Richard Thompson Solo Acoustic Show is Huge Fan Favorite

It was a packed house on Wednesday, April 19th, when the legendary Richard Thompson performed at Landmark on Main Street. I am embarrassed to admit that what I knew about Richard Thompson going in was not much. I was a big fan of his song “Persuasion” which I knew from the wonderful cover by Tim Finn of Crowded House. Aside from that, I knew of his 50-year musical history, but I’d had little exposure to his music.

Seated two seats to my left was a man who raised his hand when WFUV’s John Platt asked how many people had seen Richard Thompson over 30 times. He was not the only one. The audience was filled with Thompson devotees, some of whom had been following the musician for decades.

The opening act was Joan Shelley, a singer/songwriter from Kentucky. She was accompanied by guitarist Nathan Salsburg, who collaborated on her latest release, Over and Even. Shelley indeed has a lovely voice, described as “flowing like a river.” Among the songs they performed in their set was “Jenny Come In,” “No More Shelter,” “Stay on My Shore,” and “Not Over by Half.” Both performers were competent guitarists and the music was pleasant, but they might be served by a more diverse mix of songs. Shelley has a smooth, velvety voice, but the song choices were all a bit similar.

After a brief intermission, Richard Thompson took the stage armed with a single acoustic guitar. When he began playing “Bathsheba Smiles” my jaw immediately dropped open. (I was not the only one.) I can’t say this sincerely enough – Richard Thompson is the real deal: a superb songwriter, a passionate singer, and a masterful guitarist. Thompson has got it all.

Over the next hour and a half, Thompson played songs spanning his five decades in music, from his days with Fairport Convention in the late 1960’s, to his latest solo CD, Still. Thompson manages to make his guitar sound like three – using a technique where he aggressively picks out bass lines and rhythm, and adds punctuation from the treble strings. He also utilizes alternate tunings. Landmark has been host to many excellent guitarists, including Tommy Emmanuel, Richard Smith, and David Bromberg.

But what stands out most about Thompson is his songwriting. Clearly a bright and witty individual, Thompson injects his songs with clever lyrics and haunting melodies. Some of the standouts included “Broken Doll,” “Uninhabited Man,” and the sad/angry “I Misunderstood” which contains the chorus “But I misunderstood, I misunderstood, when I thought she was saying good luck, she was saying goodbye.” The audience loved the snarky breakup song “Crocodile Tears” containing the lyrics “but crocodiles do it much better, they’re much more humane and forgiving, their victims are dead in a minute it’s said, while yours have to carry on living.” Thompson also refuted the “men don’t make passes at ladies with glasses” idea with his entertaining “Hots for the Smarts.”

The stellar show included a couple of songs from his days touring with ex-wife Linda Thompson – “Wall of Death” and “Down Where the Drunkards Roll,” as well as fan favorite “1952 Vincent Black Lightening” (complete with a motorcycle set up by the merch table). He also paid tribute to the late Sandy Denny by performing Fairport Convention’s lovely “Who Knows Where the Time Goes.” He closed with a song that I particularly like, the jaunty “One Door Opens” with its interesting droning guitar.

Naturally, the audience did not want that to be the end (nor, apparently, did Thompson). He returned to the stage, accompanied by Joan Shelley on vocals, to do three more songs, including the painfully beautiful “Dimming of the Day.” Thompson returned to the stage one final time to perform the lovely “Beeswing” with the chorus “she was a rare thing, fine as a bee’s wing, so fine a breath of wind might blow her away. She was a lost child, well she was running wild, she said ‘as long as there’s no price on love I’ll stay. And you wouldn’t want me any other way’.”

As the audience filed out of Landmark, the talk was all about how wonderful the show was, what a great performer he is, what a superb songwriter … and I couldn’t agree more.

Be sure to check out Landmark’s upcoming performances, including Mavis Staples, Aimee Mann, and Livingston Taylor & Karla Bonoff at www.landmarkonmainstreet.org.

Concert date 2017-04-19