Michael Chapman - Americana I & II (Reissue) (2000-2002/2019)

Chapman has long had a fascination, not just with American music, but the American South and West. So an album explicitly inspired by the country should come as no surprise. The joy is how much it highlights his fabulous guitar picking. "Sweet Little Friend from Georgia" and "Coming of the Roads" might seem relatively straightforward, but the more epic "Swamp" and "Gaddo's Lake" delve into decidedly complex territory; in fact, the impressionistic "Swamp" is probably the record's centerpiece. As an instrumental portrait of the southern states it's loving, very finely honed, and played in a way that reminds you that Chapman is one of the best, and most undervalued, guitarists around. Even if "Jumping Geordie" has its origins on the other side of the Atlantic, it still fits in. For longtime fans, "Indian Annie's Kitchen" brings back some memories of "Kodak Ghosts," and throughout small touchstones of blues, country, and jazz slip by. A comparison to Ry Cooder-most especially some of his soundtrack work-might not be too amiss, except that Chapman is looking in from the outside, and is, possibly, a more gifted player.
This combination of Michael Chapman's two Americana albums is where his renaissance really begins, with some wonderful, thoughtful guitar work on the acoustic-exactly what he does so well, taking ideas and playing with them. He's a great picker, and one whose relaxed style readily evokes long afternoons in the American South. There's nothing to choose above anything else on the two discs-in fact, putting them together is completely natural. Chapman can be impressionistic, as on "Swamp" or "Blues for the Mother Road," but also quite straightforward-witness "The Coming of the Roads" or the brief "Dust Devils." The lovely thing about this record is that it falls outside any easy categorization. It's not quite folk, not alt-country, and not easy listening (although it's easy to listen to). Instead, it perhaps stands among the pantheon of new pickers, the ones who could be the Windham Hill of the new millennium. But there's plenty of depth to every piece of music here, the sign of a craftsman at the top of his trade.