it seems to me that richard thompson is the type of musician you either love or discard. you either think he is one of the great guitarists, and a hell of a songwriter, or you have either never heard of him or don’t particularly care for his work (usually his vocals). i am in the former camp, and have been for years. in my mind he is england’s closest equivalent to dylan, and a much better guitar player. his musical legacy is long and diverse. his influence is so profound that he was recently knighted for his accomplishments.

he picked jeff tweedy of wilco to produce this one, and it was recorded at tweedy’s loft studio in chicago in 9 days. the songwriting is excellent and eclectic. the playing is solid and unadorned. it closes with a song called ‘guitar heroes’, where he does a mashup of styles based on the guitarists who influenced him – django reinhart, les paul, james burton, chuck berry, etc.

if you have the ability to get the bonus edition, get it. it has another 5 songs recorded elsewhere, with a smaller band (it also has the song ‘fergus laing’, which he admits is about donald trump).