experimental, and the
country-styled “Expressway in the Rain.” Deal Gone Down, and the
live Pleasures of the Street followed. Don Nix produced Savage Amusement, which
reworked a couple of earlier songs; the album’s title would be used in
the mid-’80s for a band featuring Chapman and Kemp.
Chapman’s Decca deal ended in 1977, and he began an association with
Criminal Records the following year; both labels released versions of The Man
Who Hated Mornings. Chapman then turned his hand to the release of a guitar
instruction record entitled Playing Guitar the Easy Way in 1978. He continued to
gig and record consistently, varying styles and sounds, sometimes working with a
full group but more often working with Kemp alone. After the release of
Heartbeat in 1987, Chapman experimented with self-released albums, and as of the
1997 release of Dreaming Out Loud, he was issuing albums at the rate of one
every two years, continuing to attract high praise, if not great sales.
His prolific release schedule continued unabated in the 21st century with both
song-based and instrumental albums, as well as numerous reissues of his catalog
by various labels. The first notable entry in the new millennium was the
instrumental offering Americana in 2000, which showcased Chapman’s
fascination with, and mastery of, Southern blues, folk, and ragtime jazz styles.
It was followed by a second collection—this one with masterful slide
entries as well—entitled Americana II in 2002. A self-released album,
2005’s Plaindealer featured the guitarist playing solo or in small
groups, performing original songs and folk standards. It was later reissued by
Honest Jon’s.
Chapman toured with the No-Neck Blues Band and Jack Rose in 2006. Drenched in
acid folk and free improvisation, he returned to England inspired and recorded
the double-disc Words Fail Me, recorded completely solo on acoustic and electric
guitars. He ripped through utterly rearranged older songs as well as brave new
compositions in a 100-minute, live-in-the-studio performance with no overdubs.
On 2007’s The Wedding Band, Chapman returned to all-electric guitar; it
was his first digitally recorded release, while 2008’s Sweet Powder was
drenched in sounds that reflected the blues, folk, and modern country music the
guitarist loved, from R.L. Burnside to Steve Eagles to Neil Young and more. On
2010’s ambitious Wry Tree Drift, named after an old mine near his farm,
he played both electric and acoustic guitars, performing folk ballads, languid
instrumental dubs, dark electric blues, and solo guitar workouts.
In 2011, Chapman released the instrumental double set Train Song: Guitar
Compositions, 1967-2010, which featured all newly recorded material. Later in
the year, the guitarist issued his most expansive and controversial album, The
Resurrection and Revenge of the Clayton Peacock (titled after a track on John
Fahey’s 1965 offering The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death). It
featured two side-long improvisations involving drones, delay, and loop effects.
It was issued by Blast First Petite as the first part of a trilogy. Its second
part, Pachyderm, was released in 2012, followed by The Polar Bear in 2014; Blast
First Petite announced plans to reissue the trilogy as a special box set. Also
in 2012, a tribute album entitled Oh Michael, Look What You’ve Done:
Friends Play Michael Chapman was released by Tompkins Square and featured
performances from Hiss Golden Messenger, Meg Baird, Black Twig Piers, Maddy
Prior, and more. In 2015, Chapman returned with a new album of guitar pieces,
Fish. January 2017 saw the release of 50, his debut for Paradise of Bachelors,
which found Chapman embracing past and present, with guest artists including
celebrated British folksinger Bridget St. John and gifted indie rock guitarist
Steve Gunn. The following year, Blast First Petite issued Live VPRO 71. Recorded
by Dutch underground radio station VPRO on May 6 of 1971, it was the earliest
known live recording of Chapman’s—some two years after Fully
Qualified Survivor, his debut for Harvest. Accompanied on the date by bassist
Rick Kemp, the audio disc contained a healthy selection of tunes from the show,
but the release was also accompanied by a download card that contained video of
the entire concert. Later in 2017 he issued the duet offering EB=MC2 with
Israeli guitarist Ehud Banai. While Chapman basically lived on the road for most
of 2018, he was able to enter Mwnci Studios in rural West Wales with a host of
friends including Bridget St. John, cellist Sarah Smout, pedal steel legend BJ
Cole, and guitarist/producer Steve Gunn. The finished album was titled True
North and released by Paradise of Bachelors in February 2019. (Steven McDonald,
AllMusic)

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