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Even after seeing Richard Thompson charm more than 10,000 people on the outdoor Gentilly stage at Jazz Fest in New Orleans and hypnotize smaller crowds in much cozier spaces*, the focused force of his music felt astounding at Caffe Lena Wednesday.
In the second of three sold-out solo shows, the singer-songwriter/guitarist played two of my big-three favorites: “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” and “Beeswing,” but not “Ghosts in the Wind.” That’s not a complaint; these two towering tunes did what they always do. “1952” wove a tender noir motorcycle murder-romance and “Beeswing” rued the love-versus-freedom paradox for peak pathos. Trusting the crowd, Thompson introduced several new songs; those worked well, too.
In fact, the show’s only rough spots were old songs whose lyrics he temporarily forgot. But he shrugged this off as confidently as he dismissed the awed applause for his “oh-my-GOD!” solo in the overdrive rocker “Valerie.”
Thompson took the measure of the capacity crowd right out of the box with “Walking on Stony Ground” – he said it was a tale of senior lust, correcting himself to “mature lust.” Few at the Caffe tables or couches seemed under 60. Thompson is 73, his goatee pure white now, so the wistful regret of his next number “If I Could Live My Life Again” seemed well earned in its rueful, driving energy. The slower “The Ghost of You Walks” set the same melancholy mood.
He stepped firmly on the gas in a pulse-racing “Valerie,” and as awed applause, for a full speed ahead guitar break gradually faded, he said he wanted to “get the easy ones out of the way first.”
The tender ballad “Beeswing” turned down the tempo but not the intensity, an ode of loss and regret that managed somehow to celebrate the lost lover’s search for freedom. But after this gentlest-of-the-night reminiscence, he hit the crowd’s funny bone hard with “Hamlet.” His “deconstruction of ‘Hamlet’” noted “It was dog eat dog eat dog in Denmark” as Lord Buckley might have joked.
Contrast again: If “Hamlet” was his most wryly hip, modernist tune, he followed with his most ancient: “Flowers of the Forest” from the Fairport Convention book – reminding me of how a more astute observer than I once noted Thompson’s guitar style derives entirely from British folk traditions and has nothing to do with the blues – except for depth of expression and precise virtuoso brilliance, that is.
Maybe the most deeply, idiosyncratic British artist this side of Ray Davies, or Adrian Legg, Thompson recalled wending across London for rock shows at the Marquee Club in the West End before “Walking the Long Miles Home” – 10 of them, to his suburban home. He feigned faulty memory here, citing “Eric what’s his name” of the Yardbirds, also comprising Jeff and Jimmy whose names he humorously muffed.
Just as he separated the several solos that erupted in most songs, sometimes the second as coda, Thompson also separated thematically similar songs through the set.
He played two motorcycle epics Wednesday, for example: “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” after “Long Walk” then “Wall of Death” when singer-partner Zara Philips joined later in the set.
In “Sunset Song” as in “Beeswing” and other songs of loss, Thompson is the one left rather than the one leaving. But he portrays himself as a survivor rather than a victim, vulnerable but moving on, somehow.
After “Sunset,” he brought out Phillips, noting “Wall of Death” needed two voices, though early on, her voice seemed under-mic’ed. In the new slow waltz “Sing of Poor Sadie,” Phillips sang strong wordless “Oooo” croons, and she was more clearly heard in “Words Unspoken, Sight Unseen.” However, Thompson forgot the lyrics here and had to restart, cueing Phillips’s entry on the chorus with a fond glance.
“Words” had a compact grace, but “The Rattle Within” about self-doubt built big before a hard stop that left the crowd breathless. “As I Hold You,” like “If I Could Live My Life Again,” went all wistful about loss, then about as hopeful as Thompson gets, slowly and doggedly repeating its assertion that love endures past it. But then, Thompson abandoned hope in “Fortress,” an insistent, driving lament with a brief burst of falsetto to nail the coffin closed.
Much of the respect Thompson has rightly earned, among musicians and civilians alike, focuses on his guitar skills: folk-based, surpassingly beautiful in tone, rhythmically propulsive or lyrically evocative. But this distracts some from his vocal power; gruffly authoritative or achingly vulnerable. In “Fortress,” he did both.
As his first wife Linda had decades ago, Phillips filled in the harmony on “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” – a neon echo of “Walking the Long Miles Home” earlier and a rousing finish to the set.
Some fans were still rising to their feet as Thompson returned quickly and started up the soothing “It’s Just the Motion,” then the naked cry of pure need “The Dimming of The Day” from Fairport Convention days.
Thompson and Phillips returned once again in the spry folk-waltz “Tinker’s Rhapsody” before going somber once again in another left-me lament, “Lost in the Crowd.”
Thompson and Phillips, however, were enveloped in the awe of their crowd.
Some fans planned to see all three Thompson shows at Caffe Lena, and several of those who’d seen the first two reported Thompson was looser, more relaxed and generally better in the second, on Wednesday.
Michael Hochanadel has written on music since before Bruce Springsteen played the Union College Memorial Chapel (1974), publishing a weekly column and as many as 100 concert reviews annually in the Gazette (Schenectady/Capital Region) newspapers. He’s also written and photographed for Kite, Metroland, the New York Post and Vermont Vanguard newspapers; and for magazines including Capital Region, American Farmland, the Conservationist, Boston, and Wilderness Camping where he was photography editor and production manager. He has also worked on the dark side, in public relations and advertising as writer, photographer, researcher and producer of slide shows, video, radio and TV spots, print publications and reports. He was Music Haven Music Maven of the Year (2017) and first-ever winner (2019) of the Eddy Award as Music Journalist of the Year. He blogs at www.hokesjukebox.com.
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Great review. “52 Vincent Black Lightning” is one of the best motorbike songs ever written. Check that, it’s one of the best SONGS ever written!
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LIVE: Peter Bellino Quintet @ Jazz on Jay, 09/01/2022
LIVE: Brandi Carlile & Indigo Girls @ Tanglewood,…
LIVE: Kevin Hays Trio @ The Falcon, 08/28/2022