Michael Chapman — Deal Gone Down [Extended Edition] (2015)

    ^{Michael Chapman — Deal Gone Down [Extended Edition]}
•»   Deluxe extended version of the 1974 album from Michael Chapman featuring 6 bonus tracks and sleeve notes.
•»   Greatly talented yet hugely underrated British folk singer and songwriter since the late ‘60s.
Birth name: Michael Robert Chapman
Born: January 24, 1941 in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Location: Leeds, England, UK
Album release: 1974 / 2015
Record Label: Secret Records
Duration:
Tracks:
01. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Jigley 
02. Party Pieces 
03. Another Season Song 
04. Stranger Passing By 
05. Used To Be 
06. Deal Gone Down 
07. The Banjo Song 
08. Theme From The Movie Of The Same Name 
09. Goodbye Sunny Sky 
10. Journeyman 
Bonus tracks:
11. Dumplings (Instrumental)
12. Stranger Passing By (Demo)
13. Theme From The Movie Of The Same Name (Demo)
14. Goodbye Sunny Sky (Demo)
15. Untitled Rag (Demo)
16. Journeyman  (Demo)
•»   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. 
•»   Chapman has played all kinds of venues throughout his career depending on the project in hand. He alternated between playing solo and being backed by a band — sometimes featuring Hull–born Mick Ronson and, like here,  Steeleye Span’s Rick Kemp.
•»   By his own (gleeful) admission, Michael did his fair share of rock’n’roll living during the 1970s. The 1980s saw him going out as a duo, Savage Amusement, with Rick Kemp, and then in 1987, he released the innovative ‘Heartbreak’ album featuring a 38–minute long track. He remained prolific throughout the 1990s, experimenting with sampling and sequencers in order to create musical atmospheres that capture his wry and gritty picture of life. Which is further proof that, having travelled the world in search of inspiration, Michael Chapman remains consummately the English folk–blues man.
•»   This album echoes back to Chapman’s first EMI album ‘Rainmaker’ and features Nigel Pegrum and Rick Kemp of Steeleye Span fame, and Maddy Prior and Bridget St. John on backing vocals. Highlights include the brilliant and bluesy ‘The Banjo Song’, the laidback autobiographical number ‘Journeyman’,  the glorious guitar work on ‘Party Pieces’ and the often revisited ‘Theme From The Movie Of The Same Name’.
•»   http://www.secretrecordslimited.com/
Website: http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.chapman.9085
Discography:
•»   Rainmaker (1969) — Harvest
•»   Fully Qualified Survivor (1970) — Harvest — UK No. 45
•»   Window (1971) — Harvest
•»   Wrecked Again (1971) — Harvest
•»   Millstone Grit (1973) — Deram / Decca
•»   Deal Gone Down (1974) — Deram / Decca
•»   Pleasures of the Street (1975) — Nova
•»   Savage Amusement (1976) — Deram / Decca
•»   The Man Who Hated Mornings (1977) — Deram
•»   Play Guitar The Easy Way (1978) — Criminal Records
•»   Life on the Ceiling (1979) — Criminal Records
•»   Looking For Eleven (1980) — Criminal Records
•»   Almost Alone (1981) — Black Crow Records
•»   Original Owners (1983) — Konnexion
•»   Heartbeat (1987) — Coda
•»   Still Making Rain (1991/3) — Self Release 1991 / Making Waves 1993
•»   Navigation (1995) — Planet Records
•»   Dreaming Out Loud (1997) — Demon Records
•»   Michael Chapman Black And White (1998) — Rural Retreat Records
•»   BBC Sessions 69–75 (1998) — Strange Fruit Records
•»   The Twisted Road (1999) — Mystic UK
•»   Growing Pains (2000) — Mooncrest Records
•»   Growing Pains 2 (2002) — Mooncrest Records
•»   Americana (2001) — Apropos / reissued on Blueprint
•»   Live And Unhinged (2001) — Rural Retreat Records
•»   Kule 2 B Blue with Alamo Leal (2001) — Rural Retreat Records
•»   Dogs Got More Sense (2004) — Secret Records
•»   Journeyman Live DVD (2004) — Secret Records
•»   27 06 05 Live in Brighton (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•»   Plaindealer (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•»   Lost (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•»   Words Fail Me (2007)
•»   Vanity and Pride (2008) — self release — limited edition — Michael Chapman and Ursa
•»   Sweet Powder (2008) — Rural Retreat Records
•»   Time Past & Time Passing (2008) — Electric Ragtime
•»   And Then There Were Three Live in Nottingham 1977 (2010) — Market Square Records
•»   Wrytree Drift (2010) — Rural Retreat Records
•»   Fully Qualified Survivor (Reissue) (2011) — Light in the Attic Records
•»   The Resurrection and Revenge of The Clayton Peacock (2011) — Blastfirst Petite
•»   Pachyderm (2012) — Blastfirst Petite
•»   The Polar Bear (2014) — Blastfirst Petite
Short bio:
•»   Chapman had previously worked as an art and photography teacher, playing folk music in Yorkshire. He first appeared on the London and Cornwall folk music circuits in 1967, alongside John Martyn and Roy Harper. His first album was Rainmaker in 1969. The producer was Gus Dudgeon who also produced records by Elton John, David Bowie, Steeleye Span and many others. Rainmaker was released on the Harvest label, and Chapman played the folk and progressive circuits during the festivals of the early 1970s, with Mick Ronson, Rick Kemp and Keef Hartley.
•»   He recorded a further three albums for Harvest. Fully Qualified Survivor again produced by Gus Dudgeon with lush strings arranged by Paul Buckmaster which received much critical acclaim from the likes of BBC Radio 1 DJ, John Peel, and contained his best–known track, “Postcards of Scarborough”. Window and Wrecked Again followed, the latter being Chapman's attempt at a Memphis, Tennessee album. •»   Brass arrangements featured on biographical tracks like “Shuffleboat River Farewell” and the title track. After a tour of the United States with Rick Kemp, Chapman signed to Decca’s subsidiary, Deram, recording an increasingly rockier set of albums. Championed by Charles Shaar Murray and John Peel he retained a high profile, a lively draw on the college circuit in the UK and across mainland Europe.
•»   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Chapman_(singer)
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Michael Chapman — Deal Gone Down [Extended Edition] (2015)

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