I'm surprised we've gone so long in this incarnation of the music conference without a Richard Thompson item. I'll start this one by mentioning that the next Thompson release, due out in mid-April, will be THE BONES OF ALL MEN. The new album is a collaboration between Thompson and early music specialist Phil Pickett, with the Fairport Convention rhythm section.51 responses total.
Produced by someone other than Mitchell Froom, I hope? It's not as if he's singlehandedly responsible for the last few RT releases, which have been disappointing at best (who knows, maybe Thompson's happy with them but they haven't been strong on the things that attracted me to his music in the first place or the other qualities that I enjoy..) but he certainly isn't helping -- I don't much like Froom's work with other artists, either.. I'm not sure how much I can really look forward to another Richard Thompson album -- although I thought "You? Me? Us?" was a definite improvement over "Mirror Blue" it just seems to me like he's run out of things he really wants to say. On the plus side, his live performances are still well worth going to -- I was really pleasantly surprised by the show at the Michigan Theater on the "You? Me? Us?" tour..
Oh YES. New Richard Thompson.
News on the RT mailing list is that the disc is now being billed as a Philip Pickett CD, with Thompson in a supporting role, rather than the Pickett/Thompson collaboration which we were originally promised. Leslie and I are big Phil Pickett fans, so we'll buy the album today anyway. Others of you may wish to wait a bit.
Well, I still don't have much conclusive to offer on THE BONES OF ALL MEN cd. So far I'm lukewarm on it; Leslie likes it quite a bit, mostly because of its early music nature. And I'd tell you more but the disc seems to have gotten lost somewhere. :P Just received in the mail: a flyer for this year's release by the Richard Thompson fan club operation Flypaper. The album is titled CELTSCHMERZ, recorded live in London this January. 11 of the 16 songs are oldies, which may bode well for those of use who haven't liked Thompson's last couple of studio albums. I believe this is mostly acoustic solo. The flyer says that Richard's son Teddy Thompson appears on six tracks. There are also some USA tour dates for Teddy Thompson as a solo performer; he's playing in New York, and in the Boston area. If you want to be on the mailing list for such flyers, write to: Flypaper, J.A.F. Box 7095, New York, NY 10116. Or, take a peek at http://www.thebeeskneees.com and let me know if there's anything interesting there.
clever name for the fan club release..
The Richard Thompson mailing list distributed an interesting review of a New York show by RT's son Teddy Thompson. Mom Linda T. sang along with the soundcheck, and she tried to sing one of the old Richard & Linda songs but her psycho-somatic (?) probably about singing in front of crowds kicked in. The reporter talked to Linda after the show. She was recording some work for a solo (?) album by one of the Boys of the Lough; she has been singing in some project with Pere Ubu's David Thomas. This might be the closest thing to a Linda Thompson performance in the States since she sang on the Grammy Awards show in the late 1980's. It's nice to see her emerging from her shell, however tentatively. (I guess I need to explain for the novices: Richard & Linda Thompson were married from about 1972-1982; they recorded six albums which range from "interesting" to "Best Album of All Time"; after the divorce Linda issued one solo album in 1975 and then vanished from performing.)
"Best Album of All Time" might be overstating it a bit but their best albums were very good.. I presume you're talking about "I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight" -- that's the one I'd recommend if asked to pick a Richard & Linda Thompson album..
This weekend, the Richard Thompson mailing list had three reviews of a concert Linda Thompson sang in New York with David Thomas of Pere Ubu. Sounds like it was pretty avant-garde stuff. I sent the reviews to Mike McNally, and I'll forward them to anyone else interested; I'm not going to post them in the conference.
There's a long-ish article on Thompson this week in Salon Magazine (www.salonmagazine.com) in their "Brilliant Careers" column. Among other things, they make reference to an alleged April release called "Mock Tudor". Any other info on that?
Thanks for the pointer to the Salon piece. I have not heard anything about an April release; I seem to have gotten dropped from the Richard Thompson mailing list about a month ago, alas.
I have Richard Thompson animated video for "feel so good"
The dates are out for Richard Thompson's summer tour. He's going to be at 7th House in Pontiac on June 22, according to the semi-official website http://www.thebeesknees.com
Saw flyers for that show plastered all over campus area today, in fact..
We're going to pass on the Pontiac show. In part it's because we're in trip panic mode with Leslie's summer singing program coming up; in part it's that I just haven't felt particularly excited by anything RT has recorded in the last five or six years. Ah well.
News from the semi-official Richard Thompson web page, at http://www.amug.org/~deeg1225/RTnews.html The US release date for RT's new album, MOCK TUDOR, is announced to be August 24. New producers: Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, anyone heard of them? The band is mostly Dave Mattacks, Danny Thompson no relation, and Teddy Thompson, who is Richard & Linda's son. There is also a nice interview from April on the page. The page also says that RT is supposed to play all over Norma Waterson's second solo album, THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU. This lists in European catalogs but seems not to have been released in the USA; perhaps Ryko is holding it for a USA tour by Norma?
I have no idea who Tom Rothrock and Rob Scnapf are, but I'd lay big money that I'll prefer them to Mitchell Froom..
Mike McNally e-mailed me about a Richard Thompson interview in Salon: http://www.salonmagazine.com/ent/music/int/1999/08/31/thompson/index.html And I can reciprocate with an interview I found: http://www.sonicnet.com/news and look at the "news archive" for August 30; the actual URL is unmanagable. :( We're giving the new album MOCK TUDOR its first spin, and it's not instantly alienating like YOU ME US was. (I'm not sure I ever listened to all of YOU ME US. I'm sure I never listened to all of it twice.) Track 5, "Hard on Me," sounds like a recapitulation of "Shoot Out The Lights."
As I've mentioned to Ken, I *liked* "You? Me? Us?" -- I thought it was *MUCH* better than "Mirror Blue" (which I really, really, really disliked.) I liked it about as well as "Rumour and Sigh" once I learned which tracks to program around. I'd agree, though, that it doesn't compare with the albums he released in his heyday..
What, exactly, _was_ RT's heyday, and does everyone agree on it?
There's plenty of room to debate the relative merits of his albums but
I'd say the standout is "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight".
However, in my opinion you could hardly go wrong with any of:
Shoot Out the Lights
Hand of Kindness
Across a Crowded Room
Small Town Romance
Henry the Human Fly
Pour Down Like Silver
Yeah, we mostly agree on that. Chronologically, RT's peaks would be the beginning of his solo career and the earliest albums with Linda (1971-1975) and then the end of his relationship with Linda and his first post-divorce albums (1982-1986). And of course, the Fairport Convention period, when RT was just a kid. I'd add in RUMOR AND SIGH (1991) as a late flowering, and of course he's not dead yet and still puts on a hell of a live show. As long as I'm mentioning Fairport: A&M has just put out a new 2-CD anthology of Fairport. The first disc covers the 3 Sandy Denny albums; the second disc covers the last Richard Thompson album and then vaults rapidly through the rest of the 1970s, about six albums sampled in half a CD. An online CD dealer I use says it's remastered, but I haven't confirmed that. Tracks from the LIEGE AND LIEF album have always sounded muddy on every issue I've ever heard.
Hmmm.. I might be interested in that, although I already have "What We Did on Our Holidays" and "Liege & Lief", which must make up most of what's on the first disc. What's the third Fairport album that has Sandy Denny on it? "Full House"? As far as Richard Thompson goes, I also enjoyed "Rumour and Sigh" but apparently less than Ken. I'd rank it among the best of his lesser albums but not in the same league with the ones mentioned in #20.
The third Fairport Convention album with Sandy Denny is UNHALFBRICKING. Though it seems like a perfectly coherent masterwork, it's actually a collection of studio scraps which producer Joe Boyd flung together to get an album out in the wake of the band's van accident, which killed their drummer and Thompson's girlfriend. FULL HOUSE is the first post-Denny album, and the last one with Thompson as a fulltime member. The world used to move faster. The three Fairport albums with Sandy Denny all came out in 1969. Denny and Hutchings quit in early 1970; later that year Hutchings has Steeleye Span organized and recording, and Fairport goes on to record FULL HOUSE. In 1971, Thompson quits Fairport and gets his first solo album out; two more Steeleye Span albums come out; Denny's probably got her solo albums pouring out by then, though I would have to look that up. And Fairport regroups and puts out ANGEL DELIGHT with none of its star talents left. So the Fairport gang gets something like 8-10 albums in three years, almost all of them masterworks. Maybe those were just magical years.
A friend sends along e-mail from the Richard Thompson mailing list, with rumors of a RT concert at the Ark for December 7th. Unconfirmed as yet.
Chats at the Ark last Saturday with someone who talked to someone indicate that the December 7 show is now unlikely, and more likely is an RT appearance at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival, at Hill Auditorium in January. Alas, not even RT will lure us to sit in cramped Hill Auditorium for six hours...
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.)
The latest mail out from the Richard Thompson fan club reports that the new album MOCK TUDOR is coming out as a limited-edition 2-LP set, with three bonus tracks added. :) And the rumored December show in Ann Arbor is definitely off; Thompson's tour schedule for December comes nowhere near Ann Arbor. And I'm going to give up on finding my first copy of MOCK TUDOR and buy a second one, sigh.
Wanna buy mine?
Sure, if you're serious. You could borrow the Luna album when we make the exchange. Send me e-mail.
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..
So I finally got a chance to listen to MOCK TUDOR again, having bought Mike's copy. And I like it a lot. What's grabbing me right now, besides the basic soundscape, is the song "Sirbella," where RT lets rip with the biggest guitar solo he's recorded in a while.
Richard Thompson is booked for The Ark in Ann Arbor: Sunday, March 26.
I suppose it would happen eventually. Most of the classic 70s Richard & Linda Thompson albums seem to have gone out of print, to be replaced by a Best-Of collection. If you want any of them, grab the copies still remaining in stores or wait for the next reissue cycle. :/
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"?
Deleted in the US are "Henry the Human Fly," "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight," "Hokey Pokey," "Pour Down Like Silver" and the compilation "(guitar, vocal)" -- everything which was originally released on Island Records. At least some of these are still listed on Amazon's UK site, so I'm probably being over-alarmist.
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.
(By the way, Chris, if my feeble memory is correct and you are the guy I gave a copy of Fairport's "Nine" album, welcome back to Grex! and if I'm wrong, welcome anyway!!)
re #36: You should definitely check out his recordings prior to "Rumour and Sigh" before they become unavailable (temporarily, one must hope..)
Ken, your feeble memory serves you well and again, thanks.
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...)
I've been trying to talk some folks into going to see Thompson with me in Seattle on Monday.. I plan to go in any event..
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"
Thanks Mike! I wonder when Thompson will hit Ann Arbor again. He used to come by one-two times a year in the 80s and early 90s, but now it just seems like he does the Ann Arbor Folk Festival every couple years. rollingstone.com has an interview with Thompson. This in turn links to an official Thompson page from Capitol Records, http://ns.hollywoodandvine.com/richardthompson/ which in turn links to some additional interviews: http://www.acousticguitar.com/issues/ag98/feature98.shtml http://www.smh.com.au/news/0102/02/entertainment/entertain8.html http://www.greenmanreview.com/richardthompson.html Interesting that the Capitol promotional page links to these interviews, in which RT is not entirely happy with his now-former label. Most of what he says about the recording business just echoes things that have come up before in the Napster item.
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.
I've also had the misfortune to sit next to people who believe that thumping the table and making extraneous noises during quiet music was appropriate behavior. And when I asked them not to, they said piteously, "You've obviously never been to a [name of band] concert before." Yes I had: many times, and this was never an essential part of the experience. The only time I've heard Thompson live solo was at the Cropredy Festival, in a muddy, drizzly field. As far as noise from the audience was concerned, you could hear a rain drop.
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.
Interesting, but I suppose it depends on the performers and the typical crowd that they draw. I remember talking about this on the Stormcock list --- someone said that the audiences that attend Roy Harper concerts tend to be more outspoken, even to the point of belligerent heckling, whereas several Brits living in the US said that his Stateside concerts suffer from utter lack of audience response. This flies in the face of my U.K. experience, where I found great musicians playing in pubs with the 'audience' sitting still as bumps on logs. This can be good or bad, I suppose. I find it very difficult to remain seated with my hands quietly in my lap when I hear live music. I like to get up and dance, encourage the musicians after particularly brilliant licks, etc. Granted, this can become annoying in a large venue, especially with ticket prices approaching the astronomical.
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
I picked up my copy of "Action Packed," the Capitol anthology, at Borders tonight. Copies sold through Borders have a bonus disc with three live tracks: "Black Vincent" from 1991, "Bathsheba Smiles" from 1993 (!!), and "Shoot Out The Lights" from 1999. Haven't opened it yet. Is anyone else annoyed by such special promotions? I guess that should be in another item.
I'm generally annoyed by them, but lately I've been dealing with a record store in Seattle that will usually just give me the bonus promotional disc if I ask nicely enough.. (of course if this really is a Borders-only promo then that approach won't work in this case..)
From what I read today, there are TWO bonus promotional discs for the "Action Packed" album -- CDNow has a different one than Borders is offering, it was reported. There was a time when that would have motivated me to buy both versions, but fortunately my completism bug is fading. As I already mentioned in the Web Site item, I found a new Richard Thompson web site today: http://people.zeelandnet.nl/flipfeij/index.html This is called "Richard Thompson for Completists." From here is the news that there will be a fourth "official bootleg" released shortly, this one from the MOCK TUDOR tour. The site also includes a streaming webcast of a recent RT show, and links to some promotional tracks from "Action Packed" which can be downloaded for another week or so. My last bit of news is that there is a new compilation of old Linda Thompson leftovers, "demos and rare tracks." The title is "Give Me A Sad Song" and it's on the RT/Britfolk/fan-run label Fledgling, which is carried at a good price by Elderly Instruments.
You have several choices: