Bonny Without the Bonhomie
Listening again to Teddy Thompson’s confessional opener Family on the album of the same title,
it is a darker affair than when I first heard it on an album stream. Referring
to light over dark as a seeming choice
one chases in life; the honesty of being not
too secure, very unsure who to be; complimenting two pretty sisters but one
candidly given the superlative in a direct comparison; a grandmother who never dealt with her pain, and I done
exactly the same….trying to drown in a way, and the painful offering I’ve come very close to a family of my own:
these are public statements usually preserved for the intimacy and secrecy of
the psychiatrist’s couch.
It is a startling premise to the apparent purpose of the
album: to unite – musically at least – the talented but disparate musical
Thompson family. Former husband/wife and current father/mother Richard and
Linda have already laid bare their love and then disdain for one another in a famous
past musical and mutual life, so such candour from the ‘middle’ sibling is no
surprise.
As an overall listen, the album lacks some cohesion musically, but it is nonetheless engaging. It
also lacks cohesion as a familial template
where one might have expected a shared reflection on the meaning – light and
dark – of being related by blood as well
as songwriting and performance expertise. What I mean is its appeal will be to
those, obviously, who have an interest in the Thompson family relationships
dynamic. Like me. And for those who have a special interest in the brilliance
of Teddy Thompson. Like me. And maybe most widely those who have an interest in
Richard and Linda, fuelled by years of following and listening, and wondering
if they would perform together on the album and articulate any measure of
reconciliation and/or forgiving. Like me. And no they haven’t really. Indeed,
one of Richard’s two contributed songs That’s
Enough choses to expose the failings in politics rather than family.
There is also the broader interest in the wider Thompson
performing family represented here, but I suspect this is the lesser interest, and I
wonder how those members feel about these, to some degree, cameo roles? Perhaps
it is something with which they are very experienced. I must mention how Teddy’s
nephew Zak Hobbs provides a solo folk song Root
So Bitter that has a pleasing echo of very early John Martyn.
The lack of a musical cohesion isn’t serious at all, and
this is naturally the consequence of any compilation which in itself can be
appealing to the listener. Kami’s pop-rock offering Careful is one that resides outside the ‘folk’ expectation; Jack
Thompson’s fine guitar instrumental At
the Feet of the Emperor is another. Closer I Long for Lonely is a sweet duet, the one we all might have
unrealistically yearned for from Richard and Linda, but is instead by Kami and
James Walbourne, partners in life and in their band The Rails.
As I observed in my previous posting on the album stream,
Linda’s contribution Bonny Boys is
the most plaintive and beautiful, offering advice on love and relationships to
her son, full of tender concern, care and irony.
An excellent and detailed review by Susan Dominus on the background to this recording from The New York Times can be read here.
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