Atlantic City Weekly

Singer-songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire Richard Thompson, 57, has been busy of late. He's just wrapped up a short West Coast run of his show "1,000 Years of Popular Music," a research project he's been working on and performing over the past few years; his latest studio album, the acoustic-heavy Front Parlour Ballads, has been heralded by fans and critics; and he continues to release live performances via his Web site. Between all this, he's been at work on film soundtracks (Grizzly Man) and out there around the globe playing live. "I think that process of traveling and performance is very crucial to what I do," the British songwriter tells AC Weekly. "And the recording process is more like a record of that. I don't start with the records and then think: Well, OK, now it's time to put the tour together. I really think the other way around."

A highly respected artist with somewhat of a cult status, Thompson, over the course of dozens of highly regarded records and four decades, has written and performed stirring, literate and often extraordinary songs. Some have been covered on tribute albums and by the likes of artists such as Elvis Costello and Los Lobos.

In the late 1960s, Thompson co-founded the folk-rock unit, Fairport Convention, the British answer to the Band. After several wonderful albums, he went out on his own and released a string of classic albums with his wife Linda. In recent decades, it's just been Richard Thompson, the esteemed solo artist, the unwavering songwriter and the guitar magician. This Saturday, he'll headline the Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival in Elmer, Salem County. He spoke to AC Weekly recently via telephone from his home in Los Angeles.

AC Weekly: You've performed before at Appel Farm. Have you spent much time at the Jersey Shore?

Richard Thompson: I've done at least one show in Atlantic City itself, which is a fascinating place. A really interesting place. It was about seven years ago or something. We played somewhere right on the pier I think.

ACW: You perform in Philly a lot.

RT: Yeah. I think because we get very good radio support in that area. WXPN is a real radio station that plays your folk-rock dinosaurs like me.

ACW: There's always been a balance in your music, between the gentle acoustic and ferocious electric guitar playing, the American-style rock and British ballads. Is this dichotomy something conscious for you as a musician and songwriter or just the way it is?

RT: Well, it's the way it is. And I think as a musician you try to have some range. You try to not be too narrow and I think the longer you play and the more you understand music, the more you want to put across different emotions and different moods. There are huge possibilities musically. I'd hate to be a one-trick pony.

ACW: When you were putting together the list of "1,000 Years of Popular Music," were there any interesting things you found out about music history?

RT: The research was one of the most interesting things about doing this show. Sometimes you find things, and you find the influence of some of those ideas that you've researched kind of sneaking into your own music, which is fun. That's the great thing about it. But you know, a lot of musical history is kind of forgotten. If you dig around, you realize that there's great ideas that got left by the wayside as fashions change.

ACW: You'll be playing your own songs at Appel Farm?

RT: When I come it will just be me doing a regular show; just me singing my own stuff. This won't be "1,000 Years."

ACW: Early on in your career you played electric guitar on a few Nick Drake tracks. Do you have a favorite memory from those sessions? There's been a huge resurgence in his popularity in recent years.

RT: No kidding ... his music was great. It just took people a really long time to latch on to it because Nick was a fairly quiet person and he didn't have much of a career. But even though the music has been sitting there for a very long time, it's taken people a very long time to get around to finding it. But once they find it, they absolutely love it. Perhaps on [the Drake song] "Hazey Jane" I might have been in the studio with Nick at the same time, but a lot of the stuff was just overdubbed afterwards. Nick was a kind of nervous performer in the studio, so he'd lay stuff down and stuff would be overdubbed onto it.

ACW: The Life and Music of Richard Thompson, a five-disc set of outtakes, live recordings, and album cuts, many of which were pulled from your personal collection, was just released. You also release a lot of live stuff on your Web site. Do you feel that with the Net, you have the ability to get good stuff out there faster to your fans?

RT: Well, it's a lot more direct. The Internet's just a great tool for people like me who are in a kind of a niche. We're the kind of people who don't get on the radio and TV all the time, so it's easier via the Internet for people to find you.

ACW: You'll be playing solo acoustic while here in New Jersey. In a past interview, you said: "When you stand up acoustic in front of an audience, you really are a man without any clothes on."

RT: Well, I think you are -- yeah. It's a very foolish thing to do. Incredibly brave and foolish. Because there's nobody else to blame. It's all just you. And I always think of it as kind of a test, a test if you really are a musician, you know? If you call yourself a musician then, OK, stand up in front of these people and play something ... There are kids out there who have never really seen a live performance. They've just seen people on stage performing to pre-recorded music. They don't know that wonderful feeling of actually hearing a really good band play live.