Teddy Thompson

(Musos's Guide, January 28, 2009)

Gig Reviews

Cardiff Glee Club, January 20

The atmosphere at the Glee Club in Cardiff is shot through with stars and stripes on this most momentous of days.

Multi-instrumentalist Tift Merritt comes onstage with ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ alone on guitar and delivers a blistering version, following it with a breathless tale of her own part in history - a meeting with newly-inaugurated U.S. President Barack Obama.

Dispensing with the mic altogether, tiny Tift’s towering moment comes with ‘Supposed To Make You Happy’. Unfiltered by an electronic amplifier, her plaintive voice and mournful mouth organ bring heartache home to everyone here, and, after a rousing piano-led ‘A Good-Hearted Man’, she leaves an audience in no doubt as to her skill.

In the rarefied world of folk country, Teddy Thompson is king of the road. Born to folk luminaries Linda and Richard Thompson, he joins Rufus and Martha Wainwright as famed offspring of former musical heroes.

Although now in his 30s, with four albums under his belt, Teddy still brings out the old guard - of the 300-strong crowd at Cardiff’s bijou Glee Club tonight are certainly of the requisite vintage to have seen Fairport Convention back in the day.

An artist who is as confident as he is charming, Teddy’s stage presence is intoxicating. As the quiet crowd respectfully nod along to ‘Johnathan’s Book’, it’s clear that this slightly built artist has cast a huge spell over music fans.

Although the songs are nothing new to Teddy’s lips, he sings each one with grace and precision, his voice cracking on “I’ve figured it out, I need you - don’t know why I didn’t know it then” in ‘Don’t Know What I Was Thinking’.

His good humour in between songs is in direct opposition to the emotionally wrecked man who thinks up the lyrics, and it’s a real moment when he picks up a note onstage and reads that they will be playing a request for an audience member Chris’ birthday. A touching rendition of ‘Slippery Slope (Easier)’ - “I’ve been on this road alone so long, travelling down this slippery slope alone” is followed by his own wry observation - “It’s not a very cheery one, is it?” he says, before recommending to Chris, “Have a bit of cake, even it out.”

The proverbial pin would have a deafening roar when the rest of the band vacate the stage for his solo, acoustic performance of four haunting songs, but the mood is only ever sombre for a few minutes before he’s laughing and joking again.

An adoptive American, he too speaks of pride in his homeland today, saying “What a wonderful day!” and proclaiming himself happy to be “a citizen of the world.” Perhaps even he recognises this to sound a little naff on the more sedate side of the pond, as he tells the crowd that it’s not like him to be so serious, he usually deflects that sort of thing with humour. To illustrate, he uses David Brent’s oft-quoted line “I’m just a chilled out entertainer”.

Playing most of current record A Piece Of What You Need, the show is up-to-date, but there are some great moments from earlier releases. The closer, in the encore, is the obvious ‘In My Arms’, radio-friendly unit shifter and plainly much-beloved track of everyone here, as the audience becomes more animated than they have been all evening.