WSJ has a nice look at rock and folk guitarist Richard Thompson’s career and the new box set of his work.
“Walking on a Wire: Richard Thompson (1968-2009)” (Shout! Factory), released this week, contains 71 tracks of Mr. Thompson performing solo, with his then-wife Linda, and with the seminal folk-rock group Fairport Convention. As befits a career retrospective, the four-CD set reveals the sweep of Mr. Thompson’s talent as a singer, composer and instrumentalist. It’s not the first “best of” Thompson collection to be released; two others precede it. But spend time with this one and you’ll conclude that very few rock musicians have tallied such an impressive body of work. When we spoke by phone earlier this month, Mr. Thompson told me he was glad to avoid the responsibility of choosing material for the boxed set. “I wouldn’t know where to start,” he said, adding that, as editor, he swapped a few songs for others. Further, he said, as a musician he lives in the moment. The past isn’t a focus, but it serves to provide material to explore onstage. – From WSJ