Richard Thompson - Walking On A Wire: 1968-2009

Four decades of folk-based brilliance

There’s no shortage of Richard Thompson records out there. Since debuting with Fairport Convention in 1968, he’s rarely gone more than two years without releasing a new studio set, to which we can add sundry soundtrack commissions and “boutique” live albums on sale exclusively at gigs and on his website.

He’s no stranger to the box set either, but Walking On A Wire is easily the most exhaustive multi-disc collection yet, offering irrefutable evidence of his place at the music world’s top table. A single-minded talent who’s always followed his own course, like his one-time Island label mate John Martyn, Thompson’s never achieved the widespread commercial success he so richly deserves.

Opening his account as a teenager with Fairport (who are represented by half a dozen tracks here), it didn’t take Thompson long to establish himself as a folk figurehead and, though traditional English music has been a constant motif in his work, it only tells part of the story. American influences – jazz especially – have continued to inspire him, and it’s pleasing to see his six-string arrangement of Duke Ellington’s Rockin’ In Rhythm make the tracklisting.

As an instrumentalist, Thompson’s fearless, named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 20 greatest guitarists of all time. There’s a dexterity and flow to his playing that seems to embellish the words, as if adding another voice. He cites Django Reinhardt as an early influence, but he’s admirably never closed his ears to anything, constantly learning and adapting to create his own unique sound.

Lyrically, Thompson’s articulacy and intelligence knows no bounds. Songs about dying biker criminals (1952 Vincent Black Lightning) and broken men (Down Where The Drunkards Roll, The Poor Ditching Boy) follow a recognised folk template, but his use of language and far-reaching subject matter covers countless bases. Six albums with his then-wife Linda arguably enriched Thompson’s songwriting, allowing him to compose for a voice other than his own, so it’s fitting that more than a quarter of the box set comprises their work together.

Solo since the early 80s, he’s settled into a comfortable – though never complacent – routine of chronicling the world around him with wry humour and powerful insight. Mingus Eyes questions the wisdom of idol worship, Dad’s Gonna Kill Me casts him as a soldier in Iraq fighting a war he doesn’t understand, while the concept album Mock Tudor celebrates an idealistic suburban England that’s eroded to the point of disappearing since his own youth.

Now resident in California, Thompson’s last visit to these shores was to present his live show, 1,000 Years Of Popular Music: a chronological breeze through the centuries that gave him the opportunity to put his own spin on Elizabethan balladry, Italian choral music, Gilbert & Sullivan, Cole Porter, The Who (A Legal Matter features here) and even Britney Spears. It would be wrong to suggest that every selection from those gigs informed Thompson’s own style, but it offered several examples of his endless curiosity and refusal to be typecast. Richard Thompson is many men, and you’ll find them all across these 71 tracks.

Shout! Factory | 2666311087 (4-CD)

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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