Name: 50
Brand: Michael Chapman

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

POB029CD

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2017-01-20

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

616892414544

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

POB029LP

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Standard:20

616892414445

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Michael Chapman

Genre GB

Folk

Label GB

Paradise of Bachelors

Michael Chapman was an English singer-songwriter and guitarist born on 24 January 1941 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. He was a self-taught musician who started his musical journey playing in skiffle bands, strip clubs, and jazz trios while paying his way through art college. Chapman gained recognition on the Cornwall acoustic scene after leaving his teaching job at Bolton College of Art. His career took off when he impressed a pub crowd with his guitar skills during a rainy night in the late 1960s.

In 1967, Chapman emerged on the London and Cornwall folk music circuits alongside renowned artists like John Martyn and Roy Harper. He released his debut album in 1969 under Harvest label and went on to release three more albums with them. After parting ways with Harvest, Chapman signed with Deram Records where he experimented with electric guitar and harder rhythms in his work.

The 1980s marked a quieter period for Chapman as he continued recording for smaller record labels and performing on the folk and club circuits. However, towards the late 1990s, he experienced a rebirth in his career receiving critical acclaim for his albums and earning praise from performers like Thurston Moore and Supergrass. In addition to song-based sets, Chapman also explored instrumental albums rooted in his guitar playing background during the 2000s.

Paradise of Bachelors is a record label, company, and archive based in North Carolina. With a passion for preserving and promoting *authentic* music, the label has become a trusted source for music enthusiasts worldwide.

Founded with the aim of supporting independent artists and showcasing their talent, Paradise of Bachelors has built a reputation for releasing high-quality records across various genres. From folk to country, blues to rock, the label's diverse roster ensures there is something for every music lover.

With an unwavering commitment to exceptional sound quality and artistic integrity, Paradise of Bachelors consistently delivers unique listening experiences. By collaborating closely with its artists throughout the creative process, the label fosters an environment that allows musicians to fully express themselves.

After five decades of recording and touring, veteran British songwriter and guitar sage Michael Chapman has finally made what he calls his "American record," and the aptly titled 50 now stands as his late career masterwork, a moving legacy statement by a legend. Backed by a collaborative group of friends and acolytes - Steve Gunn (who also produced), Nathan Bowles (Pelt, Black Twig Pickers), James Elkington (Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson), Jason Meagher (No-Neck Blues Band), Jimy SeiTang (Rhyton), and fellow UK songwriting luminary Bridget St John - Chapman tears into both bold renderings of new songs and radical reinterpretations of material from his revered catalog, the crack band adeptly scaling the same rarefied sonic heights of classic Harvest albums like Fully Qualified Survivor, guided by a true survivor's instinct, wit, and wisdom. The result is a sublime chiaroscuro self-portrait, more shadow than light, as an invigorated Chapman wrestles with weighty themes of t ravel, memory, mortality, and redemption, his world-weary whispers assuming the incandescent power of prophecy. The deluxe LP package includes tip-on jacket, printed inner sleeve, lyrics, and download card with two bonus tracks; the CD features a gatefold jacket, lyrics, and two non-LP bonus tracks. The album includes both radical reinterpretations of obscure material from Michael’s catalog as well as three new compositions: Sometimes You Just Drive, Money Trouble, and Rosh Pina. A longstanding but freshly urgent preoccupation with (as Michael sings in a beloved early tune) “time past and time passing” is evident straightaway, from the album title and the first line of the first song through the final lyric of the record. Never before in his storied career has Chapman gazed so steadily into the abyss of time lost and regained; never before has he engaged so intimately with his legacy and the changing meanings of his own music over time. That he manages to do so without succumbing to nostalgia or sentimentality bears testament to the steely fortitude of his ruminative, tough-minded songs, which survey both inscape and landscape with the same stoical detachment. With 50, Chapman faces mortality with both guitar and chainsaw in hand, and endures. It’s the unguarded sound of Orpheus descending, the snake riding the guitar down the river Styx and returning upstream to tell his story.

Music GB