Richard Thompson is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and Linda Thompson one of the greatest singers and finally taking a page out of the wainwright Family picnic book, they have recorded an album, put together by first song teddy, who is no slouch but is no Rufus, and using up the gifts of the rest of the family members.
I haven’t heard the album for one excellent reason, it isn’t out yet, but I did buy a ticket albeit with a whole bunch of trepidation, for their get together en masse at City Winery on January 31, 20415 –a Saturday.
One of three dates, the others are the prior Friday and Thursday, all three are sold out, which means I must have got one of the last seats.
Now my problem on all of this is that Linda isn’t gonna be there. Yes to Richard, Teddy, also Kami and her other rail hubby James Walbourne. We saw the duo opening for Chrissie Hynde last week and they were pretty good, the guy is a terrific guitarist, a coupla others. I am sure it will be fun and they do have an album Family, they are hawking but…
Richard peaked years ago, solo I’d say around 1996’s You? Me? Us? I’ll go further, the song where I nearly fell out my chair was “The Ghost Of You Walks”.
So, yes, I’m going, no I’m not sure but I do know this: you can’t really scalp tickets to City Winery. I tried to for David Crosby and missed, so I am better off buying the ticket and worrying about it later… here is the PR stuff:
“Teddy Thompson hadn’t prepared a follow up to his fifth studio album Bella (2011), but he came up with a more ambitious project in Family. As its title indicates, Family consists of contributions by members of what has become one of the most artistically significant families in contemporary music.
“It starts, of course, with Teddy’s parents, Richard and Linda Thompson—Richard being one of rock history’s greatest singer-songwriter-guitarists, Linda being his ex-wife and singing partner, and an extraordinary solo artist in her own right. Both came out of England’s legendary folk-rock scene, and each contributes two songs to Family. Teddy was born in 1976, six years before his parents separated. He also has two songs on the 10-track album, as does his younger sister Kami Thompson (one of them with her husband James Walbourne, with whom she performs in The Rails). Richard’s son Jack Thompson has one song, as does Zak Hobbs, grandson of Richard and Linda and Teddy’s nephew.
“ Long a New York resident, Thompson returned to his hometown London to do some overdubs with his mother, sister, her husband James, Zak and even got some amazing backing vocals from his elder brother, Jesse Thompson’s wife, Paulina Lis. (The pair has since separated.) Subsequently, there was a day doing the same with his father in Los Angeles. “Everything was done very, very quickly, and I came home with a full hard drive. It was then left to me to sort through it and put everything together—which proved quite a job.”
“One of Teddy’s songs is “Right”…“I think I was conscious that there might be a lot of ballads, because that’s what my family does!” he says. “So it’s kind of a countryish rocker—and a good opportunity for guitar solos. We have a lot of guitar players in the family–my dad, obviously, and my nephew Zak, and Kami’s husband James. These are three pretty shit hot lead guitarists, and I had t divvy up the solos. Also trying to not have them play lead on their own songs. For a bit of fun.”
“Teddy’s other song is the album’s intensely personal title track “Family.” “As the songs came in, I had trouble figuring out my second one,” he concedes. “I just wasn’t feeling creative or writing much and it was getting down to the wire. But it turned out to be a good thing because I was able to see what was missing tempo-wise and feel-wise. So I wrote a song in 3⁄4 (waltz time). That it ended up being a song about family was unintentional, but that’s what came out of living with these songs for months and dealing with some intense emotions.
“He returns to his original concept. “The brief was only for everyone to send in two songs, but it was really telling how everyone interpreted it. My mum she sent in a very emotional song, a stunning ballad, ‘Bonny Boys’, about kids and grandkids and family. My dad pretty much wrote two ‘Richard Thompson’ songs! But he’s pragmatic. One had a singalong chorus [‘That’s Enough’], which I’m grateful for, because it gave everybody the opportunity to sing. And they’re both fantastic.”
“Looking ahead, Teddy is working on an “Everly Brothers-style” duets album of original material with singer-songwriter Kelly Jones, which Jerry Douglas is producing in Nashville.”
Damn, I wish Linda was gonna be there. Meanwhile Family is out On the 18th, and till then stream it here.
