UK folk/psych legend Michael Chapman at 611 Florida, Sun

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Clavius Productions presents the first ever -- or first in decades -- DC show by legendary UK folk/psych singer/songwriter Michael Chapman:
 
 Sunday, November 13
 611 Florida Ave NW WDC
 http://www.claviusproductions.org
 8pm, $5 suggested donation
 202-360-9739 for more info
 BYOB!
 
 Michael Chapman (from the UK, has recorded for Harvest and Decca)
 Benjy Ferree (DC)
 Donny Hue & The Colors (DC)
 Adrian Carroll (of Shortstack, DC)
 
 
 Michael Chapman
 http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk/
 
 Michael Chapman first became known on the English folk circuit in 1967 and recorded a quartet of classic albums for EMI's Harvest label. These releases defined the melancholic observer role Michael was to make his own, mixing intricate guitar instrumentals with a full band sound. His influential album Fully Qualified Survivor, featuring the guitar of Mick Ronson and Rick (Steeleye Span) Kemp's bass, was John Peel's favourite album of 1970. Chapman's British peers included Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, and John Martyn. This might be his first ever DC appearance, as this is his first US tour in years.
 
 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 favourite album of 1970. Survivor featured the Chapman 'hit', "Postcards of Scarborough", a characteristically tenderly sour song recounting the feelings of nostalgia and regret.
 
 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.
 
 
 Benjy Ferree
 
 Hailing from DC, by way of Prince Georges County Maryland and parts unknown, Ferree embodies a back porch pop vibe on par with the lazier side of Beachwood Sparks and Jack White's acoustic forays. His songs rely on a keen understanding of the spiritual side of music from a variety of sources, from the honky tonk to the pulpit. Rarely playing outside of his DC bedroom, Ferree and friends recorded a blissful EP (mixed by Brendan Canty of Fugazi) due out October 1st.
 
 
 Upcoming at 611 Florida:
 
 11/25: Mikroknytes (DC/NYC violin/electronics duo)/Mountains (Apestaartje, electro-acoustic experimentalists from NYC)/Daniel Higgs (of Lungfish)/Sharks With Wings (Philly no-wave psych)
 
 January 2006: free jazz legend Arthur Doyle!

[snailhook]

for the four of you interested in these house shows, dave dunlap wrote a story on me and clavius productions:
 
 November 11, 2005
 Washington City Paper
 
 House Music
 By David Dunlap Jr.
 
 When Scott Verrastro needed a name for his latest musical enterprise, he looked to the movies. The outfit�??s moniker, Clavius Productions, comes from the name of the moon base where the second shrieking monolith was found in 2001: A Space Odyssey. �??The name ties into everything that I am doing,�?� says the 28-year-old. �??I wanted something that could convey the sound of that monolith�??something alien, indescribable. Heavy philosophical stuff.�?�
 
 Luckily for his neighbors, the noise emanating from Verrastro�??s house shows�??primarily free jazz, space rock, and folk music�??is less piercing than the one in Kubrick�??s film. That, Verrastro is quick to offer, was �??a work by György Ligeti, the experimental Hungarian composer.�?�
 
 His inaugural house show, however, did come pretty close to replicating a monolithic clamor. In February 2003, Verrastro was trying to find a venue for the Paul Flaherty�??Chris Corsano duo. �??I tried Now! Music and Black Cat, but no one wanted a free-jazz show,�?� says Verrastro. He ultimately decided to have the concert at his place, a three-story row house near U Street NW. Since that first time, Verrastro estimates, he has put on 26 house shows.
 
 Despite his day job as an editor and proofreader, Verrastro continues to tirelessly promote shows at such local venues as the Warehouse Next Door and DC9. However, not every band gets the official Clavius Productions imprimatur. �??About 75 percent of the shows are Clavius,�?� he says. �??No offense to the nice guys of Say Hi to Your Mom, but that wasn�??t a Clavius show.�?�
 
 And it�??s obvious that the house shows are particularly close to Verrastro�??s heart; he�??s created a venue for the fringe music he enjoys, where he and the musicians don�??t have to deal with a middleman taking a cut of the �??donation stocking�?� hung near the front door.
 
 �??You go to house shows and it�??s always hardcore and punk,�?� he says. �??People don�??t do house shows for this kind of music.�?�Verrastro has hosted everyone from fingerpicking acoustic guitarists Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, and Max Ochs to Kiwi noisemakers Birchville Cat Motel and Vancouver garage-thrashers S.T.R.E.E.T.S. �??One of the guys from S.T.R.E.E.T.S. actually skateboarded through the hall of the house during the show,�?� says Verrastro, �??which makes sense since their name stands for �??Skating Totally Rules Everything Else Totally Sucks.�??�?�
 
 Verrastro is inspired by the notorious acid tests of the �??60s. Perhaps the closest that he has come to re-creating that psychedelic hootenanny vibe is his Free Folk Phantasmagory festival, a daylong �??celebration of folk, psych, and improv.�?��??It�??s not as clichéd as it sounds,�?� he contends. �??I try and avoid any cheesy hippie connotations.�?�
 
 Verrastro�??s own space-rock outfit, Kohoutek, was one of 11 acts that played the second Free Folk Phantasmagory this past September. The band, whose sound is reminiscent of krautrockers Popol Vuh, has a self-titled release that�??s also under the Clavius Productions umbrella.But Verrastro isn�??t sure that Clavius will turn into a full-time label: �??Between booking, the day job, and a lack of funds, I can�??t afford to put anyone�??s fucking record out.�?�
 
 Verrastro certainly isn�??t getting rich with Clavius, and he�??s more concerned with reaching people and turning them on to good, weird music. �??We may be small and frustrated, but it�??s beautiful,�?� he says. �??I can�??t do this forever and sometimes wish someone else would pick up the slack.�?But then I think, Who else is going to do these kinds of shows?�?�
 
 So Verrastro will keep doing what he�??s doing and, like the music he houses, will improvise along the way.�??Who knows? Maybe next time, we�??ll have a stand-up comic, a juggler, and a firebreather,�?� he says.�??OK, maybe not the firebreather unless we put him out on the back porch.�?��??David Dunlap Jr.

[Ikarus]

yer such an attention whore.  it all has to  be about you, doesn't it?
 
 
 any truth to the rumor that kelly carmichael will be performing at 611?

[jeffnar]

any reports/feedback from sunday's Chapman show?

[shoot ur shot]

c'mon likorice, attention whoring is what makes the world go 'round. thousands of myspace subscribers can't be wrong??!!!1
 
 chapman gig was cool. he worked those fingers of magic and put a spell on everyone in the room(s). amazing display of technique,songwriting,and style. i tell you, there is no better hub for the intimate acoustic guitar style of music in the area.

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yer such an attention whore. it all has to be about you, doesn't it? any truth to the rumor that kelly carmichael will be performing at 611?

hey man, being humble gets you nowhere! i did ask kelly to play 611 a couple of months ago, but he asks for too much money. unless he's willing to play for $100, i can't give him a show...people just don't come out enough for me not to lose my ass.
 
   

any reports/feedback from sunday's Chapman show?

michael chapman was absolutely astonishing last night. i've seen a lot of sets by singer-songwriter/guitarists, and this was on an equal plane to richard thompson and townes van zandt. chapman's fingerpicking is virtuosic and even if he didn't write great lyrics and sang in his bluesy ragged voice, he could dazzle as an instrumentalist like john fahey or jack rose. but he does write incredible songs, so the package is complete. i'm not just saying this because i'm a fan and the guy illuminated my living room; chapman really should be considered in the upper echelon of songwriters. he played for an hour, and every song told a detailed story, and every note plucked was deliberate, yet full of heart and soul. he played a few songs from the harvest records, an ode to fahey, and a bunch of new songs that sound timeless.
 
 he's having a good time on his first american tour since 1971 and will likely be back. instead of 20 people at my house, there should be 500 at the birchmere to see him. anyone who's into neil young, thompson, waits, van zandt, cohen, nick drake, bert jansch, etc, should really make the effort to seek his records out.