Category: Richard Thompson

Recap: Richard Thompson at First Avenue

If you’re not close enough at a Richard Thompson concert to see his fingers dancing across his guitar neck, you’re missing one of the most consistently sublime sights in the world of rock music. Thompson moves with such fluidity that it’s astonishing that he’s 61 years old and can still make such virtuosity seem effortless.

That blazing fretwork shone with full force Saturday at First Avenue, where Thompson wrapped up his U.S. tour backing his latest album, Dream Attic. Eschewing an opening act, Thompson instead commanded the stage for the entire evening, playing two sets backed by the quartet with whom he recorded the new album earlier this year. With a leopard-print scarf giving a dash of color to his usual ensemble of black beret, black shirt, and black jeans, he first zipped track-by-track through Dream Attic in its entirety, followed by what he wryly termed “some of our hits-with-a-small-H.”

Originally published Nov. 8, 2010 on avclub.com. Read the complete article.

Interview: Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson’s gifts as a guitarist and songwriter have been apparent since his teenage days in the 1960s British folk group Fairport Convention. Albums like 1982′s Shoot Out The Lights (with then-wife Linda Thompson) and 1992′s Rumor And Sigh earned him critical praise and a loyal fan cult. He’s out now with his first new electric disc in three years: Sweet Warrior features a sizzling antiwar song in “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me,” told from the perspective of a disillusioned American soldier stationed in Iraq. From his Los Angeles home, Thompson recently talked with The A.V. Club about his albums, his songwriting, and how his personal life works into both.

Originally published on avclub.com June 13, 2007. Read the complete article.

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