Richard Thompson still has stories to tell. And that's fairly uncommon for a songwriter who was active in the '60s.
While many of his peers are writing their memoirs or making albums of cover songs, the 66-year-old Thompson keeps churning out albums. "Still," which will be released June 23, is his fourth album of new songs since 2010. It was produced by Jeff Tweedy at the Wilco frontman's Chicago rehearsal loft in just nine days.
It is Mr. Thompson's 16th solo album, but that only tells part of the story. The singer-songwriter-guitarist -- the ultimate triple threat -- began his career in 1967 at the age of 18 with the esteemed British folk-rock band Fairport Convention, exhibiting a unique guitar style that married ancient folk with California psych, and even Arabic touches. He's among the few guys who can beautifully finger-pick a folk song or extend a noisy rock jam out for a hair-raising 12 minutes.
In 2003, Rolling Stone declared him the 19th Greatest Guitar Player of All Time, writing, "Richard Thompson is the greatest guitarist in British folk rock -- and that's only one of the genres he has mastered."
Fairport could contain him only for four years before he broke off with solo debut "Henry the Human Fly," followed by a run of six albums with his wife under Richard and Linda Thompson, culminating with the harrowing 1982 breakup record "Shoot Out the Lights."
He resumed his solo status in 1983 with some of the best work of his career -- including "Hand of Kindness," "Across a Crowded Room" and "Daring Adventures" and "Rumor and Sigh" -- while also breaking off for projects like supergroup The Golden Palominos and the avant-garde French Frith Kaiser Thompson.
Equally adept with a haunting ballad, rollicking story-song and blazing rocker, Mr. Thompson varies the approach on "Still," going from the dirge-like "Broken Doll" to a playful climax of the seven-minute "Guitar Heroes," paying tribute to such legends as Django Reinhardt, Les Paul and Chuck Berry.
Mr. Thompson, who returns to the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, talked about "Still" and other topics in a recent phone interview.
You're returning to the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Do you remember doing it once in the rain?
Oh my god. I can't believe the audience stayed. It was insane. I felt so sorry for the few hundred people who stuck around. It was just nuts.
Has that happened much in your career?
Uh, I come from Britain, so festivals don't stop for rain in the UK. I've been on stage and watched people being carried off dying of exposure because the weather was so atrocious.
And lots of mud too, probably.
First World War-scale mud.
So many of your contemporaries have stopped making records or just do covers. How do you keep it going? How do the songs keep coming to you?
I don't know. Perhaps if I thought about it, they'd stop coming. [laughs] I'm interested in music and I enjoy what I do and I like storytelling in songs. I just sit down and write stuff, and it seems to come out and people seem to like listening to it, so I keep doing it.
Some of the most powerful songs you did were when you had some turmoil in your life.
I think turmoil pushes you to write a certain kind of song. Or, you see something on the news and that inspires you to write a song. There are other songs that just come out of your imagination, as well, that aren't necessarily fueled by episodes in your own life. I think things just pop out somehow and that's a different kind of song.
"Dungeons for Eyes," from the new album. Is that one of those that came from imagination?
That's based on a real event. Some years ago, I was at a charity event and I was asked to meet with a certain politician I can't name. I thought, "He's a politician now but he used to be either a terrorist or freedom fighter," depending on what side of the battle you were on. I know for sure he's killed people and had people killed and I thought, "How do I deal with this?" It was a dilemma that is central to the song.
You also do a tribute to "Guitar Heroes." How did that take shape?
I thought it would be fun to think about who I was listening to as a kid and string them together into a long piece with long quotes. I think the whole thing is about eight minutes. There are precedents. Thumbs Carlisle, an Arkansas guitar player, did a tribute called "Springfield Guitar Social" which is two and a half minutes with all the Nashville guitar players quoted: Les Paul, Chet Atkins, he managed to squeeze everything in there. Just a fantastic bit of guitar playing and, 50 years later, I'm reviving that idea.
When was the last time you did a Chuck Berry riff?
Uh, occasionally on a solo I do, I do a version of "Little Queenie" because it's fun to do a solo where you kind of pay the rhythm and lead at the same timing. I play open tuning so I found a way to play the lead over the rhythm. Broadly speaking, you're right. I never play Chuck Berry, but in school, I played a lot of Chuck Berry.
I guess the British folk scene has lost a few folk guitar heroes in recent years: Bert Jansch and John Renbourn.
Yes, in the last three years. And Davey Graham, who was probably the progenitor. He was playing world music before there was a word for it. Irish and blues and North African music together. He was a great player. It's sad. When people die, you realize how unique everyone on the planet is, how people are irreplaceable. I hope people are aware of people like John, Bert and Davey. We're very fortunate to live in an era when music is recorded and people can listen to these people forever.
So, were you a Wilco fan?
Yes, absolutely. I think some of the most interesting, thoughtful things I've heard in the last 20 years have come from Wilco.
How did the collaboration come about?
I suppose we've done the odd show together over the last 20 years. But last year we did a tour called the AmericanaRama tour with Wilco and My Morning Jacket and Bob Dylan, and we got to hang out and jam together on that stage and stuff, and that was fun. That's probably where the seed of the idea came from.
Did you enjoy the experience in the studio?
Yeah, it was a really nice place to record and a nice, relaxed way of recording, and I think everyone had fun in it, and it didn't seem like an effort.
What did Jeff bring to it?
I think he had fairly interesting arrangement ideas. It wasn't anything drastic. Nothing changed dramatically from the demo versions that we did, but his suggestions were pretty much on the money.
By the way, Colin Meloy of the Decemberists is a huge fan of the British folk tradition. Have you crossed paths with him?
I'm aware of the Decemberists and I enjoy their music very much. I don't think I've met any of them. Perhaps in the future that will be a nice thing.
Are you working a lot of the new songs into the set?
I think audiences can get complacent about an artist if they've been listening for a long time. Your long-standing fans can be dismissive of new stuff and say, "We just want to hear stuff from the '60s and '70s or something." That can be frustrating. In concert, we always try to work in four, five or six new things. Thank god, we never had a hit! Otherwise we'd have to churn out the hits every time we played.
Do you almost feel if you didn't have that obligation of playing the songs people really like that you just wouldn't do it?
I think we could absolutely play what we wanted to play and that wouldn't necessarily overlap with what the audience wanted to hear. So I think a show is always a compromise between the two. You always have to think about the audience, who are paying your wages, basically, and think about what they want to hear, and then you have to impose something different on the audience. So you kind of drag your audience into the future, if you like, by playing more recent music. And hopefully they like it and treat it as part of the repertoire. I think audiences tend to be conservative by nature on the whole. I know if I go to a show, there are certain things I want to hear.
I saw there was a petition for Fairport Convention into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Were you aware of that?
I don't know about it and I don't really desire it, to tell you the truth. I don't think Fairport actually belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because I don't think it's really rock 'n' roll. I think we belong in the Folk Music Hall of Fame, or something. Thank god that doesn't exist! -- so we don't have to be there. I sort of hate museums where my youth is in the museum. I hate that time has passed enough that you're being frozen in time or something, you're being turned into a wax work, or a statue. I'm glad to not be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
They would have your beret in there on a mannequin.
Yeah, all my fantastic stage outfits!
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576. Twitter: @scottmervis_pg
First Published: June 11, 2015, 4:00 a.m.