Live From Austin TX
Live album by Richard Thompson
Released May 2005
Recorded 2001
Genre Rock
Length 75:02
Label New West
Producers Cameron Strang, Jay Woods, Gary Briggs
Live From Austin TX is a live recording of a 2001 performance for PBS' Austin City Limits series.
Thompson has composed and performed since the late 60s, and has been signed to several major labels, but despite his reputation as a compelling and powerful live performer live albums have been few and far between for most of his career.
There was the flawed (and later withdrawn), Small Town Romance in 1984, and several not-for-retail releases on Thompson's own boutique labels. Then in 2004 Cooking Vinyl released a live DVD (Live In Providence) and in 2005 New West Records released this recording of a 2001 performance given for KLRU's Austin City Limits series.
Unlike Thompson's boutique live releases, available at his website and at his shows, Live from Austin TX is an audio recording of a single show. Thompson's boutique releases, such as Ducknapped! and Semi-Detached Mock Tudor are compiled from a large number of different shows on the same tour.
This performance was given in KLRU's studios in front of an audience. Unusually the band is a trio, with Thompson joined by bassist Danny Thompson (no relation) and drummer Michael Jerome. Danny Thompson and Jerome had toured as members of the Richard Thompson band in 1999 and 2000, and would go on to work with him in 2002 on the recording sessions for the 2003 release The Old Kit Bag.
The DVD version of Live From Austin TX includes an extra track, "Put It There Pal" omitted from the CD. Neither version includes the entire performance that Thompson gave at the KLRU studios. Thompson broke a guitar string during "Shoot Out The Lights" and whilst the guitar was being restrung he performed an a cappella rendition of the 19th century music hall song "Sam Hall".
Professional ratings
allmusic 4/5 stars
Pitchfork 7.6/10
Review by Mark Deming on allmusic:
There are few more reliable live performers than Richard Thompson, who never fails to impress on-stage in any context, and in recent years Thompson has been issuing a steady stream of live recordings (available through his website and at live shows), finally filling a void that bootleggers had been attempting to satisfy for some time. Live from Austin TX is a slightly different animal than most of Thompson's self-released live offerings -- while many of Thompson's live offerings were culled from several dates from the same tour, this is a direct audio recording of the set he played at a taping for the great PBS music series Austin City Limits on July 2, 2001. It's also available through normal retail outlets, which means more people will be able to get hold of it, though in some ways it isn't quite as strong as Semi-Detached Mock Tudor, Thompson's 2002 release which includes much of the same material and a stronger, more dynamic sound mix. Still, there are those who will argue you can't have too many recordings of Thompson singing his songs or offering up his dazzling guitar work, and it's difficult not to agree after giving Live from Austin TX a spin -- his interplay with bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Michael Jerome is remarkable, his wiry guitar playing is largely sublime (though the version of "Bathsheba Smiles" features that modern rarity, Thompson actually flubbing a phrase!), and the set list strikes a lovely balance between material from Mock Tudor and gems from his back catalog. In short, this disc features Richard Thompson playing 15 excellent songs in concert, and really, how far wrong can you go with that?
Review by Stephen M. Deusner on Pitchfork:
The mood of Richard Thompson's "Austin City Limits" appearance is pervasively professional -- not like a legend going through the routine again for a few fast bucks, but like a man whose livelihood just happens to be writing and performing complex, intelligent songs. On the 15 tracks collected on the souvenir album, Live From Austin TX (as if you need to qualify Austin with a state name), he plays guitar with an efficiency that's almost corporate, deploying melodic filigrees that downsize all but the most crucial notes and draw on a highly personal style enriched by Celtic and folk traditions, American rock and jazz, and even a little reggae. To redirect the business metaphor slightly: On this CD, Thompson could be a guitar salesman demonstrating his product. See how simple it is to sound like three guitars at once. Now you too you can mimic a banjo or a slide guitar in your home or office.
In other words, Thompson makes it all -- the gamboling solos; the booming vocals; the often humorous, biting lyrics -- seem so easy. That's both the attraction and the flaw of this live album: its technical proficiency is amazing, but at times a little cold. This isn't really Thompson's fault, but an unavoidable logistical circumstance, as his recorded appearance episode ran well beyond CD capacity. Almost all of his stage banter (which was minimal to begin with) has been excised to squeeze in as many songs as possible. Even then, the nearly eight-minute, show-closing "Put It There Pal" had to go too. (The full concert is available on DVD.)
Thompson played "Austin City Limits" in July 2001, just four months after his Capitol Records best-of, Action Packed, marked the end of his 11-year tenure at the label. So the bulk of the tracklist comes from that era, with particular attention to 1999's underrated Mock Tudor (too bad "Cibella", a personal favorite, wasn't included). Backed by an equally professional rhythm section -- Michael Jerome on drums and Danny Thompson on stand-up bass -- Thompson opens with a jubilantly defiant version of "Cooksferry Queen", about a suburban businessman in love with an inner-city hippie, then follows it up with a starkly intense "Uninhabited Man" and a bouncy "Walking the Long Miles Home". But the highlights of the first half of the set predate Mock Tudor: "All Bowlly's in Heaven" is a dark jazz lament, and "Mingus Eyes" sounds desperate and fittingly duplicitous.
Thompson plays an acoustic guitar during that first half of the show, then switches to an electric for the second half, which adds grit to "Bathsheba Smiles" and noir moodiness to "Ghost in the Wind". He spits venom on the caustic "She Twists the Knife", but the reggae rhythms of "Crawl Back (Under My Stone)" lead nicely into a call and response with the audience that's easily the most unguarded moment on the album. That is, until Thompson picks up his acoustic again for the closer, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning". It's one of his most popular late-career songs, and he's probably played it too many times to count. But he invests it with what sounds like fresh and bottomless heartache, making the story of young lovers and vintage motorcycles seem all the more tragically inevitable. Thompson's a man who obviously loves his work.
Review by David Marchese on PopMatters:
After 30-plus years as a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and guitarist, Live from Austin TX is Richard ThompsonÕs first widely available live recording. While a smattering of live tracks have appeared here and there, and there have been some self-released live offerings, never before has it been easier to walk in to a store and bring home a live recording of an artist who is almost unparalleled in his ability to combine jaw-dropping instrumental skill with songwriting of keen emotional depth and insight.
While itÕs impossible to complain about the release of a live album by an artist as talented and compelling as Thompson, itÕs hard to get overly excited about this particular release. The material from the 2002 concert leans heavily toward his most current album at the time, 1999Õs solid but unspectacular Mock Tudor. The awareness that the performances are generally less than transcendent is amplified when his catalogue contains such spellbinding beauties as ÒCalvary CrossÓ from 1993Õs three-disc retrospective Watching the Dark or ÒNight Comes InÓ from 1976Õs Guitar, Vocal. When itÕs clear that there are masterpieces in the vaults, itÕs hard to be overjoyed by solid craftsmanship. This is a perfectly fine show, and a good entry for the neophyte, but the notion of Thompson as craftsman, when he is capable of near-genius, is somewhat disappointing.
Even so, the disc does an admirable job of displaying the variety that is one of ThompsonÕs greatest strengths. Almost evenly split in half by acoustic and electric guitar- led performances, the stylistic ground the man is able to cover over the course of the album is simply astounding. In the space of three songs he moves from the cabaret jazz of ÒAll BowllyÕs in HeavenÓ to ÒDry My Tears and Move OnÓ's soul balladry to the tense neuroticism of ÒEasy There, Steady NowÓ. And all that is aside from his usual forays into Celtic-inflected balladry (Ò1952 Vincent Black LightningÓ) and bouncy rock (ÒCooksferry QueenÓ).
In something of a welcome respite from the traditionally immaculate production of his solo albums, Live showcases ThompsonÕs guitar and voice backed only by his long-time sparring partner Danny Thompson on upright bass and Michael Jerome on drums. ItÕs a compelling trio. R. ThompsonÕs fretwork is beautifully supported by D. ThompsonÕs sumptuous tone and intelligent, but wholly complementary playing, while Jerome brings a subtle and flexible approach to the drum kit.
The only unfortunate thing about the way that ThompsonÕs consummate skill comes across on the album is that one never gets the sense of either the manic intensity of a cut like ÒCanÕt WinÓ, nor the sad-eyed storytelling of ÒFrom Galway to GracelandÓ, which can also both be found on Watching the Dark. The way those performances build inexorably toward almost unbearable catharses are prime examples of just the kind of emotional involvement thatÕs altogether lacking on Live from Austin TX.
The album does edge towards the kind of intensity IÕm talking on its closing three songs. On ÒShoot out the LightsÓ, one of ThompsonÕs venerable in-concert warhorses, and ÒCrawl Back (Under My Stone)Ó, the ragged emotions of the lyrics are brilliantly elucidated by guitar playing of razor wire tension and bleeding savagery. The set concludes with Ò1952 Vincent Black LightningÓ, perhaps ThompsonÕs best known song, and without a doubt one of the most romantic and beautiful songs ever written. I promise youÕll be inspired to hit repeat, if not steal, its lyric as a poem to your lover.
While Live is not the jaw-dropping Richard Thompson live album that must exist somewhere on tape, it has plenty to remind people why Thompson remains one of musicÕs most talented - and criminally underappreciated - artists. LetÕs hope itÕs just the tip of the iceberg.
LP track listing
All songs written by Richard Thompson except as noted.
Side One
1. "Cooksferry Queen" - 3:28
2. "Uninhabited Man" - 5:41
3. "Walking the Long Miles Home" - 3:54
4. "Al Bowlly's in Heaven" - 5:29
Side Two
5. "Mingus Eyes" - 4:05
6. "Dry My Tears and Move On" - 3:40
7. "Easy There, Steady Now" - 4:41
8. "Persuasion" (Tim Finn, Richard Thompson) - 4:09
9. "Bathsheba Smiles" - 3:40
Side Three
10. "Mr. Rebound" - 3:20
11. "Ghosts in the Wind" - 5:28
12. "She Twists the Knife Again" - 3:22
13. "Shoot Out the Lights" - 5:07
Side Four
14. "Crawl Back (Under My Stone)" - 6:11
15. "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" - 4:50
16. "Put It There Pal" - 7:57
Personnel:
* Richard Thompson - guitar and vocals
* Danny Thompson - double bass
* Michael Jerome - drums