...you probably don't want to miss Michael Chapman and the Black Twig Pickers at Avant-Fairfax tomorrow. Anyone who loves Neil Young, Richard Thompson, Bert Jansch, Tom Waits, Nick Drake, John Fahey, etc., should absolutely NOT ignore this rare opportunity to see one of the world's best, though unheralded, singer/songwriters and guitarists. And if you're into bluegrass and traditional Appalachia, the Black Twig Pickers sound like a trio of crusty old mountain men from West Virginia. Chapman goes on at 9, and the Twigs at 10:30, so you can plan accordingly if you don't want to see the damaged noise and elevated psych that will bookend these exceptional performers. And you can't go wrong with the price: pay what you want!
Info on Chapman and Black Twigs below, as well as the link to Avant-Fairfax:
http://www.myspace.com/avantfairfaxMichael Chapmanhttp://www.michaelchapman.co.uk/The guitar and voice of Michael Chapman first became known on the Cornish 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 guitar of Mick Ronson 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 British peers included Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, and John Martyn.
A label change to Decca brought a change in sound. Electric guitar, still with that distinctive Chapman fluidity, featured more prominently. Tracks like "New York Ladies" and "Firewater Dreams" on Millstone Grit showed a guitar master pursuing sounds and textures. Michael continued to build his live reputation, touring solo and with a variety of groups, recording the live album Pleasures of the Streets, a strong mix of solo and band performances. He was a regular session contributor to Radio One, and BBC TV broadcast two Chapman Band performances as part of their Sight and Sound series.
A lively and accomplished improviser, Michael gained a reputation for re-working material, both before an audience and on record. Songs were seen as standards, themes to be explored, extended, and varied on stage and in the studio. The Don Nix-produced Savage Amusement featured versions of the Chapman songs "Shuffleboat River Farewell" and "It Didn't Work Out." Different musicians and a different sound breathed new life into earlier material, showing Michael to be a jazz musician in spirit if not in sound. The Man Who Hated Mornings showed the respect Michael commanded among musicians with supporting performances from Andy Latimer of Camel, Keith Hartley, and violinist Johnny Van Derek.
1978 brought another label change and the release of Playing Guitar The Easy Way, a guitar tutorial record that explained in simple terms, methods of playing the guitar using 12 different instrumental pieces each with a different open tuning. The critically well-received albums, Life On The Ceiling and Looking For Eleven, showed that Michael had fully absorbed elements of rock as he had done folk during the '60s, to produce a hybrid that mixed folk, jazz phrasing, rock, and elements of what became known as New Age Music.
In response to public demand, Michael recorded a solo album Almost Alone, presenting the relaxed eclectic mix that was a Chapman club gig. The '80s saw Michael back with Rick Kemp. Touring as a duo they released the live album Original Owners, whose version of "Shuffleboat River Farewell," stripped back to guitar and bass, showed that old dogs could teach new tricks. Anyone hearing the anger of the newer material, coupled with the volume and energy of the Chapman Kemp band Savage Amusement, formed in the mid-'80s, was left in no doubt that here was an elder statesman growing more acid, rather than mellower with age. After a period of reflection and lower-profile releases, Michael captured the mood of the time with his '87 album Heartbeat, a groundbreaking thematic album featuring a continuous 38-minute piece of music. This was an ambition made possible by the advent of CDs.
Experiments with sequencers and sampling on the '90s track "Geordies Down The Road," an anthem to the death of employment in the North East, assaulted the listener with foundry atmospherics and industrial guitars, showing that Michael wasn't standing still. The albums Still Making Rain and '95's Navigation presented a man whose world-weary voice, given a patina by life and hard living, delivered sensitive, emotional songs. While aware of his past, reinterpreting his hit "Postcards of Scarborough," Michael looked to the future. The playing was more considered than ever before. Fewer notes and space for music to breathe, gave songs like "The Mallard" and "It Ain't So" an almost hymn-like intensity. 1995 also saw the publishing of Michael's first novel "Firewater Dreams," a thinly veiled autobiography, which fleshed out some of his highly personal songs and explored his themes of regret, travel, and loneliness. Reviews of his recent album Navigation show the high regard for Michael Chapman: Mojo 11/95 "Twenty-one albums and he is still amazing"; Q 12/95 "**** (four stars out of a possible five) and his best album in years." Dreaming Out Loud followed again to good reviews. Twisted Road with the brilliant "Memphis in Winter" closed the century with reviewers calling it a return to the standard of Fully Qualified Survivor 30 years earlier. The new century brought two live albums, a series of reissues, and retrospectives with the Growing Pains series, documenting early live recordings and archive material. Travels in the USA and a love of photography informed Americana and Americana 2, instrumental snapshots with stunning sleeves and breathtaking guitar playing.
This self-styled old white blues guy from Yorkshire is one of the most underrated heroes of our time. With his uniquely English melancholic perspective and emotive guitar style he deserves wider recognition.
The Black Twigshttp:///www.blacktwigpickers.org
http://www.klang.orgStarting in a dark alley between the campers at the 1999 Galax Old Fiddlers Convention and named for an archaic apple variety from founding fiddler Ralph Berrier Jr.?s family orchard, the Black Twig Pickers? fiddle/banjo/guitar/washboard/whatsis racket has sounded in dives, barns, streets and dances from Amsterdam to Atlanta. Black Twigs CDs are available through our site below, at vhfrecords.com or midheaven.com, at itunes, emusic and at your finer establishments of the brick-and-mortar variety.
Check out songs on this page, at
www.blacktwigpickers.org and at
www.vhfrecords.com.
Schedule, news, promo/booking material and info on other Klang Industries family bands at
www.blacktwigpickers.org and
www.klang.org.
Midnight Has Come and Gone is the third CD by this Southwest Virginia group, and is another set of classic old-time, country blues, and Appalachian folk. Since 2003's
Soon One Morning, the Black Twig trio of Mike Gangloff, Ralph Berrier, and Isak Howell has expanded to a quartet with the addition of bassist Mike Gayheart.
Midnight Has Come and Gone is made up of mostly of original material, road tested at gigs and festivals along the Blue Ridge. Topical stormers like "Fire in the Stove" and "Blood Red Clay" are live staples, belted out here in a virtuoso hail of guitar, fiddle, banjo, and rough harmony. In contrast to the more trad-sounding fare, the grungy and twisting "Bent Mountain Drag" recalls "Beggar's"-era Rolling Stones. Continuing the Black Twig tradition of beautiful instrumentals, "Twilight on the Radford Army Ammunition Plant" is another hymn-like meditation outside the showy-offy bluegrass tradition. "Original Natural Bridge Blues" is a song from 1941, which has been recorded in an incomplete fashion by many groups over the years. Ralph's discovery of the original 1940s sheet music in a family photo album (detailed in the liner notes) revealed a lost verse, presented here for the first time. (VHF Records)
