50

While there are hacksaw marks here and there, 50 is a finely turned piece that surveys the looming thunderclouds of mortality and the biblical gloom of the times, and – quietly, unshowily – transcends both.

Extraordinarily, over a nearly 50-year recording career featuring guitar work infused with all manner of American jazz, blues and ragtime influences, Michael Chapman had never before recorded an American album – a situation rectified here with a combo of younger devotees attracted by his burgeoning reputation as a surviving master guitarist to rival John Fahey.

Even as it draws on new and old songs, 50 presents a startlingly current and nearly apocalyptic vision of America; it’s album full of brimstone and brine, perhaps more perfect for this moment in history than we’d like to admit.

Chapman is an artist who has never had a problem with upending creative expectations, and if 50 isn't the sort of music many of his longtime fans would expect from him, it's also passionate, literate, and the work of an artist who wants to make the most of his late-era career. Not many artists sound this determined and engaged, especially at the age of 75.

So while perhaps not the late career classic one might almost feel obliged to review, 50 adds a welcome ellipsis to an astonishing career of a musician who has not only tackled a myriad of genres but has also embraced (and continues to) the changes and developments of the modern music era.