Richard Thompson
Album: Acoustic Classics
Label: Beeswing
Tracks: 14
Website: http://richardthompson-music.com/

If Richard Thompson had only written and released, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", for me that would have been enough, but the reality is that that song is the peak of a very impressive mountain of work and one that features on the fourteen song, greatest hits package, "Acoustic Classics". I say greatest hits package, but the reality is these are songs that he has chosen to re-record, with the big mystery being how he chose to whittle the list down to just fourteen.

Okay, where I have "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", others have got, "Beeswing", others still, "Valerie" and yet more have, "From Galway To Gracelands" or "Shoot Out The Lights" and that's the thing, over his illustrious career he has become many different things to many different people and I guess your view on this compilation is tainted by whether or not your particular favorite made it to the album and if it did, do you like the way he's reinterpreted it.

The reality is that it will only change your thoughts on the album very slightly because regardless of track listing, this is an album that really captures the many different facets of the man as both writer and performer, a man capable of carrying off so many different styles without losing a sense of identity.

Naturally you will still find yourself trying to imagine how many musicians are really playing on some of the tracks as his guitar playing transcends the mere mortal so many times as does his story telling, how does he get so many life stories into so short a space?

It's a question that I'm not even going to attempt to start answering, mainly because I simply don't know, I'm just content to know he does and that he's cemented both music and reputation into England's music psyche and has once again delivered an album that he can be assuredly proud off, because to my ears, it sounds great.

Neil King