In his black jeans, shirt, and beret, Richard Thompson takes the stage with an almost military look; his guitar strap could almost be mistaken for an ammunition belt. Though his age, 66, places him more in the category of grizzled veteran, few are as strong a sharpshooter as still he is on electric guitar where his distinctive style is beyond copying.
Hey, he’s even got an official title by now. Not colonel or sergeant or lieutenant, but Officer of the Order of the British Empire, one of those OBEs you’re supposed to put at the end of your name.
And though his career is pushing 50 years since his first days as a teenage guitarist in Fairport Convention, he continues to issue solid, largely ignored, solo work, such as the new Jeff Tweedy-produced Still just out this week. That’s what got him out on a tour that brought him to the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., for the first of two nights Tuesday.
With a nimble duo as rhythm section that enhances and furthers his seemingly effortless guitar attack, he’s able to escalate his artistry on the handful of new numbers as well as providing a sprinkling of what he self-mockingly called “the timeless classics you pay big money for.”
Thompson is one of those rare musicians who seem packed with too much talent—ace guitarist, fine songwriter, great vocalist. With a bemused manner between songs, he’s a darned pleasing entertainer as well.
For a place as genteel as the Birchmere, where people are forbidden to talk during performances, he seemed to crush the sold out crowd with his striking songs and constantly inventive soloing.
He began with the new, stomping “All Buttoned Up,” with a little more velocity than it has on the album and “Sally D” from his 2013 Electric album, whose melody was doubled by guitar and then the bass of Taras Prodaniuk, who was doing some pretty inventive things on his instrument all evening as well. On things like “Hard on Me,” the two each got solos. Drummer Michael Jerome would get his chance too.
Midshow, as the sidemen left—“a slight union dispute,” Thompson quipped—Thompson put on display his equally reputable acoustic fingerpicking work on the great “1953 Vincent Black Lightning” and the new “Josephine.”
Thompson’s been doing this so long, he can call out his oldies by their decade. So from the ’70s came “For the Shame of Doing Wrong” a not-often played song from his album with then-wife Linda Thompson, Pour Down with Silver marking its 40th anniversary this year.
From the ’80s, two were chosen from the classic divorce album, Shoot Out the Lights near the end of the show, both “Did She Jump or Was She Pushed” and “Wall of Death.” They were followed by the sturdy sing-along “Tear-Stained Letter” to cap the main portion of the show.
But even his more recent stuff stands strong with the oldies, particularly 2010’s dizzying “If Love Whispers Your Name,” a ballad that built and built to an astounding solo.
Thompson pays tribute to his heroes today as he has always done. He covered Otis Blackwell’s “Daddy Rolling Stone” as tasty final encore and name dropped the near forgotten 1930s jazz crooner in his suitably jazzy version of “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven,” about forgotten WWII soldiers.
But he ran through a litany of guitar greats on his new track “Guitar Heroes” reproducing the styles of Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, James Burton, Chuck Berry, and Hank Marvin of the British instrumental aces The Shadows.
One day, somebody will put Thompson in such a stellar array of guitar greats—but they’ll find he won’t be so easy to copy.
Birchmere opener Robert Ellis seemed eager to show off his own guitar chops—a kind of Flamenco fussiness that didn’t always serve his songs; sometimes when the Texan sped up, the guitar lines started to trip up and mar the pace. It helped further prove how special the talents of the headliner really were.
Set list for Richard Thompson: “All Buttoned Up,” “Sally B,” “Broken Doll,” “For the Shame of Doing Wrong,” “Hard on Me,” “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” “Josephine,” “”Beatnik Walking,” “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven,” “Guitar Heroes,” “”Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?,” “I’ll Never Give Up,” “Wall of Death,” “If Love Whispers Your Name,” “Tear Stained Letter” (encore), “Dry My Tears and Move On” (encore), “Fork in the Road,” “Daddy Rolling Stone.”
TOP PHOTO: RON SLEZNAK | BOTTOM PHOTO: PAMELA LITTKY
