Chicago Reader & Galactic Zoo present
Michael Chapman
O.W.L., The Singleman Affair
Thu, October 4, 2012
Doors: 8:00 pm / Show: 9:00 pm
The Hideout
Chicago, IL
$10.00
Tickets Available at the Door
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Michael Chapman
The guitar and voice of Michael Chapman first became known on the British Folk Circuit in 1967. Playing a blend of atmospheric and autobiographical material, he established a reputation for intensity and innovation. Signed to EMI's Harvest label he recorded a quartet of classic albums. LPs like Rainmaker and Wrecked Again defined the melancholic observer role Michael was to make his own, mixing intricate guitar instrumentals with a full band sound.
The influential album Fully Qualified Survivor, featuring the lead guitar of Mick Ronson (of David Bowie fame) and Rick (Steeleye Span) Kemp's bass, was John Peel's favorite album of 1970. Survivor featured the Chapman 'hit', "Postcards of Scarborough", a characteristically tenderly sour song recounting the feelings of nostalgia and regret.
Chapman's 1970 Fully Qualified Survivor should be filed between Roy Harper's Flat Baroque and Berserk, John Martyn's Inside Out, and Bert Jansch's Jack Orion. The perfect album for a winter day and a joint. Now beautifully remastered to CD and restored to vinyl for the first time in decades by Light In The Attic Records.
Meanwhile, fast forward to present and Chapman also had a brand new set of recordings available from the label Tompkins Square; Trainsong : Guitar Compositions 1967-2010 is a 2CD collection of 26 recently-recorded solo guitar versions of tunes spanning his entire career. It is a fascinating look at one of the most prolific and profound guitarists of our time. This release, out one day after his 70th birthday, should finally bring proper attention to this inspiring and masterful musician.
After decades of recording and touring, Chapman remains an obscure figure in the States even though his fan base continues to grow with younger admirers like Devendra Banhart, Alela Diane, and Bill Callahan (Smog) spreading the good word. Recently Michael was interviewed by Thurston Moore in Fretboard Journal, while he also toured extensively with the late guitarist Jack Rose, with whom Michael shared a warm kinship.
The influential album Fully Qualified Survivor, featuring the lead guitar of Mick Ronson (of David Bowie fame) and Rick (Steeleye Span) Kemp's bass, was John Peel's favorite album of 1970. Survivor featured the Chapman 'hit', "Postcards of Scarborough", a characteristically tenderly sour song recounting the feelings of nostalgia and regret.
Chapman's 1970 Fully Qualified Survivor should be filed between Roy Harper's Flat Baroque and Berserk, John Martyn's Inside Out, and Bert Jansch's Jack Orion. The perfect album for a winter day and a joint. Now beautifully remastered to CD and restored to vinyl for the first time in decades by Light In The Attic Records.
Meanwhile, fast forward to present and Chapman also had a brand new set of recordings available from the label Tompkins Square; Trainsong : Guitar Compositions 1967-2010 is a 2CD collection of 26 recently-recorded solo guitar versions of tunes spanning his entire career. It is a fascinating look at one of the most prolific and profound guitarists of our time. This release, out one day after his 70th birthday, should finally bring proper attention to this inspiring and masterful musician.
After decades of recording and touring, Chapman remains an obscure figure in the States even though his fan base continues to grow with younger admirers like Devendra Banhart, Alela Diane, and Bill Callahan (Smog) spreading the good word. Recently Michael was interviewed by Thurston Moore in Fretboard Journal, while he also toured extensively with the late guitarist Jack Rose, with whom Michael shared a warm kinship.
O.W.L.
The year is 1971 and Stephen Titra, from Chicago, records an LP with advance money from Universal. The record company ends up passing on the album, and the project, Of Wondrous Legends, grinds to a halt. And just like that, the world lost a fabulous (yes, fabulous) folk LP. Dawson Prater, head of Locust Music, stumbled upon one of a handful of test pressings over 30 years later, managed to track down Titra, and finally released Of Wondrous Legends in 2008. By then, unearthing obscure psychedelic and freak folk recordings was the craze, with very mixed results, but rest assured that this album has nothing to do with those kinds of productions. In fact, Of Wondrous Legends is surprisingly "straightforward" and well recorded. Titra's songs are poetic, soaring, imbued with a fondness for Romanticism and Old Europe, with a current of humanism running through the lyrics. Most of all, his voice is very pleasant and he is surrounded by solid musicians. As a result, the album offers genuine pastoral folk of the highest caliber, up there with Shawn Phillips' Second Contribution (the closest comparison and, frankly, the best compliment one can make). Had this album been known a few years earlier, it could have been seen as an influence on contemporary folk artists like In Gowan Ring. There is not a single weak track on the album, with only "Renaissance & Rococo" sounding derivative (of King Crimson's "I Talk to the Wind" and "Cadence and Cascade"). "A Tale of a Crimson Knight" and "Breton Landscape" are the best soft numbers, while "Midnight Carnival" and "Everyman & the Philosopher King" lively up the set with a rocker edge. Of Wondrous Legends ranks among the very best previously unknown finds of the last decade, as it would rank among the best folk records of the late '60s/early '70s had it been released when it was recorded. A must-have, as much for collectors of obscure psych/folk than for fans of Simon & Garfunkel. Yeah, it's that good, that accessible, and that universal.
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