Back in 2014 Richard released an amazing album, one that is never far away from my CD player, namely ‘Acoustic Classics’. As one can probably gauge from the title, this was Richard in one of his many natural elements, namely just him and an acoustic guitar studio performing songs from throughout his solo career. Three years later and he has returned to the same format, although this time he has also brought in some songs that he wrote for Fairport Convention such as “Genesis Hall”, “Meet On The Ledge” and “Crazy Man Michael”. The album starts with “She Twists The Knife Again”, originally released on ‘Across A Crowded Room’ in 1992. It is a song he often performs live, and has done so with a complete band fully electric as he did originally, as well as acoustically either solo or with others. The version here contrasts greatly with the original, which felt almost forced in nature whereas now he lets it flow, and acoustically contains a presence that was missing before.
“Genesis Hall” opened ‘Unhalfbricking’, with Sandy Denny’s performance making it a classic, with a complex guitar melody behind, but in many ways, it is still fairly one-dimensional with the band not always seeming to be fully with Sandy. Now, it is bright, connected, and with a timbre and passion that was somehow missing from the original. The first time I heard this I felt that the album had been worth the price just to hear this version of a song I have come across many times. After an amazing journey through his canon he ends with “Why Must I Plead?” which was originally on 1991’s ‘Rumor and Sigh’. In many ways, this typifies this album for me in that it is very different from the original, and to my ears superior, but also it isn’t necessarily a song that one would pick for a “classics” collection. Personally, I would love to have seen “Hand of Kindness”, but given the power that song has when he performs it as an electric trip possibly not.
He is quoted as saying at one time “To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity.” I only hope he stays in this state of mental delusion, as there are few who produce music finer than Richard John Thompson, and long may it continue.
