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Archive for the ‘Fairport Convention’ Category

Richard Thompson: Ship to Shore Tour – Solo Show (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, February 22, 2025)

Posted in Fairport Convention, Linda Thompson, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Richard Thompson on February 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 22, 2025] Richard Thompson

This is my 12th time seeing Richard Thompson and my sixth time seeing him at McCarter Theater.  For a while it seemed like he was playing McCarter annually.  But we last saw him there in 2020 (he did play in 2023 but we didn’t go).  I was really hoping to see Richard with a full band, as most of the time that I’ve seen him it’s been him solo.  He was playing with a full band on this tour, but I missed those dates.  And, somewhat sadly (in context, but not actuality), this show was a solo.

I admit to not being as excited for this show as I tend to be for bands that I like a lot.  I feared that I had seen his solo show so much that I would be annoyed at how samey it was to other shows.

But, as soon as he started playing I was blown away at his mastery and at how great his voice sounds (at 75!).  We had great seats–row K, center stage–and I could clearly watch his hands as he did…everything.  I was amazed at the way he played the low sting perfectly in time with the beat as the rest of his fingers played intricate melodies and solos.  I was really quite in awe once again.

It’s interesting the way he seems to play certain era songs a bunch (I tend to see the same songs like three times in a row).  So he opened with If I Could Live My Life Again which came out in 2020.  But then he moved back to Walking on a Wire.  I’ve seen him play it 8 times and I never get tired of it.

Same with Beeswing.  I have a hard time believing there were four shows I’ve seen where he didn’t play it!  But hearing it so clean and perfect and watching his fingers play those gorgeous chords was like hearing it for the first time again.

I Feel So Good is one of my early favorites by him.  I haven’t seen him play it since 2013 and it was fantastic.  I guess someone in the front requested Matty Groves, and old Fairport Convention song and he played it–he is sometimes amenable to requests.  Later in the show someone shouted a song and he said.  Maybe later–much later.

Then he played a song that he said he wrote yesterday.  Most of Richard’s properly released songs are serious and intense.  But live he tends to play these goofy songs that are hilarious.  Maybe someday he’ll release an album of funny songs like You Love Me Like It’s 1969. (more…)

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Richard Thompson (Outpost in the Burbs, Montclair, NJ, January 14, 2023)

Posted in Fairport Convention, Montclair, NJ, Outpost in the Burbs, Richard & Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson, Teddy Thompson, Zara Phillips on January 15, 2023| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 14, 2023] Teddy Thompson

This was my eleventh time seeing Richard Thompson.  For a while we had been seeing him pretty regularly and then his habits changed.

I had been seeing him every chance I could, but I took a little time off from his tours, hoping that he would perhaps come back with an electric tour.  Sadly for me, he did in fact come around with an electric trio tour in 2018, but it coincided with a hike that we were scheduled to go on, so I had to miss it.

Back in 2020, he introduced a new component to his show, his new partner Zara Philips has been singing with him on many songs (often Richard & Linda Thompson songs, but sometimes adding backing vocals to Richard’s songs.

For a while it felt like Richard was playing the same basic songs at all of his shows, although as I look at his setlists I see that he always mixes in a few new songs every tour.  Indeed, in 2020, he threw in a whole bunch of songs that I hadn’t heard him play before.

I was super excited that he opened with Gethsemane, an older song (I can’t believe that album is 20 years old!) that I like a lot.  He sounded great and his guitar playing was, of course, outstanding.

During the pandemic, Richard released some online albums.  He played If I could Live My Life again from Bloody Noses (which he had played back in 2020, just before the shutdown).

He jokes about the age of the audience and said he would play a song from a Fairport Convention album.  He described the origins of Genesis Hall, and that it was a protest song, which I didn’t know.  He had played it before but not for more than seven or so years, so it was good to hear it again.

Richard recently played a few nights of all request shows in New York City, which I’d love to attend (al though I suspect people probably just request all the popular songs anyhow).   But I wonder if it makes him want to mix up his setlists at all.  Whatever the case it was great to hear him plat “Turning of the Tide” a song that I love and haven’t heard him play live for a long long time.

Then he played “Beeswing.”  I don’t think there’s been a show where he hasn’t played the song and yet this time it really hit me how beautiful it was.  And I was marveling about how Richard Thompson, creator of the song was merely thirty or forty feet away from us playing this song and how amazing it was to be so close to someone so creative.  I had a real moment.  (I’m going to assume it came from talking about how wild it must have been for my young kids to go to concerts and see their favorite bands up close like that, something I never got to do as a a little kid). (more…)

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Richard Thompson (with Scott Timberg)–Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975 (2021)

Posted in 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, Arthur Brown, Autobiographies, Books about music, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Fairport Convention, Fotheringay, Graham Nash, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, London England, Pink Floyd, Richard Thompson, Rolling Stone, Sandy Denny, Scott Timberg, Soft Machine, The Band, The Beatles, The Hollies, The Shadows, Traffic, Yoko Ono on July 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SHADOWS-“Apache” (1960).

In 1960, Cliff Richard’s backing band released this instrumental that shot to the top of the British charts.  The song was named after the 1954 film Apache.

The band had a signature sound.  Hank Marvin used an echo box and a tremolo bar on his Fender guitar.  The melodic bass was by Jet Harris.  Percussion was by Tony Meehan and Cliff Richard, who played a Chinese drum at the beginning and end to provide an atmosphere of stereotypically Native American music.

It has been cited by a generation of guitarists as inspirational and is considered one of the most influential British rock 45s of the pre-Beatles era because of the appeal of “that kind of Hawaiian sounding lead guitar … plus the beat.”

The song is really catchy with a surf guitar/Western riff and the rumbling drums.  There’s a few parts which create some drama and forward motion.

[READ: June 29, 2021] Beeswing

I’ve been a fan of Richard Thompson since about 1993.  I’ve seen him live about ten times and I’ve listened to most of his earlier work (including most of his Fairport Convention stuff).

I don’t love all the Fairport material.  I likesome of it, but I never really got into it that much.  And, I never really thought about what it was like being in Fairport back in the late 60s.  So this autobiography was a strange thing for me.  Seemed like an obvious read and yet it’s about an era that I didn’t have a lot of interest in.

Which proved to be the perfect combination.

Richard starts the book in the early 1960s. I was a little concerned because I really didn’t like the opening page–the style concerned me.  But the idea that dust and fog were so pervasive in London that it cast a haze over everything was pretty interesting.  Especially when he says that explains the state of London artistry–soft and fuzzy because of the haze.

Then he moves on to himself.  His family was pretty traditional–his father was a policeman.  He was not interested in school and a normal career. (more…)

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Sofia Samatar–“Reflections” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #8] (2019)

Posted in Boats, Canadian Content, Christmas, Colin Meloy, Coronavirus, Curses, Dreams, Fairport Convention, Folk Songs, Hingston & Olsen, Homelessness, Huh?, Letters, Prison, Quarantine, Sandy Denny, Shirley Collins, Short Story, Supernatural, The Decemberists, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on December 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SHIRLEY COLLINS: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #109 (November 10, 2020).

There is no denying the first line of this blurb: “Shirley Collins is a legend.”  But like many legends, I find that I know of her more than I know about her.  It’s possible that I’d never heard her before this set.  And that may not be an unreasonable thing

 Her life story took the sort of twists you hear in the songs she sings, in her case, a broken heart, a painful divorce, and the loss of her voice. For 30 years, she couldn’t sing.

I don’t exactly understand what happened to her voice (that link doesn’t explain it), but her first album in over 30 years came out in 2016.

Now, here she is playing songs from Heart’s Ease, only the second album she’s made in the past 40 years. You hear her sing of a young sailor boy who saves his ship from robbers and is promised by his captain both gold and his daughter’s hand in marriage. The lad sinks the robber’s boat, only to be left to drown by that very same captain.

These unimaginable tales and that unadorned voice have influenced both British and American folk music since the 1960s, from Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny to The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy. These tales of woe and whimsy are as timeless as Shirley Collins

So here is Shirley Collins, at 85, seated in the living room of her cottage in Lewes, East Sussex, accompanied by guitarist Ian Kearey, singing along to a few stringed instruments

She sings five songs.  At 85, her voice doesn’t sound amazing, but it does sound good.  And it’s more about the emotion she puts into these songs than the power of her voice.

She explains that in the 1950s, she took a field recording trip across the United States with Alan Lomax.  She heard “The Merry Golden Tree” in Arkansas.  It was still sung in England but had traveled across the Atlantic and then across the continent.

Kearey plays guitar for the first song, but switches to banjo for “Sweet Greens and Blues” a song her first husband Austin John marshall wrote 50 years ago.   She says the first line seems apt in 2020: “If we don’t make it this year let’s see what next year will bring.”

She heard “Wondrous Love” from a rural Alabama congregation.  The church was full of people from all over.  They sang this hymn in their old voices–“shrill and beautiful at the same time: the most incredible lovely noise you could hope to hear.”  Kearey gets a very cool metallic slide guitar sound for this song.

Before singing “Tell Me True” she tells the story of an American friend in Montana who sent her a vast British ensign flag from the Royal Navy.  He found it in a barn when he was 16 on holiday in rural Vermont.  He took it!  Now he sent it to her.  She thinks its from 1812, the Battle of Lake Champlain in vermont.  Woah

“Old Johnny Buckle” is a nonsense song, an upside down song that’s good fun to sing.  I imagine it could have been sung by Boy and Girl Scouts.  With silly lyrics like this

Old Mrs. Buckle went a’fishing one day
She caught her left leg in the clay
The toads and frogs all wobbled about
She ran to get a shovel to dig herself out

[READ: December 8, 2020] “Reflections”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 8.  Sofia Samatar, author of A Stranger in Olondria, is glad she remembered to pack those seasickness tabs..  [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

This story was a challenge for me.  First because I didn’t realize that the two letters (the story is two letters on facing pages) were meant to be read separately.  At first I thought it was a series of disjointed, unfinished letters–a sort of failed attempt at communication.  Obviously that is very far from what the story is mean to be about. (more…)

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Richard Thompson (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, January 18, 2020)

Posted in Fairport Convention, Linda Thompson, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Richard Thompson on January 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 18, 2020] Richard Thompson

After seeing Richard Thompson back in 2016 (three times in a short span) I decided I could take a break from seeing him a bit.  Although when he announced an electric trio tour I was really excited to check it out.  Sadly, I couldn’t make that show.  But when he announced another show at McCarter (I believe his 20th show there?) I figured it had been four years and was time to see him again.

This was my tenth time seeing Richard Thompson (first time in 1997).  I tend to focus a lot on the songs that Richard plays at every show.  I’m sure I’ve seen “Beeswing” and “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” ten times.  But in this set he played 13 songs that I hadn’t seen in at least the previous two shows and that’s pretty awesome.

We had some amazing seats (center stage about eight rows back) and we could see his fretwork absolutely clearly. (more…)

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Richard Thompson (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, October 9, 2016)

Posted in Concert, Fairport Convention, Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA on October 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 9, 2016] Richard Thompson

2016-10-09-15-21-28I saw Richard Thompson play back in February at McCarter.  I saw him open for Wilco (well, I saw some of his set since I was late) back in June.  And now I’ve seen him in October.

That’s a lot of Richard.  But I couldn’t pass up this show because the Sellersville Theater is one of the most intimate venues around.  I scored Row G seats like in McCarter although Sellersville’s row G is a bit further back because they have tables in the front.  But it was still like having him play in my living room.

I’ve seen him play in many different styles over the years.  This summer he also toured with Bonnie Raitt with his trio.  I would have gone to that one, since I haven’t seen his trio, but prices were way too much and I don’t like Bonnie Raitt–well, her music anyway, I’ve no opinion about her.  Like the last two times, this was just him and his acoustic guitar.  And while I would love to have gotten a different setup, there is nothing wrong with just him and his guitar.

This was a matinee show (2PM!) thrown together kind of at the last minute (it was announced less than a month ago).  He joked about how matinees are usually played fro 5-year-olds or 95-year-olds–either playing 1930s covers or Puff the Magic Dragon.  He was glad that we were between those ages.

And like last time, there was the man just six rows away.  And I got to watch every amazing solos and chord changes and capo placements and tuning and everything else he could do with that one guitar.  For the McCarter how he played for 2 hours.  We only got 90 minutes (he said “I have three more minutes before I turn into a pumpkin”) which is a little skimpy (although probably about the normal length for a show).

And while no RT show is disappointing, I was a little bummed that his setlist was almost exactly the same as the one he played at McCarter.  The first two songs were different, but almost all of the rest were the same.  And there were no requests or improvs, apparently.

I mentioned last time that he doesn’t play a lot of songs from his new album.  Which is a shame both because his newer albums have been outstanding, but also because he works pretty hard at them (I assume), and he should get to play more from them.   Of course, I totally get that he is practically contractually obligated to play “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” “Beeswing” “Persuasion” and something from Fairport Convention.  But holy cow, he has so many songs.   He could play a different setlist every night for a month!

But enough griping, because the show was great.  he sounded fantastic and the acoustics in Sellersville are really top-notch. (more…)

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Richard Thompson (McCarter Theatre, February 9, 2016)

Posted in Concert, Fairport Convention, George Bernard Shaw, Linda Thompson, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Richard Thompson, Set in New Jersey! on February 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 9, 2016] Richard Thompson at the McCarter Theatre

2016-02-09 19.19.51This was my fourth time seeing Richard Thompson at McCarter Theatre (he says it was his 492nd time playing there).  And this time, I got my tickets early and scored ROW G!  Right in the center!

2016-02-09 19.24.13So there was the man just six rows away.  And I got to watch every amazing solos and chord changes and capo placements and tuning (that’s why I can’t play his songs) and everything else he could do with that one guitar.

For indeed, that’s what it was, just him and his acoustic guitar.  Standing in front of us for 2 hours and blowing us away.  When I bought the tickets, he was touring with a trio (last summer), so I assumed that this show would be the trio show.  But nope, it was just him.

And, more amazingly, he played with no opening act!  The night before he was at the Sellersville Theater (which sold out before I found out and although they called me about the waiting list, it was about 2 hours before show time, so there’s no way I could have gone) and had an opening act.  And the next show after this one he had a different opening act.  But we got just Richard (and we were home by 10, which is pretty awesome for us old people). (more…)

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Richard Thompson (McCarter Theatre, October 4, 2013)

Posted in Concert, Fairport Convention, Frank Loesser, Jonathan Franzen, Linda Thompson, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Set in New Jersey!, Teddy Thompson on October 8, 2013| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 4, 2013] Richard Thompson at the McCarter Theatre

Back again for the (semi) annual Richard Thompson show at the McCarter Theatre.  RT himself said this was his 15th year playing there more or less every year.  And it seems like quite a lot of the concertgoers were multi-year attendees.

This time, Richard Thompson’s son Teddy opened.  About fifteen years ago I saw Teddy open for Richard in Boston.  That set was really enjoyable and I bought Teddy’s debut album.  But I haven’t thought all that much about him since (he has released a number of albums since 2000).

I spent some time at this show thinking about how strange it must be to tour with your father if he is a guitar wizard.  Teddy is not a guitar wizard and doesn’t try to be one.  [There’s an article that I’m going to be posting about in a few days by Jonathan Franzen which  deals with coping with successful fathers, so it was on my mind].  Indeed, in an article from a few years ago, Teddy said that at first he never listened to his parents music because it was folkie and he like rock.  But after a while: “I started to be more aware of how much people loved [my parents],” he said. “When I started doing (music) for a living, I felt, ‘I’m not as good a guitar player as my dad. My voice isn’t as good as my mother’s.'”  His mother is Linda Thompson who does have an amazing voice.  So it must be intimidating to be on with a guy that is so good and so beloved.

But Teddy has a great voice as well (more powerful than Richard’s), he sounds a bit like Neil Finn from Crowded House.  Teddy played about a dozen songs.  I actually didn’t recognize any of them, but I enjoyed them all.   As I said his voice is strong–and is really the selling point, because while the melodies are very good, they are also rather simple.  I don’t know that anything was as catchy as the songs by his dad, but of course plays a very different style of music–a kind of country folk with an occasional hard edge (both Thompsons only played acoustic guitar for this show).

I don’t know what their relationship is like (I always assume that famous (relatively) people’s children hate them.  But it was clear that Richard was proud of his son when he came out.  (more…)

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