Richard Thompson: new album and UK tour
Album release: Electric by Richard Thompson
Release date: 11 February 2012
Label: Proper
Accompanied by major UK tour starting 20 February 2013
Declared by Rolling Stone as one of the top guitarists of all time, and considered one of the UK’s most outstanding songwriters, musician Richard Thompson returns with a brand new, guitar driven record, Electric, for Proper Records on 11 February 2013. Richard’s Electric Trio will also be taking to the road for a major UK tour on 20 February 2013 and will tour the USA from March. Full tour details for the UK are below. Tickets are on sale in the UK starting 10am Friday, Nov. 9, 2012.
Tour dates
Wed 20 Feb CARDIFF St David’s Hall
Thu 21 Feb BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall
Fri 22 Feb BRIGHTON Dome
Sat 23 Feb BRISTOL Colston Hall
Sun 24 Feb CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange
Mon 25 Feb LONDON O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Thu 28 Feb EDINBURGH Usher Hall
Fri 1 Mar LIVERPOOL Philharmonic Hall
Sat 2 Mar SHEFFIELD City Hall
Sun 3 Mar GATESHEAD The Sage Gateshead
Wed 6 Mar NOTTINGHAM Royal Concert Hall
Thu 7 Mar BEXHILL DE La Warr Pavilion
Fri 8 Mar BASINGSTOKE Anvil
Sun 10 March SALFORD The Lowry
For ticket links please see Richard Thompson's official site.
More about the new record
After taking the bold step of recording his last album of new songs live, when it came to recording Electric, Thompson turned to Buddy Miller (Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy, Solomon Burke, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin) to produce, recording at Miller’s home studio in Nashville, TN. Miller who himself is renowned for his guitar skills recently told Rolling Stone: "I played along on the record, playing rhythm guitar for him, and I got a two-week guitar lesson while he camped out in my house." The record was recorded as an electric trio with Thompson, drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, who both sing background vocals. Jerome and Prodaniuk formed part of the band which recorded and toured the UK Top Twenty album Dream Attic, released in August 2010.
They make up the trio, with Thompson, on his forthcoming UK dates, his first extensive tour in two years.
Guests on Electric include the legendary Alison Krauss who joins Thompson on The Snow Goose, while English singer-songwriter Siobhan Maher Kennedy (formerly with River City People and now resident in Nashville) adds vocals on several tracks as well. Fiddle great Stuart Duncan also plays on the record; one of America’s leading bluegrass musicians he played on recent albums by Robert Plant/Alison Krauss and Elvis Costello and will be familiar in the UK from BBC4’s Transatlantic Sessions.
Richard Thompson himself commented that: “We did it ridiculously quickly. But it sounds great. It turned out surprisingly funky, sort of a new genre - folk-funk. It's quite snappy, somewhere between Judy Collins and Bootsy Collins.”
Electric will be released as a Standard CD, Deluxe two–disc set and on 180 gram vinyl.
About Richard Thompson
Recipient of a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award, Mojo’s Les Paul Award and curator of the prestigious Meltdown Festival at the Southbank in 2010, Thompson was most recently honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting by the Americana Music Association.
Electric was recorded earlier this year, marking the fortieth anniversary of Richard Thompson’s debut solo album, Henry The Human Fly. Thompson has now released some forty albums, played on countless other classic recordings, and written more than 400 songs, some of which have been covered by R.E.M., Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, The Futureheads, Bonnie Raitt, Dinosaur Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, and many more.
Rolling Stone has hailed him as “a perennial dark horse contender for the title of greatest living rock guitarist.” The Independent recently described him as “probably the best guitarist this country has produced, an utterly sui generis talent…”
Thompson says of his fellow trio members: “Michael Jerome has been with me for about 12 years. He’s actually from Texas; he is a great musician, able to respond to anything that’s put in front of him. Taras Prodaniuk worked a lot with Dwight Yoakam, and more recently with Lucinda Williams. His roots may be in country music, but he’s another extremely gifted and versatile musician.”
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