S/D: Richard Thompson

Billy Bragg was supporting, and he was pretty good too.

those reissues are really pricey (in the states) and i am allergic to arbitrary bonus tracks.

"henry the human fly" is underrated. i like it as much as the records that followed. it is going to be reissued later this month, so head's up.

he has a sizable following in the states partly because he is a very dependable concert artist.

"Shoot Out the Lights" hasn't been mentioned much on here; it is
excellent, but the R & L sound is more 'generic' than those 72-75 records, which have a ripe, sweet feel to them that "Shoot" tramples down. It's 'mature rock'. But bloody good.

also i still have really mixed feelings about linda's voice.

i've never seen a morris dance. the illustrations of "burr men" etc. on "liege and lief" are ace. but overall my love for fairport has really waned. i like "what we did on our holidays" and "unhalfbricking" more than "l&l" i think.

Search: ALL of the live "guitar vocal," especially the smoldering workouts on "Calvary Cross" and "Night Comes In." Song favorites: "When I Get To the Border," "I'll Regret It All in the Morning," "Beeswing."

Someone needs to compile a definitive list of RT's guest appearances (actually, I'm sure some obsessive fan already has). Some nice ones: mandolin bit on John Martyn's "Over the Hill," the entire "Rise Up Like the Sun" album by the Albion Band, "Blackwaterside" off Sandy Denny's "Northstar Grassmen," "Claudy Banks" by Shirley Collins, SO many more.

Anybody rate the second French Frith Kaiser Thompson LP? I've never heard that one.

Good to hear love for 'The Old Kit Bag', which I'm still enjoying. The power trio really suits him, and it's nice to hear a Christine Collister-surrogate again. I'll Tag Along, Gethsemane, Pearly Jim, and Word Unspoken, Sight Unseen stand out the most. Mock Tudor, on the other hand, is, well, almost without redemption. It's his only album since Sunnyvista that I'd delete wholesale.

If possible, track down the live versions of When the Spell Has Broken and Aint Gonna Drag My Feet No More from the Watching The Dark collection(which should be on your x-mas list anyway).

http://www.richardthompson-music.com/catch_of_the_day.asp?id=90

That version of "Calvary Cross" must be the same one on the boxed set. "Devonside" is an amazingly sad song. "Great Valerio" is another favorite of mine.

Sean; his 'Kiss', by Prince is incredible. find it.

post Linda output hit or miss, definitely mostly miss after rumor and sigh.

Basically, if he's wearing a beret on the cover art, buyer beware!!

Unhalbricking
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Pour Down Like Silver
Shoot Out the Lights
Henry the Human Fly
"Calvery Cross" (live)
"Sloth"

All Good

Fairport Convention (aka What We Did on our Holidays)
Hand of Kindness
Amnesia
Industry
The French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson Albums

Half Good

Liege and Lief
Rumour and Sigh
1000 Years of Popular Music

No Good

First Light
Sunnyvista

For Fans

Pretty much everything else

Waltzing's for Dreamers
Happy Days and Auld Lang Syne
Turning of the Tide
Tempted cover

RT songs that are pretty well regarded but that I still think are good:

Gethsemane
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Kiss cover

RT songs that I have a soft spot in my heart for but which I think may very well be overrated by now:

52 Vincent Black Lightning
Beeswing

WTF???!!! It's only the pinnacle of English folk rock (Along with No Roses natch)

Well, that's what they all tell us

Anyone have anything to say about the new album Sweet Warrior yet?

Saw Richard Thompson last night, apparently the first time he's played in NYC in five years (though I recall him doing some free outdoor shows close to his Montclair, NJ home back when lockdown was somewhat lifted and everyone was socially distancing). I realized in retrospect how many of his greatest songs weren't in the setlist, and it's a credit to their performance that it never came to mind - even the new songs from their latest album (which I haven't really heard) came off great. And Teddy also joined him for an encore - the two were beaming the whole time, it was really wonderful to see. Richard's grandson, Zak Hobbs, was also on guitar, my first time seeing him, and he's quite a player himself! Highly recommended if you haven't seen RT in a while.

Missed it! But thanks for the report

Last (only) time I saw Richard was at Central Park Summerstage ages ago

Last (only) time I saw Teddy was when he joined Rufus Wainwright at The Theater at MSG when Rufus opened for Roxy Music.

Seeing him tonight in DC. Did RT do some extended guitar workouts?

He solos quite a bit, but I don't remember any of them being of epic length - not short, but don't expect him to solo for several minutes straight. He's more likely to trade phrases with Zak.

That's how it was at the Boston show last week too. Zak is great. There was great soloing on 'Hard On Me'. I did wish every solo was longer!

I kind of wonder if age is a factor? (He'll be 76 in April.) I actually said hello to him after the show, and at one point, when he signed an album for someone, it looked like he needed help taking off the marker cap, like it was on too tight. I kind of wondered if his fingers were actually spent because he kept holding his hands up a bit and letting them spread open as if he needed to relax the joints. Even if the solos were pretty succinct, he was still playing virtually non-stop for over two-hours with a lot of picking rather than strumming.

Loved last night’s show—he had a five minute guitar break on “Hard on Me” and other great moments. Great band too.

age has gotta catch up with him sometime, but he seems like he's a very healthy guy compared to a lot of his peers. seeing him in boulder next week — cannot wait.

Hard to think of many other artists who have been around as long as Thompson and have kicked ass pretty much their entire careers.

Also, guitarists who are electric *and* acoustic virtuosos.

YES and let's not forget his voice is doing great too.

Yeah I was also marveling that his voice still holds up. I might go to see Nick Lowe tonight but based on his new album his voice has not held up…

nick lowe is very much the worse for wear as live performer, but Richard has not deteriorated one bit in any way. I saw him this past tuesday, and while he sounded fantastic, to me the real thrill was watching his grandsons total command of Richard's fingerstyle/pick technique, which is common otherwise only in country, and is not a style i've ever seen anyone play in real time other than Richard. I think it must be really exciting for him to have this kid, whose mother Muna is the Richard/Linda child to not to have gone into show business, be such a burning little bastard of a player, since Teddy and Kamila have not chosen to pursue shredding.

I just finished listening to two sets of three-CD bootlegs: one with Linda from 1982 at the Bottom Line and another from 1985 at Ann Arbor, MI, all with a full band (and apparently bootlegged from pristine soundboard sources - I got these years ago from a CD-R trade and have long forgotten the lineage). The biggest change between Richard then and now is that he no longer works himself into a fury when he's singing the likes of "I Ain’t Going to Drag My Feet No More" and "Man in Need" - it's as if later on he found some kind of solemn or stoic approach to anger which is what we hear now.

Thompson’s band is great and his drummer has such a weird career: backing RT but also Slash and drumming for Better Than Ezra

Just saw that Richard Thompson had a fall and broke three ribs. It sounds like he'll be okay, but unfortunately he won't be doing shows for a little while. (He just cancelled an upcoming festival appearance for this reason.)

Ugh. Another thread I don't want to see bumped (even though he seems generally healthy).

Same! Breathed easier when I saw it hadn't been updated for 11 hours.

Three ribs! That’s painful. Hope he gets well soon

Took his chances on the wheel of death apparently

* wall

He probably doesn’t feel so good.

back on the road again, albeit playing seated for the moment. I'm sure he'll be leaping around the stage again soon enough.

In all seriousness, I'm not sure if I've ever seen Richard do anything but stand in place while playing his guitar, either in-person or on film and videotape, going back to the early '70s. I can't even recall him tapping his foot or moving his leg to the beat.

seriously, he really leapt through the air several times at the show I saw last year

Let us not forget the 1999 rock armada tour where some of Robyn Hitchcock’s all time best shows happened with him sitting in a chair

And he didn’t even die two weeks later.

Or so you THINK! (create your own conspiracy here)