Over the years, acclaimed guitarist Richard Thompson occupied a creatively rich outpost apart from more visible players and peers like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. If his still-active career has never quite lifted him to arena-rock status, Thompson nevertheless earned his position as one of the greatest living guitarists, along with a songwriting reputation that grows to this day.
“Walking On A Wire” is the most extensive overview of Thompson’s oeuvre since 1993’s 3-disc “Watching The Dark” compilation, and it’s well worth the time. Disc One picks up the story in the late Sixties, when Thompson was a member of the folk-rock outfit Fairport Convention, who were sometimes referred to as the British Jefferson Airplane (albeit with a more traditional-folk bent). “Time Will Show The Wiser” and “Genesis Hall” showcase Thompson as a gifted young guitarist, with elements of his sound in the latter track that would echo through his recordings for decades.
Following a brief solo period, Thompson’s reputation was sealed through his albums with ex-wife Linda Thompson, and if he’d never recorded again after their brilliant, harrowing 1982 album “Shoot Out The Lights,” Richard’s work would still have deserved box-set treatment. “When I Get To The Border,” “The Great Valerio,” “Withered And Died” and “The Calvary Cross” are among the pair’s classic work represented here, from albums like “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight” and “Pour Down Like Silver” that are always deserving of a fresh look.
As Thompson’s songwriting began to draw the acclaim it deserved, the songs began to provide the soundtrack to the couple’s disintegration. The Thompsons’ work together, among the finest music either would produce, were truly jewels created under the most intense conditions, culminating with “Shoot Out The Lights.” The 1983 album “Hand Of Kindness” resumed Thompson’s solo career, and tracks like the giddy “Tear Stained Letter” and “I Ain’t Going To Drag My Feet No More” became regular fixtures in his concerts for years.
Notable albums from the Polydor and Capitol labels took Thompson through the Eighties and Nineties, providing the singer/guitarist with his highest commercial profile during a stretch that offered up some of his most memorable songs. Ah, but how and where to market Richard? Americana fans and old-style rock & roll purists found plenty to love in the jumping “Little Blue Number” and “Valerie.” The stripped-down, catchy “Turning Of The Tide,” the horn-driven lament “Waltzing’s For Dreamers,” and the amusingly caustic “I Feel So Good” were great songs that gradually grew and strengthened Thompson’s fan base, even if they didn’t trouble the Top 40.
There’s plenty more here to explore, running up to his notable soundtrack for the film “Grizzly Man” and this 2007 album “Sweet Warrior.” Through a career spanning more than 40 years, Thompson has developed as an engaging singer, a song crafter with few peers, and a lyrical guitarist with even fewer. Whether through rock, folk, pop, or any of a number of variations in between, Richard Thompson has produced a body of work that, placed in the context of a box set, will always sound more like a celebration than the contents of a museum.
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