Search Results for:

RICHARD THOMPSON

Richard Thompson

Henry The Human Fly - 2023 Reissue

    The debut solo album from the influential British folk-rock pioneer Richard Thompson - Originally released on Island in 1972, the album showcases Thompson's remarkable, singular talent.

    Feted as their lead writer, Richard Thompson left Fairport Convention, the group he founded in 1967, in early 1971. Recorded at Joe Boyd's legendary Sound Techniques studio in Chelsea in February 1972, Henry The Human Fly was a 37-minute collection of everything that makes Thompson so cherished today – well-written vignettes with an emphasis on shadow, a cast of curious characters, all wrapped in his warm folk-based musical drone.

    Backed with some of the biggest names in field (Sandy Denny, Barry Dransfield, Ashley Hutchings), Henry The Human Fly showcases Thompson at an early peak. Among its 12 tracks, Nobody's Wedding borrows heavily from the traditional Irish air, Marie's Wedding; The Angels Took My Race Horse Away features Thompson's distinctive guitar playing, part- Django Reinhardt, part- Lou Reed. There is the delightful harp melody of The Old Changing Way; the eerie Salvation Army band nativity of Mary & Joseph – there is much to savour.

    This re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1972 Island Records UK release and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

    Richard Thompson

    Grizzly Man (Soundtrack)

      The remastered, repackaged set Music From Grizzly Man contains all of the out of print material Thompson recorded for the acclaimed documentary. Richard Thompson's score for “Grizzly Man” Werner Herzog's 2005 documentary film of real life and death in the Alaskan wilderness is one of the best-kept secrets in the British guitarist's epic canon: an instrumental masterpiece disguised as a movie soundtrack. Recorded over two days as Thompson played live in the studio to Herzog's footage – mostly alone, at times in chamber settings with cello, piano and percussion – these tenderly detailed melodies and quietly visceral improvisations are cinema in their own right, rendered with pictorial instinct and the dazzling technique forged in Thompson's lifelong passage through traditional folk, psychedelia, North African modes and intensely personal songwriting. Here is Thompson at his natural best – finger-picking dance; snake-curl twang and singing-wire harmonics – in a solo clarity that runs from jig-like joy to deep-note meditation, the "Main Title" blues march with its echoes of Fairport Convention's "Sloth" to the long night of "Treadwell No More," a harrowing darkness in slicing treble and tremolo shiver. Produced by guitarist Henry Kaiser, Grizzly Man is a record of powerful solitude as bold and majestic as the land in Herzog's film; as intimate as prayer and essential Richard Thompson.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Tim & The Bears
      2. Grizzly Man
      3. Foxes
      4. Ghosts In The Maze
      5. Glencoe
      6. Parents
      7. Bear Swim
      8. Twilight Cowboy
      9. The Kibosh
      10. Treadwell No More
      11. Teddy Bear
      12. Small Racket
      13. Streamwalk
      14. That's My Story*
      15. Bear Fight*
      16. Big Racket*
      17. Corona For Mr. Chocolate
      18. Grizzly Man (Revisited)
      * CD Only.

      Richard Thompson

      13 Rivers

        The 13-song set is the Grammy nominated artist’s first self-produced album in over a decade and was recorded 100% analogue in just ten days. It was engineered by Clay Blair (The War On Drugs) and features Thompson’s regular accompanists Michael Jerome (drums, percussion), Taras Prodaniuk (bass), and Bobby Eichorn (guitar).

        13 Rivers is a bare-bones, emotionally direct album that speaks from the heart with no filters. “There are 13 songs on the record, and each one is like a river,” Thompson explains. “Some flow faster than others. Some follow a slow and winding current. They all culminate on this one body of work.”

        A high water mark in an overwhelmingly impressive career, 13 Rivers was recorded at the famed Boulevard Recording Studio in Los Angeles. Previously known as The Production Workshop, which was owned by Liberace and his manager, the locale served as the site for seminal classics by Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Ringo Starr, and hosted the mixing sessions for Pink Floyd’s legendary The Wall.

        Of the album, Thompson says, “The songs are a surprise in a good way. They came to me as a surprise in a dark time. They reflected my emotions in an oblique manner that I’ll never truly understand. It’s as if they’d been channelled from somewhere else. You find deeper meaning in the best records as time goes on. The reward comes later.” He continues, “I don’t know how the creative process works. I suppose it is some kind of bizarre parallel existence to my own life. I often look at a finished song and wonder what the hell is going on inside me. We sequenced the weird stuff at the front of the record, and the tracks to grind your soul into submission at the back.”

        TRACK LISTING

        The Storm Won’t Come
        The Rattle Within
        Her Love Was Meant For Me
        Bones Of Gilead
        The Dog In You
        Trying
        Do All These Tears Belong To You?
        My Rock, My Rope / You Can’t Reach Me
        O Cinderella
        No Matter
        Pride
        Shaking The Gates

        Richard Thompson

        Still

          'Still' was recorded in a two-story rehearsal loft in Chicago over the course of just nine days with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy at the helm, backed by several longtime players from both Thompson's and Tweedy's bands. Thompson enlisted Tweedy's production skills in an effort to shake up his own creative approach to making records. "It turned out be really good idea," says Thompson. "Jeff is musically very sympathetic. Although some of his contributions are probably rather subtle to the listener's ear, they were really interesting and his suggestions were always very pertinent."

          The key to ‘Still’'s emotional resonance is a set of gripping new Thompson compositions rich with his signature mix of trenchant insight, gallows humour, and keen empathy for characters at the brink of being overcome by their emotions, their pasts, or themselves.

          A recipient of BBC's Lifetime Achievement Award and Mojo's Les Paul Award, Richard Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 New Year Honours List. The Americana Music Association also recently honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting. Robert Plant, REM, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt and many others have recorded Thompson's songs.

          Richard Thompson

          Electric - Deluxe 2CD Edition

            One of the UK's most outstanding songwriters, and an astonishing guitar player whose versatility allows him to adapt his style as each song requires. After taking the bold step of recording his last album of new songs live, when it came to recording ELECTRIC, Thompson turned to Buddy Miller (Robert Plant, Solomon Burke, Emmylou Harris. Patty Griffin) to produce, recording at Miller's home studio in Nashville, TN.

            The record was recorded as an electric trio with Thompson, drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, who also sings background vocals. Guests on ELECTRIC include the legendary Alison Krauss who joins Thompson on "The Snow Goose", while English singer-songwriter Siobhan Maher Kennedy (formerly with River City People) adds vocals on several tracks as well. Fiddle great Stuart Duncan also plays on the record; one of America's leading bluegrass musicians he played on recent albums by Robert Plant/Alison Krauss and Elvis Costello.

            Richard Thompson

            Electric

              One of the UK's most outstanding songwriters, and an astonishing guitar player whose versatility allows him to adapt his style as each song requires. After taking the bold step of recording his last album of new songs live, when it came to recording ELECTRIC, Thompson turned to Buddy Miller (Robert Plant, Solomon Burke, Emmylou Harris. Patty Griffin) to produce, recording at Miller's home studio in Nashville, TN.

              The record was recorded as an electric trio with Thompson, drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, who also sings background vocals. Guests on ELECTRIC include the legendary Alison Krauss who joins Thompson on "The Snow Goose", while English singer-songwriter Siobhan Maher Kennedy (formerly with River City People) adds vocals on several tracks as well. Fiddle great Stuart Duncan also plays on the record; one of America's leading bluegrass musicians he played on recent albums by Robert Plant/Alison Krauss and Elvis Costello.


              Latest Pre-Sales

              162 NEW ITEMS

              E-newsletter —
              Sign up
              Back to top