Richard Thompson turns decades of songs into a living history
Words & Photos: Images by Ellis
★★★★★
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More than five decades after co-founding Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson remains a unique performer: a songwriter capable of moving from murderous ballads and bruised relationships to flashes of wonderfully dry humour, while making one acoustic guitar sound like several musicians working at once.
Photo: Images by Ellis / Richard Thompson
Opening the evening, Bristol singer-songwriter Holly Carter proved an excellent match for the headliner. Accompanied by guitarist Joe Wilkins, her compact set combined beautifully intertwined fingerpicked guitars with songs rooted in folk tradition but speaking to the present day.
Carter’s fascination with political outsiders was evident in ‘Stetson Kennedy’, her tribute to the activist who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. Woody Guthrie also wrote about Kennedy in lyrics later set to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco; Carter certainly shares Bragg’s gift for making political history accessible.
Another song offered a preview of Carter’s forthcoming re-recording of her debut EP, ‘All Of You… And Me’. She finished with ‘Morewen’, the graceful instrumental which closes last year’s debut album ‘Leave Your Mark’. It was an impressive demonstration of why Carter was twice named Instrumentalist Of The Year by the Americana Music Association UK.
Thompson began with the haunting ‘I Misunderstood’ before reaching back to his Fairport years for ‘Genesis Hall’. That opening pair established the shape of an evening which ranged across his extensive catalogue: a 90-minute set delivered with energy, fed by an appreciative audience.
His enjoyment of the night seemed genuine, and his guitar playing was, inevitably, remarkable. Thompson combines rhythm, bass and melody with ease, yet his virtuosity never overwhelmed the songs. The emotion of ‘Walking On A Wire’ cut through, the wit of ‘Johnny’s Far Away’ shone, and the warm nostalgia of ‘Walking The Long Miles Home’ stood out.
Singer-songwriter Zara Phillips joined him to add harmonies to several numbers. Her clear, understated voice softened Thompson’s delivery, bringing an especially pleasing additional dimension to older songs such as ‘She Twists The Knife Again’, as well as the soon-to-be-released ‘Cocaine Walkin’, ‘Booze Talkin’ and ‘Pipe Dreams’.
The inevitable ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’ remains one of the finest modern narrative songs and was delivered here with freshness rather than ceremony, while ‘Dry My Tears And Move On’ brought one of the evening’s most tender moments.
Less frequently heard selections, including ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘She Sang Angels To Rest’, gave the set further depth before a closing trio drawn from some of Thompson’s most enduring work: ‘I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight’, ‘Down Where The Drunkards Roll’ and ‘Wall Of Death’.
At 77, Thompson remains both a formidable live performer and a restless songwriter. He still adds worthwhile new material to one of British music’s richest catalogues.