In his black jeans, shirt and beret, Richard Thompson takes the stage with an almost military look; his guitar strap could almost be mistaken for an ammunition belt. Though is his age, 66, is more toward the grizzled veteran, few are as strong a sharpshooter as he is on electric guitar, where his distinctive style is beyond copying.
Hey he’s even got an official title by now. Not colonel or sergeant or lieutenant but Officer of the Order of the British Empire, an OBE you’re supposed to put at the end of his name.
And though his career is pushing 50 years since his first days in Fairport Convention, he continues to issue solid, largely ignored, solo work, such as the new Jeff Tweedy-produced “Still” that’s coming out next week. That’s what got him out on a tour that brought him to the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., for the first of two nights Tuesday.
With a nimble duo on rhythm section that enhance his attack, the seemingly effortless guitar attack only seemed to escalate on the handful of new numbers as well as a sprinkling of the old. Thompson is one of those rare musicians who seem packed with too much talent — ace guitarist, fine songwriter, great vocalist. With a bemused manner between songs, he’s a darned pleasing entertainer as well.
For a place as genteel as the Birchmere, where people are forbidden to talk during performances, he seemed to roll over the sold out crowd with his striking songs and constantly inventive soloing.
He began with the new, stomping “All Buttoned Up,” with a little more velocity than it has on the album and “Sally D” from his 2013 “Electric” album, whose melody was doubled by guitar and then the bass of Taras Prodaniuk, who was doing some pretty inventive things on his instrument. On things like “Hard on Me,” the two each got solos. Drummer Michael Jerome would get his chance too.
Midshow, as the sidemen left — “A slight union dispute,” Thompson quipped — Thompson put on display his equally reputable acoustic work on the great “1953 Vincent Black Lightning” and the new “Josephine.”
Thompson’s been doing this so long, he can call out his oldies by decades. So from the 70s came “For the Shame of Doing Wrong” from his album with then-wife Linda Thompson “Pour Down with Silver” marking its 40th anniversary this year; and from the 80s, two from the classic divorce album “Shoot Out the Lights” near the end of the show, both “Did She Jump or Was She Pushed” and “Wall of Death”; as well as the sturdy stomper “Tear-Stained Letter” to cap the main portion of the show.
But even his new stuff stands strong with them, such as the 2010 “If Love Whispers Your Name” that built and built on stage to a standout solo.
Thompson pays tribute to his heroes, today as he has always done. He covered Otis Blackwell’s “Daddy Rolling Stone” as final encore and name dropped the near forgotten 1930s jazz crooner in his suitably jazzy “”Al Bowlly’s in Heaven,” about forgotten WWII soldiers.
But he goes through a litany of guitar greats, quoting perfect licks on his new track “Guitar Heroes” with the styles of Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, James Burton, Chuck Berry and Hank Marvin of the British instrumental aces The Shadows.
One day, somebody will put Thompson in such a stellar array of guitar greats — but they’ll find he won’t be so easy to copy.
birch mere opener Robert Ellis seemed eager to show off his own guitar chops — a kind of Flamenco fussiness that didn’t always serve his songs; sometimes when he sped up, the guitar lines started to trip up and mar the pace. It all proved how special the talents of the headliner really were.
Set list for Richard Thompson: “All Buttoned Up,” “Sally B,” “Broken Doll,” “For the Shame of Doing Wrong,” “Hard on Me,” “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” “Josephine,” “”Beatnik Walking,” “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven,” “Guitar Heroes,” “”Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?” “I’ll Never Give It Up,” “Wall of Death,” “Tear Stained Letter” (encore) “Dry My Tears and Move On” (encore) “Fork in the Road,” “Daddy Rolling Stone.”