Michael Chapman
Michael Chapman
Admiral Bar, Glasgow
Rob Adams
"THE good thing about the list," says Michael Chapman, "is that I'm not on it - yet." No, we don't want Mr Chapman on the list. As a guitarist he's certainly up there with the listed Bert Jansch, Davy Graham and John Fahey. They, however, have departed and Chapman, at 73, is still demonstrating a guitar talent that's by turns creative, mesmerising and so steady that his right thumb could get a gig as a drummer in a dance band.
Chapman's songs may not go to the places that people who borrow them suggest - one deeply spiritual lyric, according to the cover version, turns out to have been inspired by duff plumbing - and Chapman's introductions have long since been part of his appeal anyway. Like his tale of the well-dressed woman of a certain age who approaches him in a Leeds bookshop and reminds him that they were married for four years, or his vouchsafing of an extant video showing the aforementioned Fahey trying to play guitar and doff his coat simultaneously.
Okay, that one preceded an instrumental, Fahey's Flag (don't ask), but his bottleneck guitar sang so descriptively that it didn't need Chapman's careworn voice to add further layers.
Just Another Story, about a woman living in a trailer park with a dead-end job and a dead-end life, painted a sympathetic portrait and, among a repertoire that stretched back to his second album (the classic Fully Qualified Survivor), Mallard, the most laid-back song ever about a train, was as magnificent as its inspiration and La Madrugada was a perfect combination of guitar craft and musical impressionism.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article