Dave Mason é um artista muito especial, que curiosamente não teve a carreira notável que merecia ter tido. Mesmo assim, trabalhou muito ao longo dos últimos 50 anos compondo grandes canções, gravado discos muito bons e produzido trabalhos para vários músicos amigos, que sempre confiaram no taco dele. Mr. Mason é um cantor com um registro vocal intenso, bem soul, e é, claro, um guitarrista de mão cheia. Está no Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame como integrante do Traffic, grupo onde trabalhou entre 1967 e 1970. Depois disso, Mr. Mason embarcou numa carreira solo brilhante –- seu LP de estreia “Alone Together” é um clássico absoluto, tido como um dos melhores discos de estreia de todos os tempos -- e ganhou muito dinheiro e muito prestígio ao longo dos Anos 70. A partir dos 80, no entanto, teve sua carreira sufocada pela nova política artística das gravadoras pós-Thriller, e, na medida em que nunca pretendeu ser um blockbuster, tratou de se recolher na cena independente, onde foi bem recebido e manteve cativos seus admiradores conquistados em anos anteriores, sem se preocupar muito em cativar novas plateias e em manter sua música atualizada com as novidades da cena musical. Trabalhou com a elite do rock and roll e do pop: Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Cass Elliot, Rita Coolidge, Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, Leon Russell, Ron Wood, Phoebe Snow, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton e Jim Capaldi. Chegou a fazer parte do Fleetwwod Mac no LP “Time” (1995), quando ele e a jovem cantora Bekka Bramlett (filha de seus amigos Delaney & Bonnie) substituíram Lindsey Buckingham e Stevie Nicks, que estavam brigados com o resto da banda. Continua na ativa, sempre lotando teatros ou nightblubs, e de tempos em tempos ressurge com LPs com novas canções gravadas em seu home-studio. (Chico Marques)
Robert Clark Seger passou sua infância em Ann Arbor, Michigan, pertinho de Detroit, onde seu pai trabalhava (na Ford). Em 1956, aos dez anos de idade, seus pais se separaram e se mudou para a Califórnia. Com isso, o padrão de vida dos Seger baixou drasticamente, e Bob teve que interromper sua adolescência para trabalhar. Descobriu seu interesse por música nas escolas por onde passou, e participou de várias bandas. Suas primeiras inspirações musicais foram Little Richard e Elvis Presley. Começou a tocar profissionalmente em 1964. Gravou seu primeiro LP em 1966. Formou seu próprio grupo -- Bob Seger & The Last -- e gravou vários discos para a pequena gravadora Cameo Records. Em 1967, foi contratado pela Capitol Records para gravar 3 LPs e montou uma nova banda: Bob Seger System. Ao final do contrato, Seger decidiu parar por uns tempos para concluir a Universidade, e só voltou em 1972, agora pela Reprise Records, com os excelentes “Back In 72” e “Smokin’ OP’s”, quando finalmente emplacou nas paradas nacionais. Então, recebeu uma bela proposta da Capitol, sua velha casa, e assinou um contrato longo e bem lucrativo que o levou ao estrelato, agora como Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. Gravou LPs de estúdio sensacionais como “Beautiful Loser”, “Night Moves”, “The Distance” e “The Fire Inside”, e se afirmou como um dos artistas mais vibrantes dos palcos americanos em discos ao vivo soberbos como “Live Bullet” e “Nine Tonight”. Dos Anos 90 para cá, Seger perdeu o status de estrela, já que seus discos passaram a vender bem menos, mas nem por isso se deixou abalar. Segue em frente, sempre na estrada, sempre gravando novos discos de tempos em tempos, sempre acompanhado de sua afiadíssima Silver Bullet Band. Às vezes, abusa um pouco com seu saudosismo exacerbado. Mas é um cara legal, e um artista bem bacana. (Chico Marques)
Claude Russell Bridges (Lawton, Oklahoma, 2 de abril de 1942 - Nashville, Tennessee, 13 de novembro de 2016), conhecido profissionalmente como Leon Russell, foi um músico, compositor, arranjador e produtor que trabalhou como músico de estúdio e sideman ao longo dos Anos 60.
No final dos 60, uniu forças ao cantor e compositor texano Marc Benno e juntos gravaram dois discos espetaculares para a Mercury Records que acabaram sendo ouvidos pelas pessoas certas. De repente, Leon começou a ser requisitado por praticamente todo mundo na cena do rock and roll – dos Rolling Stones aos Flying Burrito Brothers -- para deixar seu toque especial em seus discos.
Depois da clássica tournée dos Mad Dogs & Englishmen de Joe Cocker em 1970, Leon resolveu que era a hora de gravar seu primeiro disco solo. E gravou um dos LPs de estreia mais impressionantes da história do rock and roll. Seus discos seguintes seguiram o mesmo padrão de excelência e a mesma trilha de sucesso. E, então, de repente, Leon era o artista mais quente do mercado, dono de sua própria gravadora (Shelter Records) e cercado pelos artistas mais talentosos que o dinheiro pode comprar. Mas Leon tinha um problema: era um péssimo administrador. E pouco antes do final dos Anos 70 a Shelter faliu de forma espetacular, deixando Leon sem nada. Só com seu talento.
Graças a amigos como Willie Nelson e Kris Kristofferson, Leon caiu na estrada e tratou de capitalizar rápido para se livrar das dívidas que ainda restavam. Mas os tempos eram outros, e não foi fácil para ele conseguir se situar novamente nas cenas country e rock and roll. Tudo havia mudado drasticamente. O jeito para Leon era viver de seu passado glorioso. E lá foi ele, gravando discos ligeiros, muito aquém de sua capacidade, e fazendo shows caça-níqueis com Edgar Winter pelo mundo afora.
Em 2010, Elton John soube que Leon – seu herói musical e melhor amigo quando chegou aos Estados Unidos em 1970 -- estava doente e em dificuldades financeiras e o convidou para gravarem um disco juntos. Assim nasceu The Union, uma das parcerias mais bacanas da história recente do rock and roll, que deu um novo alento à sua carreira combalida.
Os últimos anos de vida de Leon Russell foram tranquilos e gratificantes. Em 2011, entrou para o Hall da Fama do Rock and Roll. Teve tempo suficiente para gravar dois discos muito bons – quase tão bons quanto os que gravava no início dos Anos 70. E, quando morreu, deixou uma legado musical valiosíssimo, que ainda precisa ser devidamente descoberto pelas novas gerações. (Chico Marques)
DISCOGRAFIA
1968 Look Inside the Asylum Choir (com Marc Benno)
1969 Asylum Choir II (com Marc Benno)
1970 Leon Russell
1971 Leon Russell and the Shelter People
1972 Carney
1973 Leon Live
1973 Hank Wilson's Back Vol. I
1974 Stop All That Jazz
1975 Will O' the Wisp
1976 Wedding Album (com Mary Russell) 1977 Make Love to the Music (com Mary Russell)
Emmylou Harris (Birmingham, Alabama, 2 de abril de 1947) é uma cantora e compositora norte-americana de música country, folk e “americana”. Sua voz de soprano torna-a uma das mais distintas cantoras da música popular dos Estados Unidos.
Nascida em família de militares, Emmylou passou a infância e adolescência mudando de cidade em cidade, entre os estados de Alabama, Carolina do Norte e Virgínia. Enquanto estudava teatro na University of North Carolina, ela aprendeu a tocar músicas de Bob Dylan e Joan Baez. Em seguida, mudou-se para Nova York, para dedicar-se apenas à música. Trabalhou como garçonete e apresentou-se em clubes folk. Casou-se em 1969 com o compositor Tom Slocum e, nesse mesmo ano, lançou seu primeiro álbum, Gliding Bird, depois renegado (algumas fontes dão o ano de 1968).
Divorciando-se em seguida, e com uma filha para criar, Emmylou retornou para a casa dos pais, a essa altura donos de uma fazenda perto de Washington, DC. Logo formou um trio e voltou a tocar. Em 1971, enquanto se apresentavam em um pequeno clube, foram descobertos por Chris Hillman, ex-The Byrds, à época na banda de country rock Flying Burrito Brothers. Hillman indicou Emmylou a Gram Parsons, que precisava de uma vocalista. Emmylou participou dos dois discos de Parsons, G.P. (1972) e Grievous Angel (1973) e de uma turnê que rendeu preciosos duetos entre os dois. Com a morte de Parsons ainda em 1973, Emmylou regressou a Washington e formou a Hot Band, com quem finalmente gravaria seu primeiro disco por uma grande gravadora, o aclamado Pieces of the Sky, em 1975. O álbum foi produzido por Brian Ahern, com quem se casaria logo depois.
Com a Hot Band, em suas várias formações, Emmylou gravou a maioria de seus discos seguintes até Brand New Dance, de 1990. A banda revelou os músicos Ricky Skaggs, famoso nos círculos bluegrass e Rodney Crowell, compositor cuja importância transcende a música country, além de ter contado com nomes famosos, como James Burton, o lendário guitarrista de Elvis Presley.
Com o fim da Hot Band, Emmylou formou a acústica The Nash Ramblers, com quem gravou o álbum ao vivo At The Ryman, em 1993. A essa altura, Emmylou já era dona de um prestígio invejável nos meios musicais e já vendera milhões de discos, mas ao invés de sossegar, ela procurava novos caminhos e, em 1995, lançou o seminal Wrecking Ball. Produzido por Daniel Lanois, que já trabalhara com Bob Dylan, U2 e Peter Gabriel, o disco é o resultado de muita ousadia e experimentalismo, com seus climas etéreos e ausência de fórmulas fáceis. Em 2000 saiu o premiado (com o Grammy de Melhor Disco de Folk Contemporâneo) Red Dirt Girl, o primeiro só de composições próprias desde The Ballad of Sally Rose, de 1985. Gravou tambem All the Roadrunning (2006), uma descontraída colaboração com o amigo Mark Knopfler.
Apesar de colocada, para fins de referência, no gênero country, Emmylou transita igualmente pelo folk, country alternativo, rock e, ocasionalmente pelo pop. Sempre interessada pelas raízes da música americana, seus discos quase sempre contêm antigas canções folclóricas, canções gospel e bluegrass. Além de compor, cada vez com mais intensidade, Emmylou gravou praticamente todos os grandes compositores de música popular, de Bob Dylan a Lennon & McCartney, passando por Bruce Springsteen, Hank Williams, Steve Earle, Louvin Brothers, Neil Young e Johnny Cash.
Outra característica sua é a disponibilidade para participar em projetos de outros artistas. Com isso, ela já gravou com nomes tão díspares quanto Sheryl Crow, Ralph Stanley, Marianne Faithfull, Roy Rogers, Beck, Dave Matthews, Bob Dylan e John Denver.
DISCOGRAFIA
Gliding Bird (Jubilee) 1969
Pieces of the Sky (Reprise/Warner Bros.) 1975
Elite Hotel (Reprise/Warner Bros.) 1975
Luxury Liner (Warner Bros.) 1977
Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town (Warner Bros.) 1978
Blue Kentucky Girl (Warner Bros.) 1979
Light of the Stable (X-mas album) (Warner Bros.) 1979
Roses in the Snow (Warner Bros.) 1980
Evangeline (Warner Bros.) 1981
Cimarron (Warner Bros.) 1981
Last Date (Warner Bros.) 1982
White Shoes (Warner Bros.) 1983
The Ballad of Sally Rose (Warner Bros.) 1985
Thirteen (Warner Bros.) 1986
Angel Band (Warner Bros.) 1987
Trio (Warner Bros.) 1987 (com Dolly Parton e Linda Ronstadt)
Bluebird (Reprise/Warner Bros.) 1989
Brand New Dance (Reprise/Warner Bros.) 1990
At the Ryman (Warner Bros.) 1992
Cowgirl's Prayer (Elektra/Warner Bros.) 1993
Wrecking Ball (Asylum/Warner Bros.) 1995
Nashville Country Duets (Sundown) 1996 (com Carl Jackson)
Spyboy (Eminent) 1998
Trio II (Elektra) 1999 (com Dolly Parton e Linda Ronstadt)
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (Elektra) 1999 (com Linda Ronstadt)
Red Dirt Girl (Nonesuch/Warner Bros.) 2000
Stumble into Grace (Nonesuch/Warner Bros.) 2003
All the Roadrunning (Mercury Records) 2006 (com Mark Knopfler)
McKinley Morganfield ou Muddy Waters (4 de abril de 1913 - Issaquena, Mississippi – 30 de abril de 1983 - Westmont, Illinois) foi um músico de blues norte-americano, considerado o pai do Chicago blues. Foi considerado o 49º melhor guitarrista de todos os tempos pela revista norte-americana Rolling Stone. O nome artístico (em português, Águas Lamacentas) ele ganhou devido ao costume de quando criança brincar em um rio. Seu primeiro instrumento foi a gaita, que aprendeu a tocar aos 13 anos, tocava nas esquinas por trocados e comida junto com um amigo. Enquanto ainda jovem, viu Charley Patton e Son House tocarem, Son House inclusive foi uma grande influência, ele mostrou a Muddy como tocar guitarra slide com uma garrafa de vidro, o que o levou a trocar de instrumento aos 17 anos.
Ele mudaria-se mais tarde de Mississipi para Chicago, Illinois, onde trocou o violão pela guitarra elétrica. Sua popularidade começou a crescer entre os músicos negros, e isso o permitiu passar a se apresentar em clubes de grande movimento. A técnica de Waters é fortemente característica devido a seu uso da braçadeira na guitarra. Suas primeiras gravações pela Chess Records apresentavam Waters na guitarra e vocais apoiado por um violoncelo. Posteriormente, ele adicionaria uma seção rítmica e a gaita de Little Walter, inventando a formação clássica de Chicago Blues.
Com sua voz profunda, rica, uma personalidade carismática e o apoio de excelentes músicos, Waters rapidamente tornou-se a figura mais famosa do Chicago Blues. Até mesmo B. B. King se referiria a ele mais tarde como o "Chefe de Chicago". Suas bandas eram um "quem é quem" dos músicos de Chicago Blues: Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, James Cotton, Junior Wells, Willie Dixon, Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins, Buddy Guy, e muitos outros.
As gravações de Waters do final dos anos 1950 e começo dos 60 foram particularmente suas melhores. Muitas das canções tocadas por ele tornaram-se sucesso: Walkin' blues, Hoochie Coochie Man, She’s Nineteen Years Old e Rolling and Tumbling, grandes clássicos que ganhariam versões de várias bandas dos estilos mais diversos. Sua influência foi enorme em muitos gêneros musicais: blues, rhythm and blues, folk, jazz. Foi Waters quem ajudou Chuck Berry a conseguir seu primeiro contrato.
Em 30 de abril de 1983 Muddy Waters morreu vítima de Insuficiência cardíaca enquanto dormia na sua casa em Westmont, Illinois. Foi enterrado no "Restvale Cemetery" em Alsip, Illinois.[2] A cidade de Chicago e o subúrbio de Westmont homenageram Muddy colocando seu nome em vias públicas. Entre outras canções com as quais Waters tornou-se conhecido estão Long Distance Call, Mannish Boy e o hino do rock/blues I’ve Got My Mojo Working. Muddy Waters foi induzido ao "Blues Hall of Fame" em 1980 e ao "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame'" já postumamente em 1987.
Discografia
1941 - Stovall's Plantation
1941 - First Recording Sessions 1941-1946
1948 - I can't be satisfied
1950 - Rolling Stone
1953 - Baby Please don't go
1954 - (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man
1955 - Mannish Boy
1956 - Got My Mojo Working
1956 - Louisiana Blues
1956 - Mississippi Blues
1960 - At Newport
1960 - Muddy Watersy sings Big Bill Broonzy
1963 - Folk Festival of the Blues
1964 - The best of Muddy Waters
1964 - Folk Singer
1964 - Muddy Waters
1965 - Live Recordings 1965-1973
1965 - Muddy Waters with Little Walter
1965 - The Real Folk Blues
1966 - Down on Stovall's Plantation
1966 - Muddy Waters: The Blues Man
1966 - Muddy, Brass and Blues
1967 - Blues from Big Bill's Copacabana
1967 - Muddy Brass & the Blues
1967 - More Real Folk Blues
1967 - Super Blues (Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Little Walter)
1967 - The Super Super Blues Band (Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf)
Richard John Thompson, OBE (born 3 April 1949) is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He made his début as a recording artist as a member of Fairport Convention in September 1967. He continues to write and record new material regularly and frequently performs live at venues throughout the world. Thompson was awarded the Orville H. Gibson Award for best acoustic guitar player in 1991.Similarly, his songwriting has earned him an Ivor Novello Award and, in 2006, a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio.Many and varied musicians have recorded Thompson's compositions. Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music. On 5 July 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen.
EARLY LIFE AND CARRER (1949 to 1972)
Richard John Thompson was born in Ladbroke Crescent, Notting Hill, West London, England. His father, a Scot, was by profession a Scotland Yard detective, and an amateur guitar player; several other family members had played music professionally. While attending William Ellis School in Highgate, he formed his first band "Emil and the Detectives" (named after a book and a movie by the same name) with classmate Hugh Cornwell, later lead singer and guitarist of The Stranglers, on bass guitar. Like so many musicians of his generation, Thompson was exposed to and embraced rock and roll music at an early age, and he was also exposed to his father's jazz and traditional Scottish music record collection.[8] His father had seen Django Reinhardt play in Glasgow in the 1930s and played guitar himself. He was later described by his son as "a bad amateur player ... with three chords, though, unfortunately, not C, F and G." All these musical genres were to colour Thompson's playing in the years to come.
Joe Boyd said: He can imitate almost any style, and often does, but is instantly identifiable. In his playing you can hear the evocation of the Scottish piper's drone and the melody of the chanter as well as echoes of Barney Kessell's and James Burton's guitars and Jerry Lee Lewis's piano. But no blues clichés.
By the age of 18 Thompson was playing with the newly formed Fairport Convention. Thompson's guitar playing caught the ear of American producer Joe Boyd. Largely on the strength of Thompson's playing Boyd took them under his wing and signed them to his Witchseason production and management company.
Boyd said: And there was this group of very nice Muswell Hill grammar school boys and a girl playing American music. Leonard Cohen songs, and Richard Fariña songs, and Bob Dylan songs, all being done in a kind of West-Coasty rock style. And then came the guitar solo, and Richard just played the most amazing solo. He played a solo which quotes from Django, from Charlie Christian, you know, an incredibly sophisticated little solo. And that really amazed me, the breadth of his sophistication... and so, you know, at the end of the gig I was in the dressing room saying 'would you guys like to make a record?'
Shortly thereafter Thompson, already acquiring a reputation as an outstanding guitar player, started writing songs seriously. This seems to have been out of necessity as Fairport Convention was essentially a cover band at first.
I remember saying to Ashley [Hutchings, bassist] after a gig, that I was kind of embarrassed about doing the material we were doing, because it seemed that we should have outgrown doing covers – even though it was only 1967 – it somehow wasn't good enough and other bands were writing their own stuff and we should too. I remember being angry and saying to Ashley this isn't good enough, we've got to get some original material... and stuff started to trickle through.
By early 1969, when Fairport's second album What We Did on Our Holidays was recorded and released, Thompson was starting to emerge as a songwriter of distinction. As Fairport's lineup and their sound evolved, Thompson continued to grow in stature as a player and as a songwriter with compositions like "Meet on the Ledge". He also wrote songs jointly with the band's fiddle player, Dave Swarbrick, songs such as "Crazy Man Michael" from the seminal folk-rock album Liege & Lief and "Sloth" from its follow-up Full House. On 12 May 1969, between the recording and release of Unhalfbricking, Fairport's van crashed on the M1 motorway on the way home from a gig at Mothers, a club in Birmingham. Drummer Martin Lamble, aged 19, and Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn were killed. The rest of the band suffered injuries of varying severity. In January 1971 Thompson announced that he was leaving Fairport Convention. His decision seems to have been instinctive, rather than a calculated career move:
I left Fairport as a gut reaction and didn't really know what I was doing, except writing. I was writing stuff and it seemed interesting and I thought it would be fun to make a record. And at the same time – 70–71 – I was doing a lot of session work as a way of avoiding any serious ideas about a career.
In April 1972 he released his first solo album Henry the Human Fly, recording with Sandy Denny, Pat Donaldson, Sue Draheim, John Kirkpatrick, Barry Dransfield, Ashley Hutchings, Linda Peters, Andy Roberts, and others. The album sold poorly and was panned by the press, especially the influential Melody Maker magazine. With time Henry has come to be more highly regarded, but at the time the critics' response hurt both Thompson and his career.
1970s: Richard and Linda Thompson
By the 1970s, Thompson had begun a relationship with the singer Linda Peters, who had sung on Henry the Human Fly. In October 1972 the couple were married, and Thompson, with Linda now effectively his front woman, regrouped for his next album and the next phase of his career. The first Richard and Linda Thompson album, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, was recorded in May 1973 in short time and on a small budget. Largely because of the petrol shortage in Britain and its impact on the availability of vinyl for records, Bright Lights was held back by Island Records for nearly a year before being released in April 1974. The album was well received by the critics, though sales were less than stellar. Thompson's lyrics expressed a rather dismal world view, and it has been suggested that the bleak subject matter of his songs helped to keep his recordings off the hit parade. A more likely explanation was given by ex-Island A&R man Richard Williams in the 2003 BBC TV documentary Solitary Life: Thompson was just not interested in fame and its trappings. The Thompsons recorded two more albums—Hokey Pokey and Pour Down Like Silver, both released in 1975—before Richard Thompson decided to leave the music business. The couple moved to a Sufi community in East Anglia.
It was not apparent from their records at first, but the Thompsons had embraced an esoteric Sufi strand of Islam in early 1974. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight was recorded before this conversion, but released some time afterwards. The songs for the second Richard and Linda album, Hokey Pokey, were similarly written some time ahead of the album's recording and eventual release. It was Pour Down Like Silver, with its cover photo of a turbaned Richard Thompson, that tipped the public off to the Thompsons' growing preoccupation with their faith.
The trilogy of albums released before and after his sojourn in the commune was heavily influenced by Thompson's beliefs and by Sufi scripture, but in the long run his religious beliefs have not influenced his work in an obvious manner. The outlook expressed in his songs, his musical style, the subjects addressed by his lyrics have not shown any fundamental change. He remains a committed Muslim.
Thompson started to re-engage with the world of professional music in 1977. He played on an album by Sandy Denny, and had undertaken a short tour and started recording with a group of musicians who were also Sufis. Thompson asked Joe Boyd to produce these sessions, and two days were spent on the initial recordings. Boyd recalls that the sessions were not a success: "It was really, I felt, very poor. I didn't have much confidence in the musicians that he was working with. The atmosphere was very strange and it just didn't seem to work."
At about this time the Thompsons and their family moved out of the commune and back to their old home in Hampstead. Boyd had already invited Richard Thompson to play on Julie Covington's debut album. With spare studio time and the American session musicians hired to work on the Covington album available, the Thompsons went back into the studio to record under their own name for the first time in three years. The resulting album, First Light, was warmly received by the critics but did not sell particularly well. Neither did its follow up, 1979's harder-edged and more cynical Sunnyvista. Chrysalis Records did not take up their option to renew the contract, and the Thompsons found themselves without one.
1980s
Gerry Rafferty had booked the Thompsons as the support act for his 1980 tour, and had also used Richard as a session player on his Night Owl album. Rafferty offered to finance the recording of a new Richard and Linda Thompson album which he would then use to secure a contract for the Thompsons. Richard Thompson fell out with Rafferty during this project and was not happy with the finished product. Nevertheless, Rafferty kept his side of the bargain and presented the album to several record companies – none of which expressed interest in signing the Thompsons. Rafferty did not recover his investment.
About a year later Joe Boyd signed the Thompsons to his small Hannibal label and a new album was recorded. Shoot Out the Lights included new recordings of many of the songs recorded in 1980. Linda Thompson was pregnant at the time of the recording, so the album's release was delayed until they could tour behind the album. Breathing problems arising from her pregnancy also meant that Linda could not sing the lead part on some of these songs as she had done on demo tapes and the Rafferty-produced recordings.
As an interim measure, Richard Thompson decided to arrange for a low-key tour of the U.S. This tour was set up by Nancy Covey who had been in the UK in 1981 trying to sign Thompson to play at the famous McCabe's guitar shop in Santa Monica. During this tour Thompson and Covey developed some personal intimacy, and in December 1981 Richard and Linda Thompson separated. Upon its release in 1982, Shoot Out the Lights was lauded by critics and sold quite well – especially in the U.S.
The Thompsons, now a couple for professional purposes only, toured the United States in support of the album, their only American tour together. Both the album and their live shows were well received by the American media, and Shoot Out the Lights effectively relaunched their career – just as their marriage was falling apart. The performances, with a backing band including both Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention, were seen as strong, but the tension between Richard and Linda was all too obvious. For this reason, the Thompsons' fans often refer to the Shoot Out the Lights tour as "The Tour from Hell.". Upon returning home, Richard and Linda went their separate ways. Richard Thompson continued recording as a solo artist. His 1983 album Hand of Kindness saw him working with Boyd again, but with a revised backing band and a more extroverted and up-tempo song selection.
With his separation from Linda finalized, Richard Thompson began to commute between twin bases in London and Los Angeles and began to tour regularly in the USA. Encouraged by the success of his solo shows in late 1981 and early 1982, he began to perform solo with increasing frequency and continued to tour with a band. In 1983 and 1984 he toured the USA and Europe with the Richard Thompson Big Band, which included two saxophone players in addition to the more usual rhythm section, second guitar and accordion. Set lists included covers of classic rock 'n roll songs and jazz standards such as "Tuxedo Junction".
In 1985 Thompson signed with PolyGram and received a sizeable advance. He also married Nancy Covey and moved his home and his working base to California. As part of the settlement that allowed Thompson to leave Boyd's Hannibal label for Polygram, the live album Small Town Romance was released. This comprised recordings made during Thompson's solo shows in the USA in late 1981 and early 1982. 1985's Across a Crowded Room was his last album to be recorded in England and the last to have Boyd as producer. Thompson put together a new look backing band for the tour to promote this album, and some shows were filmed for a live video release.
In 1986 he released Daring Adventures, which was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Mitchell Froom. Daring Adventures, with a rich sound, markedly different production and use of American session players, was perceived by some as evidence of Thompson's increasing "Americanisation". Perhaps more significantly, the album continued the trend, begun with Across A Crowded Room, of Thompson's songs moving away from the seemingly personal material and towards the character sketches and narratives for which he has since become famous. Froom and PolyGram had plans to target college and the growing "alternative" markets with Daring Adventures. Sales improved, but not substantially. Polygram declined an option to renew the contract. Thompson's management negotiated a new deal with Capitol Records.
In 1985 Fairport Convention reformed and recorded the album Gladys' Leap. Thompson did not rejoin Fairport, but he did contribute a song to the project and played guitar on another track on the album. 1988 saw the release of Thompson's first album for Capitol, Amnesia. Froom was retained as producer, and once again the album was recorded in Los Angeles with many of the same players that Froom had called upon for the Daring Adventures sessions.
1990s
Thompson contributed music to BBC Northwest's documentary Hard Cash and appears on the eponymous accompanying album issued by Topic. A track from the album, Time To Ring Some Changes is included in the 2009 Topic Records 70-year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten as track thirteen on the sixth CD. Thompson appears on Willie Nile's 1991 Places I Have Never Been album.
In 1991 Thompson recorded Rumor and Sigh, his second album for Capitol. Once again Froom produced. This album, particularly the acoustic guitar ballad "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," was hailed by critics and fans alike and greatly advanced Thompson's reputation as a leading traditional-style guitarist. Rumor and Sigh was nominated for a Grammy and sold well. However, a shake-up at Capitol saw Hale Milgrim (Thompson's champion and fan within the boardroom) replaced by Garry Gersh. Thus, Thompson's next album Mirror Blue was held back for almost a year before being released. In 1992 he performed with David Byrne. Their joint acoustic concert at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity in Brooklyn Heights, New York on 24 March, produced the album An Acoustic Evening, which was released the same year.
Mirror Blue was released in 1994, to often negative reviews sparked by the production decisions that Thompson and Froom took. Thompson took to the road to promote the album. He was joined by drummer Dave Mattacks, Danny Thompson (no relation) on double bass, and Pete Zorn on acoustic guitar, backing vocals, mandolin and various wind instruments. This line-up toured with Thompson the following two years. Thompson continued recording for Capitol until 1999, when Mock Tudor was recorded and released. His deal with Capitol was modified so that he could release and directly market limited-quantity, live recorded, not-for-retail albums. The first of these was Live at Crawley, released in 1995.
2000s
In 2001 Thompson declined the option to renew his contract with Capitol. In 2003 the BBC produced a documentary about Thompson's long musical career, entitled Solitary Life, directed by Paul Bernays and narrated by John Peel. It featured interviews with Thompson from his home in California and contributions from Billy Connolly, Bonnie Raitt, ex-wife Linda Thompson, Harry Shearer and Thompson's wife Nancy Covey. The programme was re-broadcast by BBC Four in September 2012.
The move away from big labels and big budgets paradoxically brought a bigger marketing push and healthier sales. Thompson's first two self-funded releases, 2003's The Old Kit Bag and 2005's Front Parlour Ballads, did well in the indie charts on both sides of the Atlantic. In May 2007 Thompson released Sweet Warrior. The album was licensed to different labels in different territories: Shout! Factory in the USA, P-Vine in Japan, Planet Records in Australia, and Proper Records in the UK and Europe. In August of the same year Island released a live Richard and Linda Thompson album, compiled from recordings made during the November 1975 tour to promote the Pour Down Like Silver album.
Thompson continued releasing "official bootlegs" on his boutique label as an additional source of revenue – all live recordings.
2010s
In early 2010 Thompson assembled a band and did a string of shows showcasing new material. The aim was to record the new material in a live setting. The recording and touring band consisted of Thompson, Pete Zorn, (acoustic guitar, flute, saxophone, mandolin, vocals); Michael Jerome (drums, vocals), Taras Prodaniuk, (bass guitar, vocals); and Joel Zifkin, (electric violin, mandolin, vocals). The resulting album Dream Attic, released in August the same year, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. On 10 June 2010 Thompson was awarded the Mojo Les Paul Award for "Guitar Legend". Thompson curated the 2010 Meltdown Festival. The festival included a tribute to the recently deceased Kate McGarrigle, a feature of which was a rare on-stage reunion of Richard and Linda Thompson. Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music. On 5 July 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen. In early 2013 Thompson released Electric, recorded in Nashville with Buddy Miller producing. The record enjoyed good reviews and debuted in the UK top 20. Thompson took to the road with a stripped down "power trio" band on a multi-month tour on both sides of the Atlantic to promote the new album. Also in 2013, Thompson appeared on his ex-wife Linda's fourth studio album Won't Be Long Now, on the track "Love's for Babies and Fools" . It is the second time the two have recorded together since Shoot Out the Lights, the other being the song "Dear Mary" on Linda's 2002 album Fashionably Late.
In 2014, Thompson released Acoustic Classics, an album featuring acoustic renditions of 14 songs from his back catalogue, on his Beeswing label. The record reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart. Thompson appears alongside family members, both blood related and by marriage, on the album Family (2014) by Thompson (the band being named for all the Thompsons that appear), performing two songs solo and contributing to others as well. The album was produced by son Teddy Thompson and features ex-wife Linda Thompson, The Rails who are Thompson's daughter Kami Thompson and her husband James Walbourne, as well as other related musicians, including Walbourne's brother and Richard Thompson's son from his second marriage.
Thompson released Still in June 2015, an album produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and recorded in Tweedy's The Loft Studio. In September 2015 he appeared on BBC Two's Later... with Jools Holland, where he performed "All Buttoned Up" and ""She Never Could Resist a Winding Road" from his album Still.
SIDE PROJECTS AND COLLABORATIONS
In between leaving Fairport Convention in early 1971 and releasing his debut solo album in 1972 he undertook a large amount of session work, most notably on albums by John Martyn, Al Stewart, Matthews Southern Comfort, Sandy Denny and Nick Drake. During the same period he also worked on two collaborative projects. Morris On was recorded with Ashley Hutchings, John Kirkpatrick, Dave Mattacks and Barry Dransfield, and was a collection of English traditional tunes arranged for electric instruments. The Bunch were almost the reverse conceptually – a grouping of English folk rock musicians (including Sandy Denny, Linda Peters and members of Fairport Convention) recording a selection of classic rock and roll tunes.
Thompson has continued to guest on albums by an array of artists, from Crowded House, Bonnie Raitt and Vivian Stanshall, to Norma Waterson and BeauSoleil and folk artists like Loudon Wainwright III, Cathal McConnell (of The Boys of the Lough) and Bob Davenport. He has also performed and recorded with Teddy Thompson, his son from his marriage to Linda Thompson.
Since the early 1980s Thompson has appeared at Fairport Convention's annual Cropredy Festival, both in his own right and as a participant in sets with current and previous Fairport members. These sets are seldom confined to performances of songs out of the Thompson or Fairport Convention canons, and in recent years some surprise offerings have included the soul classic "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (with Thompson backed by the Roy Wood Big Band), The Beatles' "I'm Down" and even "The Lady Is a Tramp".
Thompson has displayed a penchant for the avant garde as well, working with former Pere Ubu singer David Thomas's grouping The Pedestrians on two albums in 1981 and 1982, respectively. In the 1980s, he was associated with a loose-fitting group called The Golden Palominos, who were led by drummer Anton Fier and included at times on stage and on record Jack Bruce, Michael Stipe, Carla Bley, John Lydon, Bill Laswell and others. He has worked with experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser, most notably as part of the ad hoc grouping French Frith Kaiser Thompson with whom he recorded two albums. In 1997 he worked with long-time friend and band member Danny Thompson to record a concept album Industry that dealt with the decline of British industry. A year later he worked with early music expert Philip Pickett on the acclaimed Bones of All Men which fused renaissance tunes with contemporary music.
In recent years Thompson has devised and toured his show 1000 Years of Popular Music. The inspiration for this came when Playboy asked Thompson (and many other music industry figures) in 1999 for their suggestions for the "top ten songs of the millennium". Guessing that Playboy expected most people's lists to start at around 1950, Thompson took the magazine at its word and presented a list of songs from the 11th century to the present day. Perhaps not surprisingly, Playboy did not use his list, but the exercise gave him the idea for a show which takes a chronological trip through popular music across the ages. Thompson acknowledges that this is an ambitious undertaking, partly because he reckons that he is technically unqualified to sing 98% of the material, and partly because of the sparse musical setting he restricts himself to: besides his acoustic guitar, he's backed by singer/pianist Judith Owen and percussionist/singer Debra Dobkin. A typical performance would start with a medieval round, progress via a Purcell aria, Victorian music hall and Hoagy Carmichael and end with Thompson's take on the Britney Spears hit "Oops!... I Did It Again".
In 2004 Thompson was asked to create the soundtrack music for the Werner Herzog documentary Grizzly Man. The score, which was recorded over a two-day period in December 2004, brought Thompson together with a group of improvisational musicians, mostly from the San Francisco Bay area; video footage from the sessions was edited into a mini-documentary, In the Edges, which was included with the DVD release of Grizzly Man.
In 2009 Thompson was commissioned to write a piece for the International Society of Bassists in honour of Danny Thompson. The resulting Cabaret of Souls, a musical play set in the underworld, has been performed in State College (Pennsylvania), London, and Los Angeles with a cast that includes Harry Shearer, Judith Owen, Debra Dobkin, Pete Zorn, either Danny Thompson or David Piltch, and a 12-piece string section conducted by Peter Askim. This suite was eventually commercially released in late 2012.
In 2013, Thompson collaborated with Jack Shit for a cover of the traditional "General Taylor" for the Sea shanty-compilation Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys.
RETROSPECTIVES AND TRIBUTES
There are a number of retrospective collections of Thompson's work, many containing material which is unavailable elsewhere. 1976's (guitar, vocal) was a collection of unreleased material from the previous eight years of Thompson's appearances on the Island label. The 3-CD set Watching the Dark combines his better-known songs and previously unreleased live and studio tracks. Action Packed is a compilation of tracks from his Capitol releases, plus three hard-to-find songs. Finally, in 2006, the independent label Free Reed released RT: The Life and Music of Richard Thompson, a 5-CD box set consisting almost entirely of previously unreleased performances of songs from throughout Thompson's long career.
Thompson's songs have been extensively covered; for example, Dimming of the Day has been performed by artists such as The Neville Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, David Gilmour, The Blind Boys of Alabama, June Tabor, The Corrs and Alison Krauss and Union Station. There have been several tribute compilations of other artists' interpretations of his work, including: Capitol's Beat the Retreat: Songs by Richard Thompson and Green Linnet's The World Is a Wonderful Place: The Songs of Richard Thompson, both released in 1994.
PLAYING STYLE
Thompson makes use of the "pick and fingers" technique (sometimes referred to as "hybrid picking") where he plays bass notes and rhythm with a pick between his first finger and thumb, and adds melody and punctuation by plucking the treble strings with his fingers. He also makes use of different guitar tunings, such as (low to high) CGDGBE, DADGBE, DADGAD, and more. This enables him to adapt traditional songs, as on Strict Tempo! and 1000 Years of Popular Music. Thompson occasionally makes use of a thumb-pick, playing in fingerstyle, the most notable example being on the motorcycle ballad "1952 Vincent Black Lightning."
GUITARS: ELECTRIC
Thompson is often associated with the Fender Stratocaster guitar. He has made prominent use of Stratocasters, as he has a general preference for the sound of single coil pick-ups. When I started playing Fenders in 1968, it was unfashionable because everyone in England was playing Gibsons and trying to get a big, fat sound like Eric Clapton had in Cream. I just wanted a little more bite. Prior to using a Stratocaster with Fairport Convention he used a Gibson Les Paul with P-90 pick-ups. he then switched to a late 60s Stratocaster. Since leaving Fairport Convention he has continued to use electric guitars with single coil pick-ups, most famously a late-1950s Stratocaster but also two custom built electrics by Danny Ferrington as well as other Stratocasters, various Telecaster-type guitars and, in the studio, a Danelectro U2. As regards effects, he has made significant use of modulation and vibrato type effects pedals, most notably the Univibe and emulations thereof. Thompson has made intermittent use of Roland's GK-1 pick-up and GL-2 synthesiser over the years. He made use of these devices on 1979's Sunnyvista album and has occasionally used them in concert.
GUITARS: ACOUSTIC
Since the early 1990s Thompson has made prominent use of Lowden acoustic guitars for studio and live work. Before this he used a Martin 000-18 as well as instruments built by Danny Ferrington. For live work his acoustic guitars are fitted with a Sunrise pick-up and an internal condenser microphone. The output from the pick-up is usually fed into some effects pedals, typically a delay pedal and a Uni-Vibe.
