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No artist to emerge in the second half of the ’60s—a remarkably bountiful period—has gone on to have a more productive and vital career than Richard Thompson. While still a teenager, he founded and led Fairport Convention, which was to British folk-rock what the Byrds were to the idiom’s American equivalent—meaning more Childe ballads and less sunshine. Thompson’s solo albums, beginning with 1972’s Henry the Human Fly, reveal an artist of unparalleled dimension who has followed his muse as boldly as fellow iconoclast Neil Young. The series of albums Thompson recorded during the 1970s and early ’80s with his then-wife Linda, including the exquisite Pour Down Like Silver and culminating in the devastating Shoot Out the Lights, charted the ups and downs of a relationship with unstinting candor. The last twenty years have seen a steady supply of critically acclaimed solo albums, including successful major label releases like Rumour and Sigh and a number of “homemade” discs available only through BeesWeb (www.richardthompson-music.com).

His vast and ever-growing body of original material is marked by consistent intelligence, taste and emotional purity—which is why so many of his songs have been covered by other quality artists, a stellar list that includes the likes of Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Del McCoury, Graham Nash, X, Los Lobos and Bob Mould. And Thompson is among the most distinctive of guitar virtuosos, capable of breathtaking drama and sublime delicacy, depending on the song and the amp setting, if indeed an amp happens to be employed. Over the course of his career, Thompson has earned numerous awards and honors, including the Ivor Novello Award for songwriting, t