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	Rainmaker		Navigation		Dangerous When Sober
	Fully Qualified Survivor		Dreaming Out Loud		Plaindealer
	Window		Americana		Time Past & Time Passing
	Pleasures Of The Street		The Twisted Road		Trainsong Guitar Compositions
	The Man Who Hated Mornings		Growing Pains		The Resurrection And Revenge Of
	Almost Alone		Americana 2
	Still Making Rain		Journeyman

Dreaming Out Loud Q: August 1997 Release Date: 30-Jun-1997

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Q Magazine

Michael Chapman is currently enjoying a mini-renaissance. For the past few years, the singer/guitarist has produced a series of increasingly confident albums in which his songwriting talent has again hit a productive stride. Additionally, he is touring extensively and his classic early work for Harvest is rumoured for a long-overdue retrospective. Dreaming Out Loud commences with the brief Overture From Strange Places (evoking Miles Davis circa On The Corner) before establishing a country gait for A Cowboy Phase. Michael multi-tracks himself on bass, percussion and keyboards but also gets a little help from several long-time friends including bassist Rick Kemp (on Vanity And Pride). Fool In The Night is the album's tour de force replete with passionate, wounded vocal and terrific guitar work (both electric and acoustic).

Reviewed by John Crosby

It Ain't So is an understated grumble of a song, feeding off an insistent minor riff; The North Will Rise unexpectedly introduces northern dissaffection to a reggae beat; while Hard Times has a riff and solo that recall Chapman's ex-guitarist, Mick Ronson. If anything, the ballads hit even harder, particularly Drinking Alone and the title track, where humanity and old-fashioned canniness produce a song to break hearts old and young.

Reviewed by Rob Beattie

This first-time-on-CD (and suitably expanded) reissue of Michael's 1981 release (originally on the Black Crow label and long since deleted) will certainly be welcomed by his fans, since it plugs another frustrating gap in the discography of currently available recordings of this superb musician. Following on from the critical success of his two albums Life On The Ceiling and Looking For Eleven at the end of the 70s, Almost Alone was then recorded in response to public demand at the time for an antidote to those two studio productions, a true solo album that reflected the experience of a typical Chapman live club gig with its relaxed ambience and wide-ranging repertoire. The album was recorded live, without the aid of a safety net, and Michael was indeed alone in the studio - aside that is from the necessary presence of engineer Nigel Pegrum. And a fine performance it captures too, with material dating from early albums (that perennial favourite Kodak Ghosts from Fully Qualified Survivor) through to the mid-70s Decca years (Dogs Got More Sense, Deal Gone Down, Northern Lights). The bonus tracks follow on from the album proper, and total some 24 minutes; they present part of a session segment recorded straight off radio (KBSK, Los Angeles) in 1981 - around half of the sequence is made up of two chunks of sufficiently revealing interview, the remainder live-in-the-radio-studio performances of tracks from the Almost Alone album (Falling Apart and the Fireside Hound/I'm Sober Now/Movie Theme/Nuages medley). Unfortunately, there's a glitch in the actual presentation of this reissue, which is confusing for two reasons: firstly, the track numbering is rather awry (tracks 2 through 5, the album version of the aforementioned medley, are all banded together as track 2, so all subsequent numbering is "out"), and secondly, although the back cover of the box lists "5 bonus tracks", they turn out to be only four in number and even then they're not itemised, neither there nor in the booklet. Those points aside, though, this is still an immensely valuable reissue that shows Michael's continuing, and incredibly consistent, artistry in the best possible light. And the sound quality's just fine too, especially considering that it was remastered from an unplayed vinyl copy (the original master tape having been lost).

David Kidman

A not-before-time re-release for this (not exactly seminal perhaps, but still high-quality) 1992 album of Michael's, originally released on the Making Waves imprint in 1993 and long thought by many to be irretrievably trapped within the vaults of Mr. Bulmer's Celtic Music empire. It can be termed an expanded reissue, which gives good value in supplementing the entire 48 minutes of the original album with four "bonus tracks from KBSK Radio, Los Angeles" (confusingly, these are referred to on the cover as being five in number, and then aren't listed anywhere else on the artwork or single insert sheet, which even omits the lyrics from the original issue.

All this is rather unhelpful, well unforgivable really - though, in partial mitigation, I understand that Voiceprint experienced problems with getting this reissue out, and that a "corrected version" - whatever that may imply - will be brought out in due course). The original Still Making Rain (title reflecting the artistic consistency with Michael's early releases) interspersed self-composed songs with deft, drifting, impressionistic instrumental pieces in typical MC fashion, the longevity of many of these being demonstrated by their continued presence in Michael's live sets even today. Songs like Falling From Grace and The Road To Senegal can be viewed as archetypal Chapman, in fact, though among the instrumental cuts the frustratingly truncated take on She Moves Thru The Fair is but a pithy blueprint for many an unforgettable live improvisation since.

Michael also takes the opportunity to sparsely revisit his classic Postcards Of Scarborough (from Fully Qualified Survivor), over twenty years on but still providing compulsive listening. The original album's ten tracks have been remixed for this reissue, and the resulting sound-picture is definitely sharper with noticeably more presence. As for the bonus radio cuts: well, for the record, they comprise Northern Lights, Wellington The Skellington, No Thanks To Me and Kodak Ghosts. And typically fine they are too, with Michael's characteristic presence and truly exceptional guitar playing well in evidence. Again unhelpfully, though, there's no indication anywhere of precise vintage, although I'd guess they're roughly contemporaneous with the original album. Shame about the careless presentation on what would otherwise be a wholly recommendable and most welcome reissue.

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