Michael Chapman

Spanning more than seven decades in music, Michael Chapman earned acclaim both as a premier English singer-songwriter and as a highly versatile guitarist adept across numerous genres including folk, rock, free improvisation, international traditions, blues, and jazz. More than forty albums document his output, and this onetime instructor of art and photography attracted admiration from an array of adventurous younger players such as Thurston Moore, Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker, and Meg Baird, each of whom has acknowledged his impact on their own recordings. No two entries in his discography resemble one another, and across successive eras different works have emerged as touchstones, beginning with the fingerstyle British folk landmark Rainmaker from 1969 and the singer-songwriter pinnacle Fully Qualified Survivor issued the following year. Subsequent projects further illustrate his range, among them the rock-oriented Savage Amusement of 1976, the proto-new age Heartbeat released in 1987, and later instrumental explorations such as the guitar travelscapes Americana and Words Fail Me along with Pachyderm and The Resurrection and Revenge of the Clayton Peacock.

Chapman studied at art school in Leeds. Upon completion of his studies he taught art and photography in Lancashire. Having played guitar since adolescence, he cultivated an approach blending jazz, folk, blues, and ragtime, with jazz standards forming the core of his early repertoire. During the mid-1960s he absorbed the emerging British folk revival associated with Ralph McTell, Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, and John Renbourn. By merging his existing knowledge with these new influences, Chapman forged a singular technique that integrated every style he pursued together with East Indian modal elements.

He first performed on the London and Cornwall folk scenes in 1967, among other venues appearing at the Piper's Folk Club in Penzance alongside John Martyn and Roy Harper. His charged stage presence appealed to clubgoers and record executives alike. Accepting an offer from Harvest, EMI's boutique underground imprint, he issued his debut album Rainmaker in 1969, supported by longtime bassist Rick Kemp and Danny Thompson. Window appeared soon afterward, and Fully Qualified Survivor rounded out an initial trilogy that drew widespread critical notice, aided by consistent advocacy from BBC broadcaster John Peel. Commercial results, however, lagged behind the praise, leaving Fully Qualified Survivor as a peak achievement whose track "Postcards of Scarborough" remains the piece most frequently cited in discussions of his work.

Following Wrecked Again, Chapman left Harvest and moved to Decca's Deram label, where he incorporated electric guitar and more robust rhythms. The first release under this arrangement, Millstone Grit, juxtaposed his characteristically somber songwriting with energetic instrumentals of an almost experimental cast and the country-flavored "Expressway in the Rain." Deal Gone Down and the concert recording Pleasures of the Street came next. Don Nix produced Savage Amusement, which revisited earlier material; the album title later served a mid-1980s band that included Chapman and Kemp.

Chapman's association with Decca concluded in 1977. The next year he began working with Criminal Records, and both imprints issued versions of The Man Who Hated Mornings. In 1978 he also released the instructional album Playing Guitar the Easy Way. He maintained a steady schedule of performances and recordings that shifted between styles and ensembles, sometimes employing a full band yet more often appearing with Kemp alone. After Heartbeat appeared in 1987, Chapman explored self-released projects, and beginning with Dreaming Out Loud in 1997 he issued albums roughly every two years, consistently receiving strong reviews though modest sales.

His output remained prolific throughout the twenty-first century, encompassing both vocal and instrumental works as well as multiple reissues of earlier material by assorted labels. The first significant release of the new millennium was the instrumental Americana in 2000, which demonstrated his command of Southern blues, folk, and ragtime jazz idioms. A follow-up collection featuring expert slide playing, Americana II, arrived in 2002. The self-released Plaindealer of 2005 presented Chapman performing solo or with small ensembles on original songs and traditional material; it was subsequently reissued by Honest Jon's.

In 2006 Chapman toured with the No-Neck Blues Band and Jack Rose. Inspired by the experience of acid folk and free improvisation, he returned to England and recorded the double-disc Words Fail Me entirely solo on acoustic and electric guitars, delivering a hundred-minute live-in-the-studio set without overdubs that radically reinterpreted older compositions alongside new pieces. On the all-electric The Wedding Band issued in 2007 he made his first digitally recorded album, while Sweet Powder the following year evoked the blues, folk, and contemporary country sounds he admired, drawing from artists ranging from R.L. Burnside and Steve Eagles to Neil Young. The ambitious 2010 release Wry Tree Drift, named for a former mine near his farm, featured both electric and acoustic guitars across folk ballads, languid instrumental dubs, dark electric blues, and solo workouts.

The instrumental double set Train Song: Guitar Compositions, 1967-2010 appeared in 2011 and consisted entirely of newly recorded material. Later that year Chapman issued his most expansive and divisive album, The Resurrection and Revenge of the Clayton Peacock, titled after a track on John Fahey's 1965 album The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death. The record contained two extended improvisations employing drones, delay, and loops and was released by Blast First Petite as the opening installment of a trilogy. Its second part, Pachyderm, followed in 2012, with The Polar Bear completing the series in 2014; Blast First Petite subsequently announced plans for a limited box-set edition. Also in 2012 Tompkins Square issued the tribute album Oh Michael, Look What You've Done: Friends Play Michael Chapman, featuring contributions from Hiss Golden Messenger, Meg Baird, Black Twig Piers, Maddy Prior, and others. Chapman returned in 2015 with the guitar-pieces collection Fish. January 2017 brought 50, his first album for Paradise of Bachelors, which looked both backward and forward with guest appearances by British folksinger Bridget St. John and indie-rock guitarist Steve Gunn. Later that year Blast First Petite released Live VPRO 71, captured by the Dutch underground station VPRO on 6 May 1971 and representing the earliest known live recording of Chapman, predating Fully Qualified Survivor by roughly two years. Accompanied by bassist Rick Kemp, the audio portion offered a generous selection of songs from the concert, while a download card supplied video of the complete performance. He also issued the duet album EB=MC2 with Israeli guitarist Ehud Banai. Although Chapman spent most of 2018 on tour, he found time to record at Mwnci Studios in rural West Wales with collaborators including Bridget St. John, cellist Sarah Smout, pedal-steel veteran BJ Cole, and guitarist-producer Steve Gunn. The resulting album, True North, appeared on Paradise of Bachelors in February 2019. Michael Chapman died at his home on 10 September 2021 at the age of eighty.