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ACL review: Richard Thompson
Richard Thompson was probably the only artist bold enough to open an ACL set with three just-released songs, but he’s such a phenomenal guitarist, and has such a tremendous band, that he could doubtless get away with playing a bunch of polkas — which he impishly suggested that he was about to do, “for your delectation,” as an appropriate lead-in to the rollicking, Celtic-flavored “Demons in Her Dancing Shoes.”
Thompson led off with the first three songs on his new “Dream Attic,” the searing Wall Street satire “Money Shuffle,” slow and somber “Among the Gorse, Among the Grey” and stampeding “Haul Me Up.” The first older song, “Can’t Win,” was a prime demonstration of the telepathy between Thompson and his band, with his vocal cry seeming to turn into Joel Zifkin’s violin lament. Thompson’s long, enthralling electric guitar solo had the emotional sweep, high drama and stunning invention of a Stravinsky suite for six strings, and Michael Jerome on drums and Taras Prodaniuk on bass furnished a tumult underneath.
A complete contrast came next in the form of the graceful, melancholy “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven,” an oblique anti-war meditation, with Thompson on acoustic guitar and multi-instrumentalist Pete Zorn playing a smoky sax solo. The band’s fire and fury exploded on “I’ll Never Give It Up.” Thompson ended with one of his classic rave-ups, “Tear-Stained Letter,” and there were enough death-defying twists and spirals in his solo to last most players a couple of years worth of standing ovations. The audience kept hollering for an encore even after crew members started swarming the stage to break it down, but to no avail.
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