Richard Thompson

On this Friday morning I am taking some time off from chores to import music onto my computer’s hard drive. Even with my hearing dissipating I still love music. Picking choices is sometimes easy and sometimes not.

As I was going through my collection I noticed the large selection of Richard Thompson CDs that were stacked up there. No hesitation some of these are going on the old hard drive.

I discovered Richard Thompson when I was 16 years old and listening to the radio in the metro Philadelphia area. Michael Tearson now of Sirius XM was a big fan as was Luke O’Reilly. These disc jockeys played songs like Matty Groves and Sloth repeatedly.

To be 16 and hear Matty Groves a variant of Child Ballad #81 all electrified and just so freakin’ full of energy was transformative. It turned me from someone who listened with music in the background as I washed the dishes to a fanatic who wanted to both hear those ringing guitars loud and to ferret out the nuance of every lyric. Richard Thompson was not long for the band but while he was there oh how it soared.

As I departed the east coast and headed to the heartland for college I kept up with Richard’s music. I bought various Sandy Denny and Ian Matthews efforts on which Richard played his unmistakable electric lead guitar in the background. I picked up solo albums and albums he did with his wife. “I Want to See the Bright Lights” tonight was amazing.

As his marriage dissolved I grabbed a copy of “Shoot Out the Lights.” To this day it is one of my most favorite albums ever. The pain, the passion, the rage that played out in that studio and found its way onto the LP made for transcendent listening.

Richard is aging as we all are. I don’t know how much longer he will be touring. If you get a chance I urge you to go and see him especially if he is performing and acoustic show near you.