I recently wrote about how I wasn't ready to accept Bob Dylan into my life until this year. The same thing just happened with Richard Thompson. I heard he was coming to Milwaukee and decided to take a chance and go, solely based on his performance in the Joni tribute. Sometimes it's interesting to go to a concert when you have little or no knowledge of the person. I'm glad to say that everything about the show was impressive....the songs, his voice and most of all his guitar mastery.
He has a wonderful sense of humor and was really comfortable conversing with the audience. (It was a very small venue.) In one unique segment he told about being asked to name the best 20 songs of the last 1,000 years. He didn't think they really meant 1,000 years, so he named songs starting in the 12th century. To illustrate some of them, he played a 14th century Italian ballad, "Shenandoah," and then "Oops...I Did It Again!" (In his own style, of course....very interesting!) I'm running out of superlatives to describe him, so I'll quote his review in the paper..."He is simply among the finest rock musicians to ever pick up a guitar. It's the rare rocker who can flourish without the support of a band. Thompson plays with such remarkable finesse and power that his solo show Monday never felt spare or incomplete." Kerry
