Richard Thompson

'The finest rock songwriter after Dylan and the best electric guitarist since Hendrix' – Los Angeles Times

In 2017, Ivor Novello Award-winning and GRAMMY® Award-nominated legend Richard Thompson gave himself up to the music itself. Picking up a guitar, emotions echoed through his deft fleet-fingered fretwork, poetic songwriting, impassioned picking. Those transmissions comprise his nineteenth solo album, 13 Rivers.

'There are 13 songs on the record, and each one is like a river,' Thompson explains. 'Some flow faster than   others. Some follow a slow and winding current. They all culminate on this one body of work.'

In many ways, his career has pointed towards such a statement. Powered by evocative songcraft, jaw-dropping guitar playing, and indefinable spirit, this venerable icon holds a coveted spot on Rolling Stone’s '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time' and counts a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association in Nashville, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BBC Awards among his many accolades. 2011 saw Thompson garner an OBE. Moreover, Time touted his anthem, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, on its '100 Greatest Songs Since 1923' list.

Thompson’s influence can’t be overstated. Everybody from Robert Plant, Don Henley, and Elvis Costello to REM, Sleater-Kinney and David Byrne has covered his music. However, 13 Rivers represents another high watermark.

'The songs are a surprise in a good way,' Thompson says. 'They came to me as a surprise in a dark time. They reflected my emotions in an oblique manner that I’ll never truly understand. It’s as if they’d been channeled from somewhere else. You find deeper meaning in the best records as time goes on. The reward comes later.'