Tracing your footprints

When I was 13 or so, I went with my dad to the Sullivan County Fair to see Roy Acuff Jr. I was far from a country music expert, but I certainly knew some of the work of the elder Acuff. I think my dad was hoping to hear a reasonable facsimile of "The Great Speckled Bird" or "Wabash Cannonball."

Well, as I remember, it wasn't very good. In fact, it was awful.

As we were walking out, I asked him what he thought of it.

He said simply, "He ain't his daddy."

And that sums up my thoughts of Teddy Thompson, son of the great Richard (and Linda).

Until now.

The younger Thompson's new album, "Bella," is a tightly-crafted, pop gem crammed with hooks, Spectorian instrumentation and love-gone-wrong lyrics galore. He's distilled his folk-rock royalty lineage and combined it with 50 plus years of pop and roll history into a marvelous 11-song collection with echoes of Roy Orbison and The Mavericks. Imagine lush Drifters strings with understated Duane Eddy guitar and Thompson's rich and gorgeous tenor.

OK, I'm running out of comparisons. Teddy Thompson is a utterly hopeless romantic, and this is powerful stuff.

However, as good as it is, he still ain't his daddy, but this is a major step in the right direction.

Richard Thompson's catalogue is so rich and spectacular, his songs and guitar work so good, that the Teddy comment is no knock on the younger Thompson.

The criminally underrated (at least by the general public) artist responsible for three essential desert-island discs ("I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight," "Shoot Out the Lights" – both with ex-wife and Teddy's mom Linda – and "Rumor and Sigh") and a dozen or so others just below those, Richard Thompson is the artist's artist. Eric Clapton wishes he could play like RT, and nearly every other contemporary rock/folk/pop artist wishes they had his songwriting chops.

And few writers (pop, rock, country or otherwise) have ever plumbed the dark side more often or better than Richard Thompson; no one does despair like him, yet it's irresistible. It feels so good to feel so bad.

Richard Thompson has been walking on the wire of brilliance for more than 40 years.

Richard Thompson - Calvary Cross
Richard and Linda Thompson - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Richard Thompson - 1952 Black Vincent Lightning
Teddy Thompson - Looking for a Girl

Strictly 100: Number 18 - Richard Thompson