Richard Thompson has always rocked; sometimes more, sometimes less. Unfortunately, he got that pesky prefix “folk” appended to his title, because he was a founding member of the seminal English folk-rock group … uh, Pentangle? no; Steeleye Span? no; oh yeah, Fairport Convention. And it’s certainly true that much of Thompson’s music is folk-based, rather than specifically blues-based.
That being established, however, let me say that in his current phase, Richard Thompson is rocking mightily. His new album, Mock Tudor, is more rock-n-roll oriented than any of his recent efforts. And at this show, in the second week of his tour to promote the new album, he was all rock attitude.
To start with, this is a rock-n-roll band. Three guitars, bass and drums form the core on most songs. It’s anchored by Danny Thompson (no relation) on double bass and Michael Jerome on drums, who brings a contagious freshness and zest to the ensemble. Rounding out the band are Richard’s son Teddy Thompson on rhythm guitar and vocals, and multi-instrumentalist and backing vocalist Pete Zorn.
Thompson played most of the songs from Mock Tudor; in fact, he started the two hour set with the first five tracks in order. He also mixed in songs from the past 20 years, leaning particularly heavily on the more up-tempo section of the catalog. He seemed invigorated and in high spirits, liberally joking with the band and crowd in between numbers; snarling, biting and growling out the vocals; and liberally lacing the affair with his unique brand of dense and intricate guitar work.
As on the new record, Thompson seemed vocally more confident than ever, and his bracing attack suited old and new material well. The band roared through the first three numbers — “Cooksferry Queen,” “Sibella,” and “Bathsheba Smiles” — and set the tone for the night. Richard, Teddy and Zorn sang tight three-part harmony on the latter number, ending the song with a drawn-out a capella note that was the first of the show’s “goosebump moments.” (Here’s a clip of “Sibella” from around the same time, lifted from the U.K. program “Later With Jools Holland.”)
His first solo of more than a few measures came on “Two Faced Love,” which featured exciting interplay between Danny’s bass and Zorn’s baritone sax. But it was on “Hard on Me” that Thompson first cut loose, vocally and instrumentally. This number in many ways resembles his long-time standard rave-up “Shoot Out the Lights,” but its subject matter allows Thompson to really show his vocal chops. When he sang “I bite my rage, I stop my breath, I shake my cage,” he clenched his fist, his eyes, his whole body, and virtually roared out the lines.
The song also featured a rumbling bass solo from Danny, and Richard’s first two extended guitar solos of the night. They echoed the raging vocals — dense, angular, richly layered affairs. It was five songs into the set and you could feel that this was the moment most of the crowd had been waiting for. The guitarist, the audience, even the band, were riveted. Danny’s head was thrown back, his eyes were closed, as he and several hundred souls floated on Thompson’s sonic waves.
“Thank youuuu,” a lone voice called out in the reverent silence after the thunderous applause died away.
The first non-Tudor number followed. “Jennie,” a regret-filled love ballad, was solidly grounded by deep bass lines and thumping bass drumming. It was the first example of Thompson’s re-imagining of his older songs that followed throughout the set. I hesitate to use the overworked term “deconstructed,” but that’s pretty much what Thompson has done with several old chestnuts like “Jennie.” They seem to have been stripped down to their essence and rebuilt with new, sturdier underpinnings to help them stand up to the raw energy of the new numbers. In the middle of “Jennie,” Zorn played a solo on the bass flute, which reminded me of Hubert Laws’ Seventies work. Thompson’s own solo had a similar jazzy feel.
Next up was a similarly re-imagined “She Twists the Knife Again,” with a staccato, Kinks-like introduction.
At this point Thompson changed to an acoustic guitar for “Uninhabited Man,” with Teddy on dulcimer. It was one of only a couple of times during the show when the energy and focus sagged somewhat.
Things picked up considerably on the re-vivified “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven.” Jerome pushed the tempo and Thompson gave the melody and lyrics a rearrangement that made it more angry than darkly brooding. Added to Richard’s and Danny’s “hot club de jazz” solos was a piercing turn by Zorn on his brand-new tiny sopranino sax.
Father and son turned in a tender duet — the first of two in the set — on “Persuasion,” by Thompson and Crowded House’s Tim Finn. Teddy has a somewhat callow manner and voice, but shows a lot of promise and has a couple of great mentors who also happen to be his parents. His mother, of course, is Thompson’s ex-wife and former musical collaborator, Linda Thompson Kenit.
Zorn on mandolin accompanied Richard and Danny on “The Sights and Sounds of London Town.” The mandolin seemed to fight with the guitar whenever Zorn played it throughout the set — I’m not sure if it was a sound problem or Zorn’s playing, but it was irritating at times. His pennywhistle performance was spot-on in “Walking the Long Miles Home,” another Tudor number. Zorn’s contribution and the Celtic-reggae lilt of this live version gave some extra life to one of the album’s more lightweight cuts.
“I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” has a similarly lightweight subject, but this new hard-rock version, complete with a kick-out-the-jams guitar solo, is anything but light — yet another spirited remake of an old warhorse tune. “When the Spell is Broken” benefited from a similarly boosted tempo, but somewhere around mid-song it suffered from another slight sag in energy and focus. “I Feel So Good,” on the other hand, became almost a punk anthem, a real rave-up with newly energized vocals and guitar lines, and another appearance by Zorn’s littlest saxophone.
Long a fixture of Thompson band shows, “Tear Stained Letter” has in the past stood in danger of becoming a paint-by-numbers standard, even though its sing-along choruses and lengthy solo section at the end are sure crowd pleasers. But once again, with Jerome supplying an energetic beat, Thompson stood this song up and made it dance. Instead of launching right into his solo, he started and stopped several times, as though he was reaching into a grab bag of phrases and throwing them playfully into the crowd. Then he picked up the pieces and tied them all together in a blow-out solo that brought the audience spontaneously to its feet, a masterfully choreographed ending to the regular set.
Thompson returned to the stage alone for the first encore, launching into “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” arguably his all-time audience favorite. As with “Tear Stained Letter” Thompson has at times nearly been guilty of phoning this one in, but not on this night. After performing “Vincent” nearly every time he’s been on stage this decade, Thompson seems to have found the heart of this ballad. His intricate fingerpicking remains as awe-inspiring as ever, but somehow he has given the song and its characters more room to breathe, and in the process has breathed new life into James, Red Molly and Sgt. McRae. It’s worth the price of admission just for this stunningly reinvigorated work, which has my vote for one of the Top 10 folk songs of the century.
After that, it was mostly downhill — although to be fair, most performers’ peaks never reach the foothills of a Richard Thompson show. “Crawl Back (Under My Stone)” and “Man in Need” were suitably vigorous, and the latter ended with another goosebump-raising bit of three-part harmony. Richard and Teddy opened the second encore with “A Heart Needs a Home,” and you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. Although it benefitted from Jerome’s energetic drumming, the rock anthem “Wall of Death” is showing its age. “Razor Dance,” the only song in the set from 1995’s You? Me? Us?, seemed a curiously bleak way to end the show.
But nobody went away unhappy. They may not have heard their one favorite from among Thompson’s dozens of songs spanning four decades, but they got one of the best rock-n-roll shows on the road today.
