Richard Thompson in Boulder

While in Boulder for the Leadership Institute, we caught Richard Thompson playing at the Boulder Chataqua - what a great show in a great 100 year old barn!

RT is on tour playing with a terrific band - Danny Thompson on upright bass, Dave Mattucks on drums, and Pete Zorn on everything (the night we saw them he played rhythm guitar, mandolin, alto sax, baritone sax, penny whistle, and sang all the backup vocals). I do have to say that I miss hearing the female harmonies on lots of his tunes - while I never saw him with Linda, I have had the pleasure of hearing Christine Collister sing with Richard several times.

The song list included lots of old favorites, and some new (or at least unfamiliar to me) tunes, and ranged from delicate acoustic numbers to searing (and loud!) electric tunes. It seemed to me that RT was less interested in exploring the dimensions of harmonic dissonance in his playing than the last few times I saw him, but he was reaching farther out in rhythmic dimensions in his solos.

And for an added bonus, the show finished off with bangup version of Tear Stained Letter featuring Michael Doucet sitting in on fiddle.

A great time all around@