Pure Chapman
IAN R COX | Bovey Tracey, Devon United Kingdom | 04/13/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Let's be honest here, Michael Chapman is rarely 'easy listening' - his songs contain tension and hardness and genuine raw emotion. I saw him playing across a couple of years back in the early 70's in a hall in Newquay, Cornwall. The second time I took a tape recorder and caught the show and played that live version of Among The Trees with its brilliant instrumental break until the tape either broke or got lost. So what pleasure to find that self-same instrumental sitting on this CD! And even more pleasure to hear this version of the awesome In the Valley - for me both these tracks eclipse the much-vaunted Postcards from Scarboro and these versions are, IMHO, better than their studio versions - I've learned from this CD that Mr C is really best experienced live - hopefully I'll renew that experience one day - in the meantime I'll wheel out this great, live CD. Thank the lord for G13, and especially thank him for connecting that tuning to Michael Chapman!"