Salut! Live

Andrew Curry writes: Following on from Colin’s piece yesterday on the Artist of the Week slot at our Facebook group, we’re sharing a version of the AOTW Facebook post that celebrated Linda Thompson. This was partly to mark her latest record Proxy Music, which was released in June.

(Source: Lindathompsonmusic.com)

If you haven’t listened to it Proxy Music yet, it’s a glorious collection of songs written by Linda with a range of different writing partners, and sung by an impressive range of collaborators.

Just among her own family members these include her former husband Richard and her son Teddy (who also produced), daughter Kami Thompson, son-in-law James Walbourne, and grandson Zak Hobbs. There’s a couple of Wainwrights in there, and a younger Carthy.

There’s a reason for the collaborators, and, indeed for the title of the record, as Colin explained in a piece on the blog a couple of months ago. Linda suffers from a condition called spasmodic dysphoria, which has affected her voice for decades, and her ability to sing is now severely restricted.

Hence Proxy Music, whose punning title comes with a visual pun as well. Other people are singing her songs. I hope that Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno are amused by this rather than reaching for their lawyers. 

The songs are terrific. Several sound as if they have been in the folk repertoire for years, notably I Used to be Pretty, sung by Ren Harvieu, and Bonnie Lass, performed by the Proclaimers with Aly McBain on violin. Several stand comparison with the fine records she made with Richard Thompson in the 1970s—I like Three Shaky Ships sung here by the Unthanks with an arrangement by Adrian McNally, co-written by Richard and Linda.

Or Nothing At All, co-written with Charlie Dore, and sung by Martha Wainwright’, sounds like Matha’s mother Kate McGarrigle in her prime. And the last song, Those Damn Roches, should put a smile on the face of any folk music fan. (We featured it in our ‘Song of the Day’ slot earlier this month). The song pays an affectionate tribute to the Roches, the McGarrigles/Wainwrights, the Copper family and the Waterson-Carthys. And the “far away Thompsons”, of course, who “tug at my heart/ Can’t get along ‘cept when we’re apart.”

I underestimated Linda Thompson for quite a long time, which I suppose is one of the risks of being married to a generational talent for a while and making records with him. I probably only realised this when I want back to some of those records.

I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight and Pour Down Like Silverstand comparison with the best folk records of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and are noticeably better than Richard’s solo records after they separated, certainly until Rumor and Sigh.

She hasn’t recorded much, because of her voice condition, but all the same the three records she made in her 50s and 60s, from Fashionably Late to Won’t Be Long Now have held up well. As will Proxy Music: enjoy.

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(Source: Lindathompsonmusic.com)