Teddy Thompson
(born 19 February 1976) is a British folk and rock musician. He released his first album in 2000 and has been producing music ever since.
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TEDDY THOMPSON TICKETS
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Biography
Teddy Thompson was born in 1976 in a
London Sufi commune to
folk-rock musicians
Richard and
Linda Thompson. He is the brother to singer
Kamila Thompson. At the age of 18, Teddy moved to
Los Angeles to pursue his music career, which included work as a singer and guitar player in his father Richard's band during the 1990s. He appears on at least three Richard Thompson Band recordings from that time:
You? me? us?
, the live album
Celtschmerz
(1998), and
Mock Tudor (1999)
. He can be seen performing in his father's band on a number of internet videos from as early as 1993, including an appearance on the
BBC's
Jools Holland show.
Debut
In
2000 Thompson released his debut album,
Teddy Thompson
, which received much critical acclaim but little commercial success. Between the time of his debut album and follow-up, he released the moderately successful EP,
Blunderbuss
, and toured as part of
Rosanne Cash's band. His song "Love Her For That" was featured in the 2002 film,
40 Days and 40 Nights
.
Separate Ways
In
2005, Thompson released his second long player,
Separate Ways
. The album has a strong "second-generation" artist theme, featuring both
Rufus and
Martha Wainwright, who are close friends of Thompson. He has toured and recorded with both the Wainwrights, including Rufus' 2003 album,
Want One
.
[1] Teddy and Rufus recorded a version of "
King of the Road" for the 2005 film,
Brokeback Mountain
, with Thompson also contributing a solo track: "I Don't Want to Say Goodbye".
Separate Ways
features
Dave Mattacks,
Tony Trischka and
Garth Hudson of
The Band and was produced by Brad Albetta, who also produced Martha Wainwright's much lauded
debut album.
Upfront & Down Low
Teddy's third album,
Upfront & Down Low
, was released on
Verve Forecast in the United States on July 17, 2007, and in the UK and Europe later in 2007. The album contains covers of many of Teddy's favorite country songs, plus one of his own compositions, entitled "Down Low". The only single taken off
Upfront & Down Low
was "Change of Heart", which was written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.
A Piece of What You Need
Thompson's fourth studio album,
A Piece of What You Need
, was released via
Verve/Forecast on June 17, 2008 and contains all original songs. It was produced by
Marius de Vries, whom Teddy met while recording background vocals on Rufus Wainwright's
Want
records in 2002. He had been playing the opening track, "The Things I Do," for several years on tour and originally intended to put it on
Separate Ways
, but could not get the feel right in time for that album's release. The song "Turning the Gun On Myself" first appeared on Teddy's 2004 EP,
Blunderbuss
.
The first single from
A Piece of What You Need
is "In My Arms". The music video for the song features a cameo appearance by Rufus Wainwright dressed as
Elvis Presley. The song entered the
UK Singles Chart at #107.
[2] The album received rave reviews in the UK, and much critical acclaim elsewhere, with many stating that this album is Thompson's best work to date.
A Piece of What You Need
debuted at #10 after its first week in the UK Charts during August 2008.
Other musical work
Teddy co-wrote the bulk of his mother Linda Thompson's comeback album,
Fashionably Late
(2002). He also contributed guitar and vocals on the album. The song
All I See
, written by Teddy and featuring Linda on vocals, first appeared on Teddy's 2000 debut album
Teddy Thompson
.
Thompson participated in a series of
Leonard Cohen tribute concerts, called "Came So Far For Beauty", produced and arranged by
Hal Willner, performing along with
Nick Cave,
The McGarrigles,
Martha Wainwright,
Rufus Wainwright,
Jarvis Cocker,
Beth Orton,
Laurie Anderson,
Linda Thompson,
Antony Hegarty, and Cohen's original backing singers
Perla Batalla and
Julie Christensen. The concerts were performed in
New York,
Brighton,
Dublin and
Sydney. The Sydney concert was filmed and became
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
, a film tribute to the legendary songwriter. A CD soundtrack featuring select covers from the tribute concerts was released by
Verve Records in 2006; Thompson contributes covers of "Tonight Will Be Fine" and "The Future".
In December 2005, Thompson appeared on BBC Radio 2, along with numerous other artists, for a
John Lennon tribute. Thompson performed "
I'm Only Sleeping" and "
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away."
In December 2006, Thompson appeared with his mother Linda and younger sister Kamila as part of the Rufus and Martha Wainwright's "Christmas Spectacular" at
Carnegie Hall in New York.
[3]
Thompson again co-wrote much of his mother's 2007 album,
Versatile Heart
.
Teddy was featured in one of the episodes of
Live from Abbey Road
, along with
Brian Wilson and
Martha Wainwright, during September 2008. Teddy contributed two songs: "In My Arms" and "Don't Know What I Was Thinking", from his recent album,
A Piece of What You Need
. Thompson and Martha Wainwright also performed the Beatles song, "
We Can Work it Out" together at the end of the airing episode. The episode aired on
The Sundance Channel on September 4 in the US and on September 13 in the UK.
Thompson is featured in a DVD with
Keane, entitled
Curate a Night For a War Child
(released in September 2008), contributing two songs from
Upfront & Down Low
.
December 10, 2008, Thompson will again be part of the McGarrigle Christmas Hour, at Carnegie Hall.
December 17, 2008, Thompson will perform as part of the Thompson Family Christmas Show, with proceeds going to
Amnesty International (proceeds from a similar show in 2007 went to the
Save Darfur Coalition). The musicians on the roster include
Linda Thompson,
Badly Drawn Boy, and Thompson's sister Kamilla.
In January and February 2009, he is touring the UK with The Gray Race as his opening act and backup band.
On May 3rd Teddy appeared along with a lineup of other artists including
Emmylou Harris,
Bruce Springsteen, Rufus and
Martha Wainwright at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the 90th birthday of folk music icon and folk-singer
Pete Seeger.
Teddy will be featured in an upcoming documentary about Jason Crigler; a well-known guitarist and musician whom is also a close friend of Thompson. The documentary is called
Life.Support.Music
and is about the amazing recovery Crigler made after suffering from a serious brain hemmorage in 2004. The documentary also feature Jason`s family and friends with appearances by Teddy and
Norah Jones amongst others.
Life.Support.Music
will air on PBS on July 7th 2009 and will also be available for purchase on DVD.
Teddy will be the Opening Act for Elton John, supporting him on a line of dates in June 2009.
Teddy will play solo acoustic shows supporting Elton, and also do the Festival scene in The UK later in the Summer of 2009.
Style and musical genre
Coming from a family of folk-musicians, Thompson has naturally drawn influences from folk-music into his own musical sound. While still a teenager he was listening exclusively to American music such as
Chuck Berry,
The Everly Brothers and
Buddy Holly. Thompson also later stated that these artists are some of his main musical influences when he first started to write songs (quotation needed). Later when he grew up he began to listen more to contemporary pop music such as
Crowded House, and his own musical style today is a mix of folk, country, rock and pop music.
In addition to his
tenor singing voice, Thompson plays both the acoustic and electric guitar, and occasionally the ukulele. He has a strong, versatile and expressive voice which he uses both in the higher and lower vocal range with ease, but he apparently prefers using his voice in the middle register while singing.
In an interview, he stated that his voice was "his only weapon so to speak" in the early years as a vocalist and musician, while he played in his father's backing band. When drawn comparison to his parents, it has been said that Thompson has inherited much of his mother's singing voice. He has also often been compared vocally to
Jackson Browne,
Chris Isaak and
Neil Finn (of
Crowded House).
Musical themes
Thompson's songs are often characterized by their personal and observational style and common use of black humor, such as "Turning the Gun On Myself" and "The Things I Do". He is also known for his ability of writing both personal and wry lyrics with a very melodic style, with such songs like "What's This?
|" and "In My Arms". As a lyricist, he has often been compared to his father, but has developed his own unique writing style. He is also said to have a knack of catching the exact state of mind into his songs, like in "Everybody Move It" and "Slippery Slope".
Teddy has said that "Everybody Move It" was inspired and partly based on personal experience with going out to clubs as a teenager, often ending up in a corner watching everybody else having all the fun.
Recurring themes in Thompson's music are love, loss, the look at fame ("You Made It", "Shine So Bright"), popular culture ("A Piece of What You Need"), and regarding much of his earlier work, self-loathing.
While on his first two albums written songs only in a first-person perspective, Teddy has also explored writing songs in the third person, most notably in "Jonathan's Book".
The song "Nobody's Off the Hook" from
Rufus Wainwright's most recent album,
Release the Stars
, is said to be written to Thompson.
Discography
Albums
Year
| Album
| Chart Positions
| Label
|
UK
| US Heat
| US Country
|
2000
| Teddy Thompson
|
|
|
| Virgin
|
2005
| Separate Ways
| 192 [4]
|
|
| Verve Forecast
|
2007
| Upfront & Down Low
|
| 19
| 49
|
2008
| A Piece of What You Need
| 10 [5]
| 19
|
|
EPs, etc.
- L.A.
(EP) (2001)
- Blunderbuss
(EP) (2004)
Singles
- "Everybody Move It" (2005)
- "In My Arms" (2008)
- "Christmas" (2008) - featuring special guests Linda, Richard, and Kamila Thompson [6]
Guest appearances
- 1996 - Richard Thompson's You? me? us?
- "Bank Vault in Heaven" - vocals
- 1998 - Richard Thompson's Celtschmerz
- "A Heart Needs a Home", "Persuasion" - vocals
- 1999 - Richard Thompson's Mock Tudor
- guitar, backing vocals, harmony vocals
- 2001 - Richard Thompson Action Packed
- "Persuasion" - live duet
- 2002 - Rufus Wainwright's Poses
- "One Man Guy"- guitar, harmony vocals
- 2002 - Richard Thompson's Semi-Detached Mock Tudor
- dulcimer, guitar, vocals
- 2002 - Linda Thompson's Fashionably Late
- co-writer and guest vocals
- 2003 - Roseanne Cash's Rules of Travel
- "Three Steps Down" - vocals
- 2005 - Kate and Anna McGarrigle's ''The McGarrigle Christmas Hour - vocals
- 2006 - Shaun Colvin's These Four Walls
- "Let it Slide" - vocals
- 2007 - Linda Thompson's Versatile Heart
- co-writer and guest vocals
- 2007 - Rufus Wainwright's Release the Stars
- "Sanssouci" - background vocals
- 2008 - Jason Crigler's The Music of Jason Crigler
- "Through Tomorrow", "Dixie" - vocals
- 2008 - Marianne Faithfull's Easy Come, Easy Go
- "How Many Worlds" - vocals
Compilation/soundtrack contributions
- 1998 - Psycho
- "Psycho"
- 2006 - Brokeback Mountain
- "I Don't Want to Say Goodbye," co-lead "King of the Road" (with Rufus Wainwright)
- 2006 - Q Covered: The Eighties
- "Don't Dream it's Over"
- 2006 - Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
- "The Future," "Tonight Will Be Fine"
- 2006 - Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys
- "Sally Brown"
References
- musicomh.com
- The Official UK Singles Chart for the Week Ending 30 August 2008
- pitchforkmedia.com
- Chart Log UK
- The Official UK Albums Chart for the week ending 6 September 2008
- Exclusive Teddy Thompson and Family "Christmas" song available on iTunes!