If your reaction upon first hearing finger-picking, songwriting bluesman Michael Chapman is something like mine, you'll be wondering what the hell you've been doing with yor life before this musical revelation - all 20 plus albums of it, dating to his 1969 debut. It's a body of work as impressive as it is staggering. It's also a little intimidating. Which is what makes Chapman's latest album, Time Past And Time Passing, such a great listen.

   For one, its a highly approachable, a sheer joy to keep spinning into the rotation. But it also spans a wide range of textures and styles, putting on display Chapman's decades of accumulated wisdom and skill.

   A native of England's Leeds, Chapman first got attention playing the folk circuits of the British Isles in the late 1960s, appearing with other acclaimed guitarists and songwriters like Nick Drake, Roy Harper and John Martyn.

   And though he first found audiences in the folk clubs of that era, he has long insisted he is not a folk singer, but a songwriter who plays guitar. Still he'll come to Philly this Sunday with the help of the Philadelphia Folksong Society and play a gig at the Commodore Barry Club, not far from the group's headquarters in Mount Airy.

   Chapman is perhaps best known for his first four albums he released, with his first one Rainmaker coming out on the Harvest label. But it was 1970's follow - up, Fully Qualified Survivor, featuring Mick Ronson who went on to become David Bowie's axeman in the Ziggy Stardust era and Rick Kemp ( of Steeleye Span ), that established Chapman as a force on the English scene.

   That release, selected by influencial disc jockey John Peel as his best album of 1970, is still a classic today, and featured a strikingly original blend of full-band richness, intricate guitar instrumentals and Chapman's forlorn lyrics.

   It was an album that instantly put him alongside the likes of Pentangle's Bert Jansch, and won him praise for inventive guitar-playing that could well stand on it's own for it's complexity and beauty.

   Today, Chapman is still reveling in the seemingly boundless dimensions of his instrument, as is expressed magnificantly on Time Past And Time Passing, due out October 7th. Spanning more than an hour over 11 songs, the collection of new material was self-produced. From the first track, a split called "Strangers Map Of Texas / The Twisted Road", one gets the sense that Chapman has reached an easier, contemplative pace in his life, as a warm, sleepy finger-picked melody winds on for nearly three minutes before Chapman utters his first vocals. Even then his coarse voice seems just barely able to deliver the lines, telling us with no small dose of wisdom soaked melancholy, "I ain't never said it would be easy."

   He could have just as easily ended the song without the lyrics, making it a pleasant instrumental prelude. But this is where Chapman departs from many of the renowned guitarists he shares the "guitar legend" status with. He is not afraid to confine songs strictly to instrumental performance - his playing is that good, and shines through on numbers like the appropriately named "Faheys Dance." That number, named in honor of finger picking maverick John Fahey, father of the American Primative style that many have sought to emulate has plenty of Fahey in it. But is also gives Chapman a chance to show his aplomb on the strings, and like an old jazzman taking up his own variation on "St James Infirmary." Chapman takes Fahey's style and drives fast and hard, eventually pushing it's bluesy soul to a maddening pace before breaking down into a lopsided syncopation that will make you think your turntable has gone bad.

   That said, his vocals and lyrics act as a springboard to a whole other realm, where Chapman distinguishes himself all over again. With a voice that crackles like Cast King or Johnny Cash on his final A Hundred Highways, Chapman delivers a wallop of thought and emotion, as is the case with gems like "That Time of Night"

   "You know I don't get scared easy, but I do get scared. Cause you know it's that time of night, when nothing's going right."

   They are striking, almost terrifying words of desolation coming from a man who has spent decades wandering through the world of blues and is now finally coming into his twilight years. All across Time Past And Time Passing one finds a landscape of stunningly gorgeous compositions packed with bleak introspection and harmonious meditation, making it an album that is hard to put down or walk away from unshaken. Yes, it pushes you to see a world where the beautiful and sad are all twisted up in the same big mess, but it also restores a sense of love and appreciation for that mess and the journey it beckons of us.

   Playing with Chapman on his stateside tour is another young guitarist who got a boost fin his career from the attention and praise of Peel - Fishtown's Jack Rose. Rose recorded two sessions with Peel shortly before the legendary radio man passed away in 2004, and the finger-picking acoustic virtuoso will gladly admit that the recordings and airtime helped introduce him to a whole new set of European guitar fans.

   Look out for his latest release, I Do Play Rock And Roll, a collection of live songs recorded between 2004-06. Rose gives his classic compositions plenty of room to breathe and unwind - just as he will at the Commodore come Sunday evening.