Richard Thompson’s latest album, Electric, produced by BuddyMiller, comes in what is arguably his most creatively productive period in a career that stretches back some 45 years, back to his emergence as a teen guitarist and songwriter with the groundbreaking Fairport Convention— the band that essentially invented the term “English folkrock.” It works very well, both as a description and as a body of work, a new chapter in his ever-unfolding musical saga. Thompson terms the Electric material “funk-folk, or folk-funk.”
Teddy Thompson is an acclaimed singer-songwriter with a career that has consistently garnered critical praise. NPR proclaims that he’s “the musical equivalent of an arrow to the heart,” while The New York Times calls his work “beautifully finessed.” The only son of British folk-rock legends Richard and Linda Thompson, Teddy formed his first band in his teens. His original songs and live performances generated such acclaim that he was soon signed to Virgin Records. By the time Thompson released his self-titled solo debut in 2000, he’d already played in his father’s touring band and contributed guitar and backing vocals to his father’s albums, You? Me? Us? and Mock Tudor. In 2002, Thompson also toured as part of Rosanne Cash’s band before signing with Verve.
