When the legend on the stage calls himself a “folk rock dinosaur” yet still appears to be in the prime of his musical career, you wonder what kind of performance he’ll be putting on ten, twenty years from now when he is in his plus-seventies. It’s no secret that Richard Thompson has always had something to say in his songs, even when frolicking through a nice jig of a tune called “Crocodile Tears” or sparking fires with the intensity of “Walking On A Wire” from his critically acclaimed 1982 Shoot Out The Lights album, his last with then-wife Linda.
“Where’s the justice and where’s the sense, when all the pain is on my side of the fence.” You don’t just sing lyrics like that with a head-bobbling perkiness. Thompson put the right emphasis onto the right emotion through twenty-one songs. He poured out his heart while coat-checking any filters that may interfere with the integrity of the songs. An acoustic performance, Thompson and his Lowden guitar walked through Fairport Convention nostalgia, marital shedded snakeskins and solo ponderings, leaving the audience inside the intimate Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on April 29th almost breathless.
For a gentleman so heavy-shouldered with the emotions within himself, his sense of humor was delightfully funny. Pretty much calling us “nerds” with nothing else to do on a Saturday night but hang out with him, you actually think, why be anywhere else. He introduced 1973’s “I Want To See The Bright Lights” by explaining that it “gently brushed the bottom of the UK charts” when it was released; but that when he re-recorded it a few years ago it went higher up the charts. “I tell you this just to impress you.”
When Thompson asked if anyone had been to Amsterdam, prompting a few raised hands, he answered back with a cheshire cat grin, “The three of you are going to swoon over this song.” After a few plucks on the strings introing into “Beatnik Walking,” he added, “I get paid by the Dutch government for singing this … or I should.”
Thompson’s guitar playing seemed like a fine wine sipped at sunset: beautiful and soul satisfying. His intro to “The Ghost Of You Walks” was like a slowly blooming flower while “Down Where The Drunkards Roll,” “Beeswing,” “Uninhabited Man” and “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” invoked goosebumps. “One Door Opens,” “I Feel So Good” and “Valerie” showcased the speed of his fingers and brought hoots and hollers from an appreciative crowd.
Thompson began his set by bringing out singer Heather Re’ and his old friend Michael Doucet from the Cajun band BeauSoleil on “Dimming Of The Day.” Doucet had opened his own six-song set earlier, playing fiddle and dueting with Re’, a lovely-voiced singer and a hidden gem in need of discovering by a wider audience. Kicking up their heels on “Run Again” and ending with a spirited “Oh Marie,” it was the perfect appetizer to what was to come that evening.
As a founding member of the British folk band Fairport Convention, Thompson performed only one song from the five albums he made with them prior to his departure in 1970 – “Who Knows Where The Time Goes.” “If my humble version causes you to go scurrying to YouTube for [Sandy Denny’s] version, my job has been done.” Denny, whose crystal clear vocals brought a lilting beauty to the band’s music, also sang on Led Zeppelin’s “Battle Of Evermore,” before passing away in 1978 at the young age of thirty-one. Thompson mentioned that if anyone wanted to join him in a field later this summer for the 50th anniversary of Fairport Convention, to come on but that it may be a bit cold as it was in August in England [August 10-12, 2017], his funny bone once again showing amidst all the seriousness.
For an acoustic show, Thompson put in every emotion he could summon up on songs such as “Uninhabited Man,” “Walking On A Wire,” “I Misunderstood,” “Bathsheba Smiles,” “From Galway To Graceland,” “Valerie,” and “I Want To See The Bright Lights,” all single highlights within a show of exemplary music.
So next time you want to spend an evening listening to a “folk rock dinosaur,” Richard Thompson is the perfect man for the job.
SETLIST: Dimming Of The Day, Bathsheba Smiles, Walking On A Wire, Ghost Of You Walks, Valerie, Crocodile Tears, Beatnik Walking, Uninhabited Man, I Want To See The Bright Lights, Dry My Tears & Move On, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Who Knows Where The Time Goes, Trying, A Love You Can’t Survive, Wall Of Death, Down Where The Drunkards Roll, I Feel So Good, I Misunderstood.
ENCORE #1: From Galway To Graceland, One Door Opens.
ENCORE #2: Beeswing.
Live photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough
One Response
Saw him again in Durham NC a few weeks ago. He continued to impress.