When U.K. guitarist and songwriter
Michael Chapman
released
50
, his
Paradise of Bachelors
debut in 2017, he'd long wanted to make an Americana album. He teamed with
PoB
stalwarts
Steve Gunn
,
James Elkington
, and
Jimy Seitang
, with longtime associate
Bridget St. John
lending her gorgeous plaintive vocals in support. Consisting of three new songs and completely revisioned selections from his catalog, it actually sounded (a lot) like he was fronting a rootsy indie rock band.
True North
couldn't be more of a contrast. This is almost a full-circle return to his earliest years as a recording artist; musically it charts directly from 1969's
Rainmaker
and 1970's
Fully Qualified Survivor
.
couldn't be more organic.
Gunn
returns as producer, plays lead guitar, and alternates with
Chapman
on bass and drums (the latter used sparingly at best).
's glorious, innovative, mantra-like fingerstyle playing guides every song, and with the exception of two fine instrumentals -- "Eleuthera" and "Caddo Lake" -- his ravaged, grizzled vocals undergird that authority. Along with
St. John
is present, as is pedal steel legend
B.J. Cole
and cellist
Sarah Smout
. These 11 songs are preoccupied with time, its all-too-fleeting passage, uncertainties, betrayals, and the regrets it imposes. Opener "It's Too Late" rumbles into being with a bass-string-accented 12-string played in a minor key. A brooding, slightly menacing spoken-sung lyric looks back at what might have been, but due to concealed choices, can no longer come to pass.
's electric slide chimes in amid cello, atmospheric steel, and the constant, plodding monotone rasp in
's vocal. "After All This Time" is among the most beautiful and wrenching ballads
's ever written. Laced with subtle psychedelic production, strummed acoustic guitars are kissed by hovering keys, lithe cello, and wafting electric guitar, as the lyric expresses tenderness and affirmation with the acknowledgment of life's impermanence. In "Vanity Pride,"
's Zen look at history, mystery, regret, and wisdom, are charted in early Brit-folk trappings. "Truck Song" shines as the whole band frames
's searing, poetic lyric with lush accents tempered by rounded edges. The singer's voice becomes its own bassline as he juxtaposes physical apparitions with emotional ghosts.
Smout
's cello borrows inspiration from
Nick Drake
's "Hazy Jane I," in the margin, while
and
Cole
paint the middle in subtle shades of blue. There are modal folk-blues to inform "Hell to Pay," while the set comes full-circle on "Youth Is Wasted on the Young," a drifting paean to mistakes and what's been tragically left undone at the end, as whining reverbed pedal steel, sonant cello, and
's simple strum accent his poignant words. Truth be told,
is even stronger than the excellent
. Here
obviously revels in his continued ability to mine the emotional, psychological, and spiritual terrain he did in his younger years as a songwriter, while adding experiential depth to his approach through a lifetime of profound musical development. In an enormous catalog,
stands straight-up alongside his finest recordings. ~ Thom Jurek