Post Description

The mood of Richard Thompson's "Austin City Limits" appearance is pervasively professional-- not like a legend going through the routine again for a few fast bucks, but like a man whose livelihood just happens to be writing and performing complex, intelligent songs. On the 15 tracks collected on the souvenir album, Live From Austin TX (as if you need to qualify Austin with a state name), he plays guitar with an efficiency that's almost corporate, deploying melodic filigrees that downsize all but the most crucial notes and draw on a highly personal style enriched by Celtic and folk traditions, American rock and jazz, and even a little reggae. To redirect the business metaphor slightly: On this CD, Thompson could be a guitar salesman demonstrating his product. See how simple it is to sound like three guitars at once. Now you too you can mimic a banjo or a slide guitar in your home or office.

In other words, Thompson makes it all-- the gamboling solos; the booming vocals; the often humorous, biting lyrics-- seem so easy. That's both the attraction and the flaw of this live album: its technical proficiency is amazing, but at times a little cold. This isn't really Thompson's fault, but an unavoidable logistical circumstance, as his recorded appearance episode ran well beyond CD capacity. Almost all of his stage banter (which was minimal to begin with) has been excised to squeeze in as many songs as possible. Even then, the nearly eight-minute, show-closing "Put It There Pal" had to go too. (The full concert is available on DVD.)

Thompson played "Austin City Limits" in July 2001, just four months after his Capitol Records best-of, Action Packed, marked the end of his 11-year tenure at the label. So the bulk of the tracklist comes from that era, with particular attention to 1999's underrated Mock Tudor (too bad "Cibella", a personal favorite, wasn't included). Backed by an equally professional rhythm section-- Michael Jerome on drums and Danny Thompson on stand-up bass-- Thompson opens with a jubilantly defiant version of "Cooksferry Queen", about a suburban businessman in love with an inner-city hippie, then follows it up with a starkly intense "Uninhabited Man" and a bouncy "Walking the Long Miles Home". But the highlights of the first half of the set predate Mock Tudor: "All Bowlly's in Heaven" is a dark jazz lament, and "Mingus Eyes" sounds desperate and fittingly duplicitous.

Thompson plays an acoustic guitar during that first half of the show, then switches to an electric for the second half, which adds grit to "Bathsheba Smiles" and noir moodiness to "Ghost in the Wind". He spits venom on the caustic "She Twists the Knife", but the reggae rhythms of "Crawl Back (Under My Stone)" lead nicely into a call and response with the audience that's easily the most unguarded moment on the album. That is, until Thompson picks up his acoustic again for the closer, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning". It's one of his most popular late-career songs, and he's probably played it too many times to count. But he invests it with what sounds like fresh and bottomless heartache, making the story of young lovers and vintage motorcycles seem all the more tragically inevitable. Thompson's a man who obviously loves his work.



1 – Cooksferry Queen
 2 – Uninhabited Man
 3 – Walking The Long Miles Home
 4 – Al Bowlly’s In Heaven
 5 – Mingus Eyes
 6 – Dry My Tears And Move On
 7 – Easy There, Steady Now
 8 – Persuasion
 9 – Bathsheba Smiles
 10 - Mr . Rebound
 11 – Ghosts In The Wind
 12 – She Twists The Knife Again
 13 – Shoot Out The Lights
 14 – Crawl Back ( Under My Stone )
 15 – 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
 16 – Put It There Pal 


Audio:  2.0 en DTS 5.1  
Cover and label incl.
Weer een Folk pareltje van Els.


Have fun,  Johan.