Thompson is one of the master musicians and storytellers of the 60s British rock scene. Seminal releases with Fairport Convention and 30+ years of solo albums and assorted collaborations (Zeppelin, Hendrix, Floyd, Bonnie Raitt, etc.) mark an eclectic and uncompromising career. This, his first studio record since 1999, is an intimate, smoky album of narrative songs, recorded as a trio with minimal overdubs, and allowing him to show off his guitar playing.[ read more ]

CD $12.99

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In 2001, guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson was asked to pick his favorite songs from the millennium for Playboy. He obligingly submitted a list that included medieval madrigals and bawdy folk songs as well as pop gems by Pete Townshend and Cole Porter. The list wasn't printed but it did give birth to the 1000 Years of Popular Music concerts, an occasional series of Thompson presentations lovingly documented on this new DVD/CD set, recorded in San Francisco in 2005 (an earlier 1000 Years show with a    [ read more ]

CD+DVD $29.99

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While Richard Thompson's devotees will tell you the man is a triple-threat genius -- passionate vocalist, compelling songwriter, and sterling guitarist -- even his most loyal supporters will concede that the dour nature of his songs and the no-frills production of many of his albums make the bulk of his catalog tough sledding for the uninitiated. Given this, 1991's Rumor and Sigh is arguably the best album for those wanting to sample Thompson's work for the first time. It captures Thompson at the t   [ read more ]

CD $11.38

Richard Thompson has been the archetypal critics' favorite since his days with Fairport Convention in the late '60s and early '70s, a guitarist of obvious skill and originality who brings the fingerpicking prowess of folk to electric rock and, increasingly, a literate songwriter whose songs, by turns droll and dour, are sung with authority, but he is also a man seemingly incapable of making any sort of peace with broad commercial appeal. But then, why should he, when record companies have lined    [ read more ]

CD $16.13

Just how lost Richard Thompson was under Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake's direction during the '90s is made clear by Mock Tudor, the brilliant sequel to the botched You? Me? Us? Producers/engineers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf keep the production clean and direct, allowing the songs to breathe and letting Thompson play guitar. That decision alone would have made Mock Tudor a satisfying listen, but what elevates it into the first rank of his albums is, naturally, the songs themselv   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

Richard Thompson's second Polydor album contained some terrific and varied songs, from the raucous "A Bone Through Her Nose" to the mournful "Missie How You Let Me Down" and "Al Bowlly's In Heaven." Good as it was, it didn't establish Thompson as a big seller, and Polydor dropped him. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

CD $19.93

Richard Thompson's 1985 album Across a Crowded Room (his first album for a major label since Sunnyvista in 1979) stylistically picked up where his previous set, Hand of Kindness, had left off, and while it didn't break much in the way of new ground, it did find Thompson doing plenty of what he does best -- writing great songs and playing a lot of electric guitar. Across a Crowded Room takes a slightly more subtle approach than Hand of Kindness; the arrangements have been pared back a bi   [ read more ]

CD $19.93

Fans and critics alike seemed to have a difficult time getting a handle on Thompson's new direction, which, for the most part, eschews the electric guitar that had been an integral part of the British folk-rock he had helped forge with his former band Fairport Convention. With the exception of a couple of short instrumental breaks and various electric shadings, Thompson's Stratocaster defers to accordions, fiddles, whistles, dulcimers, harps, and his own acoustic guitar. The songs, which are mor   [ read more ]

CD $21.83

Small Town Romance was compiled from three warts-and-all live recordings (originally produced for radio broadcast) of Richard Thompson performing solo acoustic in New York City in 1982. The above-mentioned warts (a cough here and there, a very occasional flubbed note) are tiny and difficult to spot, but Thompson was quite aware of them -- enough so that he persuaded Hannibal Records to delete the album from their catalog, though when the out-of-print album began fetching ridiculously high prices   [ read more ]

CD $11.38

Richard & Linda Thompson's final album together, 1982's Shoot Out the Lights, was widely seen as a document of their collapsing relationship, despite the fact that both of them strongly denied that was ever their intention, and when Richard Thompson released Hand of Kindness in 1983, it was similarly read as a sad and bitter letter from a lovelorn divorcee, conveniently ignoring the fact that Richard left Linda (not the other way around), and was already involved in a new (and happy) relat   [ read more ]

CD $11.38

Richard & Linda Thompson's marriage was crumbling as they were recording Shoot Out the Lights in 1982, and many critics have read the album as a chronicle of the couple's divorce. In truth, most of the album's songs had been written two years earlier (when the Thompsons were getting along fine) for an abandoned project produced by Gerry Rafferty, and tales of busted relationships and domestic discord were always prominent in their songbook. But there is a palpable tension to {^Shoot Out The Ligh   [ read more ]

SUPER-AUDIO CD $16.13

Richard & Linda Thompson's marriage was crumbling as they were recording Shoot Out the Lights in 1982, and many critics have read the album as a chronicle of the couple's divorce. In truth, most of the album's songs had been written two years earlier (when the Thompsons were getting along fine) for an abandoned project produced by Gerry Rafferty, and tales of busted relationships and domestic discord were always prominent in their songbook. But there is a palpable tension to {^Shoot Out The Ligh   [ read more ]

CD $11.38