Richard Thompson: Ship to Shore
Richard Thompson’s last album, 13 Rivers, was released a full six years ago. Only once before has he taken that long between solo projects, but that’s not intended as a negative—the break has given Thompson more time to hone an album devoid of lulls. Like 13 Rivers, described in these pages as his “most impressive collection of new music in a decade or two,” Ship to Shore exemplifies Thompson’s irrefutable gifts as both composer and artist. Of course, it all starts with guitar work that’s a marvel at every turn. Few purveyors of the instrument share Thompson’s ability to put together a guitar line that is not only unique to his canon but also seemingly summoned out of thin air. Were Ship to Shore an instrumental album, it would still be something to behold: Thompson and his four accompanists (longtime drummer Michael Jerome, fiddler extraordinaire David Mansfield, bassist Taras Prodaniuk and second guitarist Bobby Eichorn, with Zara Phillips providing vocal harmonies) keep things exciting and surprising throughout. But, more than anything, it’s Thompson’s wordsmithing that never fails to dazzle. On new songs— all of them written by him—like the opening “Freeze” (“You never risked a hair upon your head before/ Sometimes it’s good to say, ‘What if?’/ As you’re standing on the cliff/ You’re gonna find out in a jiff, unless you freeze”) and “Singapore Sadie” (“Singapore Sadie, she channels the dead/ Like they’re standing right there in the room/ She can be forgiving, at times, to the living/ So please number me in that crew”), Thompson never wastes a word. Here, as he’s so consistently done throughout his career, he offers finely honed thoughts to consider, all the while playing his ass off.
