and i hate the way froom likes really busy drum patterns and mixes them really high. it almost seems like he tried to apply some ideas from hip-hop in a "roots music" context but did so in a ham-handed way. all very 1990s.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 November 2014 23:01 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, but "Rumour and Sigh" is great, and totally Froomy. The mix might be Tchad Blake at work, he is more percussive.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 November 2014 23:27 (nine years ago) link
even rumor and sigh is kind of marred by some questionable mixing choices IMO.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 November 2014 23:27 (nine years ago) link
Those Froom albums are also fucking LONG. CD bloat + From clinkclank = welcome to the '90s.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 02:37 (nine years ago) link
For all that though I have affection for "Feel So Good" (for once he's playing malice instead of letting his guitar do it for him), "Beeswing," "Shane and Dixie," (he should write about fame and love more often) and most of Amnesia, the best of the Froom albums.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 02:40 (nine years ago) link
Still, "Rumour & Sigh" is the last RT album to have a handful of songs he absolutely must play live. It's hard to believe "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" hails from the '90s, and wasn't in his quiver for the preceding 25 years of his career.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 02:41 (nine years ago) link
Lol at your prior post, and the typo is the icing on the cake(Xp to Alfred)
― fgtbaoutit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 02:43 (nine years ago) link
BTW, is there anyone else like Thompson, who is not only a virtuoso on both electric and acoustic guitars, but is also a good singer and, most importantly, a great songwriter? It's a surprisingly rare combo.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 02:45 (nine years ago) link
PrinceDavid ByrneBrad PaisleyCaetano VelosoNeil Finn
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 02:49 (nine years ago) link
I might put Springsteen on that list. Roger McGuinn too. Probably tons of guys not coming to mind right now. Also depends on how you define 'virtuoso.'
― fgtbaoutit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 02:56 (nine years ago) link
DB is no guitar virtuoso, much as I love him. Prince isn't much of an acoustic guitar guy. Caetano Maybe ... Neil Finn is awesome, but sort of modest in his genius so it's hard to tell how good he is at guitar. The Boss is a great guitar player, but pretty meat and potatoes. Great list, though! Paisley might come closest, as a total guitar guy, electric and acoustic, and a singer-songwriter who is good at both (when he is good).
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 02:59 (nine years ago) link
Johnny Marr is an acoustic and electric virtuoso, and a good songwriter, but not much of a singer, and even on the songwriting front works best as a collaborator.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:00 (nine years ago) link
I've seen enough clips of acoustic Prince before the zealotry of his legal team pulled'em from YouTube to know he's excellent at pickin'.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:01 (nine years ago) link
Many people will lose on the acoustic virtuosity. Like, does Marshall Crenshaw play acoustic?
― fgtbaoutit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:01 (nine years ago) link
and if so, is he a virtuoso?
― fgtbaoutit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:02 (nine years ago) link
The acoustic is the catch. Johnny Marr, Jimmy Page ... those are a couple aces on both.
Speaking of Neil Finn, one of my fave Richard Thompson solos is his in-and-out appearance on "Sister Madly" from "Temple of Low Men."
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:03 (nine years ago) link
Huh, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNJgkGYHomc
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:05 (nine years ago) link
and of course Tim Finn's RT cowrite "Persuasion."
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:10 (nine years ago) link
marshall C is a bad mufuggah re: guitar…but indeed RT is a complete musician in ways few can compare…in 25 years of a being a big fan, I gotta say I'm not into "1952 Black Lightning," in that that was the song annoying vin scelsa listeners/ people who love the bottom line repped for…in the past ten years, I really dig this tune "One Door Opens" from the Old Kit Bag…
― veronica moser, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:27 (nine years ago) link
Neil Young is the standard, I would think. Of course this depends on what you mean by virtuoso.
― theboyqueen, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:42 (nine years ago) link
Also, Lindsey Buckingham. No quarrel with the singer/songwriter part, but can't think of a single thing Bruce Springsteen has done on guitar that I would describe as virtuostic. Most of the time he's is mixed so low I can't tell what he is doing at all on guitar.
― theboyqueen, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:46 (nine years ago) link
thompson is for sure my favorite musician who makes terrible records, my lord can that guy play
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:47 (nine years ago) link
Townshend's fearsome acoustic fingerpicking has informed his electric approach in such a way in the last 15 years or so as to vault his playing far beyond anything his contemporaries are doing.
(also, wrote a few good songs)
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:49 (nine years ago) link
Townshend not a bad suggestion.
Now feel like maybe the concept Josh was trying to get out was someone who was originally known as a guitarist then branched out as singer/songwriter and kept up his guitar chops without growing bland and boring but I dunno.
Hey it's Marshall Crenshaw's birthday today. HB, MC! on the RT thread.
― fgtbaoutit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:53 (nine years ago) link
MC sings RT:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxirrFKl3YQ
― fgtbaoutit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 03:58 (nine years ago) link
And the man himself burning it up:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGhHbJo7PCE
― fgtbaoutit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 04:00 (nine years ago) link
i was gonna say, roy harper is a pretty great acoustic and electric player and no slouch as a songwriter (obviously a horrible human being, though)
it's prob worth noting that thompson really solos like a songwriter -- hi solos tend to be really well thought-out, structurally.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 04:01 (nine years ago) link
also, maybe michael chapman? though frankly he's nowhere near RT's level as a songwriter.
i've seen him live... four times i think, and this song never fails to raise the hairs on my neck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yw2yKNLEPc
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 04:03 (nine years ago) link
btw RT is one of those artists that my mom and i love in equal measure, so we've gone to several of his shows together :)
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 04:05 (nine years ago) link
I always think of Robyn Hitchcock and rt and Tom Verlaine together. Robyn and Tom v are not virtuosos exactly but they are great guitarists who developed extremely idiosyncratic styles which inform the grammar of their songwriting, and both followed lightning-in-bottle band situations with long taken-for-granted solo careers. (If only tom v was as prolific as RH and RT in that regard).
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 05:47 (nine years ago) link
You? Me? Us? was the first RT album I ever heard and I love it to bits even though it's very Froomy in parts. I wouldn't place bloody Robyn Hitchcock anywhere near Thompson as a songwriter, he's just not in the same league.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 08:33 (nine years ago) link
Neil Young is definitely a distinctive acoustic and electric player, so while he's really not a virtuoso (Stephen Stills is), he probably counts. I'd say someone like Townshend (a RT fave) but really he hasn't written a significant song in decades.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 13:07 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0u5EqSM6_4
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 13:08 (nine years ago) link
His regular website Q&As are illuminating:
http://archive.richardthompson-music.com/questionsandanswers.asp
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 13:09 (nine years ago) link
yeah, neil young as a guy who keeps trying to create as best he can but is a guy who self-identified guitarists may love but do not consider a virtuoso, vs Townshend as a guy universally regarded as a virtuoso, if an idiosyncratic one, but who does not seem to have any interest in making new music (the couple of songs I heard from Endless wire were pitiful, as if he had to write songs for a flagging Daltrey; it's long been strange to me that he can't just make a Pete Townshend album, with no unwieldy concept burdening the who thang, certainly he must have something on his mind and the ability to record music, but maybe he does and doesn't release it, instead going on one lame Who tour after another).
guy who keeps trying to do his best, songwriting-wise + guy who other guitar players, even if they're dumb tone attorneys who only understand eric johnson/Stevie ray vaughn/ metal/whatever, when they see him are blown the fuck away = RT.
― veronica moser, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 13:44 (nine years ago) link
"the whole thang"
― veronica moser, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 13:45 (nine years ago) link
oh man i love the tone attorneys, great band
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 14:01 (nine years ago) link
Strangest thing on RT's CV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awkSF3wAdts
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 14:25 (nine years ago) link
certainly he must have something on his mind and the ability to record music, but maybe he does and doesn't release it
See also: Page, Jimmy.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 14:29 (nine years ago) link
but really he hasn't written a significant song in decades.
I dunno, Endless Wire had some of his/their best stuff since By Numbers.
certainly he must have something on his mind and the ability to record music, but maybe he does and doesn't release it,
He's got a pretty massive stockpile of recently-written unreleased things.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 14:32 (nine years ago) link
Speaking of Kaiser, this is neat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7JlxB4KQnU
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 14:34 (nine years ago) link
"Bird in God's Garden" and "Blind Step Away" are both abso top tier RT (re those frith etc records)
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 15:12 (nine years ago) link
Many people will lose on the acoustic virtuosity. Like, does Marshall Crenshaw play acoustic?Seen him several times solo, on acoustic guitar. He's pretty damn good, but of course no RT.
― Jazzbo, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 15:16 (nine years ago) link
Vince Gill. Great singer, great guitar player (A&E), great songwriter?
― Fine Toothcomb (sonofstan), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 15:39 (nine years ago) link
And John Martyn ....(or are we confining this to the living?)
― Fine Toothcomb (sonofstan), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 15:41 (nine years ago) link
Vince Gill is a great call!
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 15:57 (nine years ago) link
RT live >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RT in studio
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 16:01 (nine years ago) link
.. playing AND singing
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 16:02 (nine years ago) link
like a ringing a bell
― fgtbaoutit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 16:21 (nine years ago) link