Richard Thompson – Still
Typically fine craftsmanship, whittled in Chicago with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy at the controls.
From the opener, She Never Could Resist A Winding Road, it’s easy to get a little blasé about Still. A typically finely crafted slice of emotionally raw storytelling with an absolute peach of a guitar solo, if this was a new act, people would be falling over themselves to sing its praises, but Thompson raised the bar so high so many years ago that this is simply what’s expected of him.
To guard against complacency the former Fairport Convention man recorded Still quickly and with few preconceptions, with production input and subtle keyboards from Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. Thompson’s guitar playing is always a pleasure, but his solo on All Buttoned Up, a funky strut full of odd chord changes, is extraordinary as it wanders curiously between keys, while the episodic Guitar Heroes finds him accurately taking off the likes of Django Reinhardt and Bert Weedon, before ending with a flourish that’s pure Richard Thompson.
Listen to Beatnik Walking here:
And Broken Doll: