Richard Thompson's "1,000 Years of Popular Music"

My dad took me down to Boston last Friday to see Richard Thompson at the Berklee Performance Center. Though I have never been a fan of Thompson's music, my interest in folk music has been growing for the past year or so. I have heard my dad play Richard Thompson throughout my entire life, and after that concert, I was converted into a folk-loving Richard Thompson fan.

Just as the title of the concert says, Richard Thompson's concert was all about paying tribute to popular music for the past 1,000 years. Richard Thompson played music from traditional songs like "Sumer is Icumen In" to "Trafalgar Square" to 20th century artists such as Julie London, The Beatles, ABBA, and Nelly Furtado. Thompson's version of ABBA's "Money" was the most entertaining and beffudling, though his version of Furtado's "Man Eater" could easily have topped it with the Latin church music translation of the song played in the middle. My favorite song besides those two was "Trafalgar Square". It was a silly, boastful song from England that I imagine would be sung by a dozen lads swaying each other, goblets full of ale in hand.

I'd like to point out that Thompson has some great qualities as a musician and performer. Thompson's voice is very distinct and rustic, and he is also an amazing guitarist. Not only can he play very difficult solos, but from time to time he can lap over different rhythms and melodies to give the music a fuller sound. His swift, twiddling fingers allowed him to take the job of two guitarists.

Another great quality of Thompson is his storytelling ability and spontaneous humor. While some musicians may bore their audience with mere blabbering, Thompson was able to segue from song to song with great narrative and anecdotal chatter. There were many times when the whole audience broke out into laughter because of Thompson's inimitable charm.

Thompson was accompanied by two other musicians for his live performance with vocalist Judith Owens and percussionist Debra Dobkin. Owens added greatly to the shows overall humor with various witty comments about the songs being played. Her voice was a soprano, and it blended in very well with Thompson's British baritone. Owens played a very eclectic percussion set with tambourines, exotic drums, and chimes.

I'm hoping my dad will purchase the "1,000 Years of Popular Music" cd sometime soon, because I'm trying to be fiscally responsible as a young adult, and I really want to hear some of those songs again. It appears that some of the live renditions are not available, so they were very exclusive to the audiences played. If you would like a preview of Richard Thompson's music from the tour, check out the little video below.