An Evening With Richard Thompson

Sunday January 31 | 8pm

Pricing: $45 Front Section, $40 Orchestra & Balcony (+ Ticketing Fees)

We are very pleased to welcome back solo acoustic artist, Richard Thompson!

“Some songs, you never finish…you let them lie for 20 years, adding a line, changing a verse,” reflects songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson. “Songs always sound best before you write them, before you get them on paper or into a recording.”

Honing his creations ever closer to their initial spark of inception has required a diligent, tireless dedication to his craft of songwriting – and has resulted in an unparalleled career now spanning five decades, from his formative years in seminal folk-rock alchemists Fairport Convention to his acclaimed solo work.

“Still”, available via Fantasy Records, is a testament to Thompson’s ongoing evolution as a songwriter and performer, and his willingness to continue challenging himself. “By this point,” Thompson explains, “I’ve done about forty albums on my own. I know how to make records, I know the process. But I also fall into my own patterns and habits.”

To disrupt these potentially stifling habits, Thompson enlisted Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy as producer. “It turned out,” Thompson adds, acknowledging the risk involved, “to be really good idea. Jeff is musically very sympathetic. Although some of his contributions are probably rather subtle to the listener’s ear, they were really interesting and his suggestions were always very pertinent.”

In a remarkable feat of discipline (or self-denial), “Still’s” twelve songs were laid down in a brisk nine days, with producer Tweedy melding surprising sonic enhancements to a series of urgent, riveting performances by Thompson’s core trio of himself (guitar, vocals), bassist Taras Prodaniuk, and drummer Michael Jerome – augmented by guest guitarist Jim Elkington of Jeff’s band Tweedy and harmony vocalists Liam Cunningham, his sister Sima Cunningham (both of Tweedy), and Siobhan Kennedy.

In partnership with the evocative sonic landscape, the key to “Still’s” emotional resonance is a set of gripping new Thompson compositions rich with his signature mix of trenchant insight, gallows humor, and keen empathy for characters at the brink of being overcome by their emotions, their pasts, or themselves.

“Still” is clear evidence that, rather than buckle under the weight of a long, enviable career, Thompson’s sights are resolutely set on the here and now. “There’s two kinds of success,” he concludes. “Once I make an album, I can only say I succeeded if I wrote good songs and made a good document. In terms of a live shows, I have to ask if I felt like I got something across to the audience…did I communicate? The other kind of success is when you’re in the charts, you’re celebrated. In the end, that’s just illusory. There’s no point investing in that.”

Taken as a whole, “Still” is a powerful dispatch from an acknowledged master who remains unafraid to put himself into demanding new environments – its title reflecting that resilience and seemingly endless resourcefulness. “Or,” Thompson adds slyly, “it could be read as ‘Is he still performing? I thought he died years ago.”

Keep the party going! Show your ticket stub at Zeno’s Pub after any The State Theatre event and get in for FREE! Rock On!