Richard Thompson

Regularly named as one of the best rock guitarists, Richard Thompson was also an outstanding singer/songwriter whose career blurred the lines between folk and rock. Born in west London, Thompson learned to play guitar from his father and older sister's record collections. His first band, Fairport Convention, began as a humble cover band doing American folk-rock tunes, but with the additions of fiddler Dave Swarbrick and singer Sandy Denny they branched out much further. Thompson's initial four-year spell with the band saw musical triumph as well as tragedy; the latter when their van was a hit by a drunk driver after a gig in May 1969, killing drummer Martin Lamble and Thompson's girlfriend (Thompson in response became a lifelong teetotaler). After regrouping the band made a serious effort to create a new kind of English rock drawing from traditional folk sources, the resulting album Liege & Lief is considered the start of British folk-rock. The followup, Full House was still folk-based but rocked harder; the members of Led Zeppelin took notice and Page and Plant jammed onstage with Fairport at the Troubadour in las Vegas. Thompson went solo at the start of 1971 and his career over the next decade-first solo and then with his vocalist wife, the former Linda Peters-saw virtually no commercial success. (Legend holds that his solo debut, Henry the Human Fly , was Warner Brothers' worst-selling album to that time). During a tour in 1974 he met the support band Mighty Baby who were Sufi Muslim; Thompson explored the religion and fully embraced it. The public started catching up to Richard & Linda Thompson just as their marriage was imploding: Their final album Shoot Out the Lights was critically praised and a rare string of US club dates sold out, but the shows were famously tense as Linda-unlike her husband, not a teetotaler-hit Richard with a guitar onstage on at least one occasion. Thompson's post-divorce 1983 album, Hand of Kindness, set the template for his solo career to come: The rock tunes had accordions and fiddles, the ballads were delivered with rock energy, there were humorous songs among the deeper ones, and more than a few thrilling guitar solos. Darker lyrics became an occasional Thompson trademark, to the point where he once released a compilation called Doom & Gloom From the Tomb. The '80s and early '90s found Thompson, now married to concert promoter Nancy Covey and living in Los Angeles, recording a string of major-label albums with producer Mitchell Froom; occasionally getting some airplay. Yet the best-loved song from this era was "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," a traditionally-styled folk ballad-albeit one with a motorcycle rebel for its hero. Thompson continued to record prolifically in the new millennium, pursued a number of collaborations and in 2002 launched the show 1000 Years of Popular Music, in which he performed material ranging from madrigals to Britney Spears' "Oops I Did It Again." A 1994 tribute album, Beat the Retreat, included notable figures from English folk (Maddy Prior, Martin Carthy) and American rock (R.E.M., Bob Mould). Thompson's 2016 album Still was produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco; that summer found him touring with Bonnie Raitt and appearing onstage with her. He also reunited annually with Fairport Convention at their Cropredy Festival, and in 2017 the band celebrated its 50th anniversary.