response 26 of 51:

Oct 17 22:42 UTC 1999

Ah, Richard Thompson. At Hill. I'll be there. (I don't mind cramped. As long
as I never have to usher the Folk Festival again.)

response 28 of 51:

Oct 29 05:08 UTC 1999

  Wanna buy mine?

response 30 of 51:

Oct 29 09:08 UTC 1999

  There's not much for me to like on the new RT album, it might as well
  go to someone who will, if not actually enjoy it, at least listen to it..

response 32 of 51:

Feb 22 00:07 UTC 2000

Richard Thompson is booked for The Ark in Ann Arbor: Sunday, March 26.

response 34 of 51:

Aug 7 05:48 UTC 2000

  When you say "the classic 70s albums" are you talking about the
  really classic ones, like "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight"
  and "Pour Down Like Silver"?  Or just their lesser work from that
  period..  I presume this includes RT solo stuff without Linda,
  such as "Henry the Human Fly" and "Small Town Romance"?

response 36 of 51:

Aug 9 15:58 UTC 2000

I was at the Richard Thompson show at the Ark in March and I was
thoroughly impressed.  As one who discovered him only with rumor and
Sigh, I have much less to compare the new stuff to, but he ranks as one
of my faves and has done for the entire eight or nine years of my affair
with his music.

response 38 of 51:

Aug 9 18:45 UTC 2000

  re #36:  You should definitely check out his recordings prior to 
  "Rumour and Sigh" before they become unavailable (temporarily, one
  must hope..)  

response 40 of 51:

Mar 10 05:56 UTC 2001

Richard Thompson is on the cover of the magazine DIRTY LINEN.
I haven't had a chance to read it yet, we just got back from Borders.
The occasion for the cover is the release of a "Best of the Capitol
Years" collection, drawing on his five albums for that label since
1988.  (Five albums in 13 years, whine...)

response 42 of 51:

Mar 14 02:11 UTC 2001

Some quick and unorganized thoughts on the show last night:

  I couldn't talk anyone into going to the Richard Thompson concert with
  me last night, so I went alone.  I've seen Thompson perform live on three
  previous occasions, always with a backing band.  This was the first time
  I've seen him perform solo -- last night it was just Thompson and his
  guitar.  I'm not sure I realized just how much of the sound he'd been
  responsible for on those previous occasions -- with a full band it's
  not as obvious how much is Thompson's contribution and how much comes
  from the band..  Solo, however, it's pretty impressive how much he's
  doing simultaneously -- maintaining a percussive beat on the bass strings
  and body of the guitar while picking out a melody and singing lead (only)
  vocal has to be a lot to handle at once but he handles it very well..
  I've seen other songwriter/guitarists (e.g. Bob Mould) perform solo
  acoustic sets that featured much sparser-sounding, stripped down versions
  of their songs.  Thompson manages a surprisingly full sound in comparison.

  The big disappointment of Richard Thompson shows, for me at least, is
  generally the set list.  Despite his jokes about the demand for songs
  from his back catalog ("I'm beginning to worry about the last time some
  of you bought a new record..") a high proportion of the songs he plays,
  and an even higher proportion of the songs the audience request, are
  invariably from his few most recent albums.  Since I don't much *like*
  his few most recent albums, I personally would much rather hear my favorites
  from his classic 70's and early 80's albums but it's usually clear from the
  audience requests that I hold a minority view, and one which will probably
  decline even further now that his best work from his classic period is out
  of print again.  

  On the other hand, even though I might not like the direction his recorded
  albums have taken in the past decade it's interesting to hear the songs
  without the heavy-handed (and much-loathed by me) production work by
  Mitchell Froom.  For example, I think Thompson's 1994 album "Mirror Blue"
  has probably the best lyrics he wrote during all of the 90's but I find
  the musical arrangements so annoying that I never listen to the album.
  It was interesting, therefore, to hear Thompson play an unadorned version
  of "Beeswing" and discover that hey, yeah, it actually *is* an enjoyable
  song..

  My other complaint about last night's performance concerns the audience.
  I haven't seen enough live shows in Seattle to know whether this is
  typical or whether I just wound up seated near a particularly obnoxious
  bunch, but there was a gang a few rows behind me who kept making
  semi-random "aaaha" and "yeehaw" interjections during the performances.
  I found this to be spectacularly annoying, even more annoying than the
  aspiring stand-up comedienne about a dozen seats over who was determined
  to "improve" the evening for the rest of us by adding her own shouted
  responses to Thompson's stage banter..  It's surprising how quickly
  distracting crowd behavior can ruin a fine performance for me..

  Overall the concert was quite good, though, and I particularly enjoyed
  the performances of "Genesis Hall", "Dimming of the Day", and a really
  excellent performance of "Shoot Out the Lights"

response 44 of 51:

Mar 16 01:50 UTC 2001

  I'm not sure if it was mentioned before in either this item or the
  one that covered the Pat Metheny/Kenny G feud, but at this most recent
  performance, Thompson talked a little bit about the uproar over Kenny G's
  Louis Armstrong overdub and then performed a song entitled "I Agree With
  Pat Metheny"

  Also: (of potential interest to Ken and other hard-core Fairport fans)
  he mentioned plans for a Fairport Convention reunion concert (in which
  he will participate) in England next year to celebrate the 35th anniversary
  of the band.

response 46 of 51:

Mar 16 20:38 UTC 2001

A workmate of mine from Ireland says that this is his most irritating
experience in America -- at concerts people talk and act as if they're in
their living room. Guess that in Ireland that's not so common.

response 48 of 51:

Mar 22 16:20 UTC 2001

I've just now failed at my 2nd attempt to win a copy of RT's "Best of: Capitol
Years" collection. (I don't know why I'm even trying; I never win anything
off the radio.) Today on KGSR, they are featuring one of his songs every hour
and each time the seventh caller gets a copy of the disc. I'm not handing out
the phone number, as I seem to have enough competition, and besides that, I
don't know the 800 number off-hand. :-p