EDITOR’S NOTE: To celebrate the auspicious return of Richard Thompson, with a full band, to the Philadelphia Folk Festival on Friday we are re-running this interview we did with him back in 2010. BY ARTHUR SHKOLNIK Cobalt-eyed six-string sensei Richard Thompson has been pushing the boundaries of finger-style guitar since the mid-sixties, when he founded Fairport Convention as a teenager. Five decades and over 40 albums later, Thompson is consistently ranked as one of the top five living guitarists and one of the greatest songwriters in recent memory. Or as Anchorage Daily News cartoonist Peter Dunlop Shoal puts it so […]

BY ARTHUR SHKOLNIK Quintessential Englishman Richard Thompson has been pushing the boundaries of finger-style guitar since the mid-sixties, when he founded Fairport Convention as a teenager. Five decades and over 40 albums later, Thompson has proven himself a force not to be folked and he is consistently ranked as one of the top five living guitarists and one of the greatest songwriters in recent memory. His newest album, Dream Attic, is a collection of 13 new tracks recorded in real time during a series of West Coast shows. The music continues to emulate life through introspective lyrics and incandescent guitar […]