Guitar man An interview with Richard Thompson

roundbreaking British DJ John Peel once called him “the best kept-secret in the world of music,” but Richard Thompson has been flatpicking raging guitar solos for more than 50 years. He burst onto London’s swinging music scene in 1967 as the teenage singer and guitarist for Fairport Convention, the seminal folk-rock band that married traditional English songs with an infectious rock groove. In the ’70s, he began singing hypnotic duets in harmony with his then-wife Linda; their bestknown album, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, was released in 1974.

In the early ’80s, the singer-songwriter went solo and has regularly put out albums ever since. Though he remains relatively under the radar, the press takes regular notice of him: In 2011, Time magazine listed his 1991 fingerpicking masterpiece “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” as one of their All-TIME 100 Songs, and in 2015, Rolling Stone put him at #69 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2011 for his musical contributions.

Last September, he released 13 Rivers, his 18th solo album. It features 13 thundering, mostly minor-key songs that Thompson vaguely describes as having been written during a dark time in his life. He brings the Richard Thompson Electric Trio, with drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, to the Lensic Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Feb. 14. Pasatiempo reached him by phone at his rented house in New Jersey, where he was resting up in advance of his 2019 tour.

Pasatiempo: The songs on your new album have been described as having a “grim urgency” and an “unflinching gaze,” which could also characterize much of your songwriting over your career. In the first verse of the opener, “Storm Won’t Come,” you sing, “I’m longing for a storm to blow through town/ And blow these sad old buildings down/Fire to burn what fire may/And rain to wash it all away.” Are these songs for troubled times, or is this just business as usual for you? Richard Thompson: It’s not that bad if you really listen to it. [laughs] I don’t think I’ve written literally about anything. I’ve been in this parallel world of song fiction. I’m sure all these traumas that my son has been through are reflected in there. Pasa: Your father was a Scotland Yard detective who played guitar as a hobby, and you became a working musician in London as a teenager. Who were your biggest musical influences back then? Thompson: He wasn’t very good — sorry, Dad. I was in school and it was a very natural transition to do it professionally. I hardly had to think about it. I’ve been thankfully paid for music ever since. It’s been absolutely brilliant.

I grew up in London and there was a huge amount of music to see and listen to. I used to love The Who when I was in school still. I’d see them at the Marquee Club in London and that was just fantastic. You could see all the R&B bands, Peter Green with John Mayall, and you could see Eric Clapton and you could see Jeff Beck. You could see all these great guitar players, but at some point I decided I didn’t want to be like them — an R&B-slash-blues guitar player — and I started to put more of the Celtic music in.

And then, of course, we were seventeen, eighteen years old, playing with Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, so some of that rubbed off too. Pasa: What do you remember most about collaborating with singer Sandy Denny? What were some of the best and worst aspects of playing with Fairport Convention?