Michael Chapman
Album: Rainmaker/Fully Qualified Survivor/Wrecked Again
Label: Light In The Attic
Tracks: 3cds
Website: http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk

Here's a really good opportunity for folks to investigate the early recorded output of this talented and unique singer/songwriter/guitarist who continues to survive on into this fickle age with talent undiminished and reputation unscathed, even enhanced. Three out of Mr C's first four albums are here presented in newly-remastered single-disc editions: the original albums come complete, but with no extra material except in the case of his debut Rainmaker. An earlier CD release of Rainmaker (on the German Repertoire label) contained a nice selection of bonus tracks including some rare outtakes; but although only two of these bonus cuts (On My Way Again and the non-album B-side Mozart Lives Upstairs) reappear on the clutch of bonus tracks on the new LITA edition - the latter now boasting a further four newly unearthed archive recordings of definite value - the remainder of the Repertoire outtakes are disposable alternates or fragments and the new edition is the one to have, especially as it comes in superior sound quality (even when compared to the 2004 BGO reissue of the album).

Rainmaker and Fully Qualified Survivor, dating from 1969 and 1970 respectively, together comprise a classic pair of early Harvest-label releases which have for many years figured within my own personal list of all-time favourite albums. Rainmaker set out Michael's stall in the most persuasive manner imaginable, ably showcasing his unique talents on all three fronts in a predominantly solo acoustic-based setting but with three slightly fish-out-of-Humber-water electric band tracks and one or two rather gimmicky production touches (like the "rainstorm" sound effects that permeate the title track) about which I still have missed feelings today. But Michael's then-as-now pretty distinctive signature combination of raga and ragtime (like Davy Graham and John Fahey with nods towards Big Bill Broonzy), allied to his oft-quoted "tendency to sound like two exceptionally good guitarists playing at once", at the service of some really superb self-penned songs sung in that quintessential slurred burr, made Rainmaker a winner in its own right. At least half of the album was of standout stature, and the contrasting Not So Much A Garden, More Like A Maze and No Song To Sing, You Say and No-one Left To Care, together with the breathtakingly virtuosic (yet also highly musical) pair of instrumentals Sunday Morning and Thank You PK 1944, were candidates for frequent replay chez moi.

Even so, the significant leap forward which Fully Qualified Survivor subsequently represented was also quite stunning and led to the latter album receiving countless accolades - and deservedly so. And not just for its fuller, more consciously considered musical arrangements, which variously involved a string section, further electric interjections and occasional clear rock rhythms (to replace the slightly ramshackle comparable outings on Rainmaker). From its brooding nine-minute opening cut Aviator through the delicious stomping instrumental Naked Ladies And Electric Ragtime, the seedily atmospheric Postcards Of Scarborough and the rocking Soulful Lady, on to that tremendous triptych of emotionally charged, imagery-rich yet somehow understated songs Rabbit Hills, March Rain and Kodak Ghosts - Survivor was an excellent offering by any standards, and merits a place in everyone's collection.

We now move on past Window, Michael's "difficult third album", which has thus far only appeared once on CD format, in the 2004 BGO reissue programme, coupled with Wrecked Again), the subject of the third in LITA's series of Michael Chapman CD reissues. Wrecked Again, Michael's final album for Harvest, was originally released in 1971, and builds on the limited band format with which he'd been experimenting on Window, with Michael now playing almost as much electric as acoustic guitar and bassist Rick Kemp given even greater prominence. It's an album I find I'd previously unfairly underestimated, and its sensitively-controlled mix of electric and acoustic textures is never less than assured. The expansive strings-and-brass orchestration of the title track (arguably much inspired by tracks such as You Set The Scene on Love's celebrated Forever Changes album of a few years earlier) sounds more attractive today than I'd remembered it, while on the other hand there are tracks like Fennario where this type of arrangement seems a mite overblown for the material. Perhaps the tracks that stand out most are the moody, atmosphere-laden Night Drive and the backward-looking Indian Queens, sparsely scored and yet full of that thick, potent (and typically Chapman) combination of nostalgia, sadness and regret. Elsewhere, there's a gloriously wayward piano solo from an uncredited Rick Wakeman on the good-time country number All In All, and a timely revisit of the aforementioned Mozart Lives Upstairs, with the gentle strains of Shuffleboat River Farewell providing the ideal finale.

It's great to have these three albums available again, especially in such attractively-packaged editions from Light In The Attic, all of which come complete with splendid, authoritative new liner notes and in excellent remastered sound.

David Kidman