Folk & World
Richard Thompson releases “Hippies, Thugs and Heroes” on 16 October through New West Records. There are twelve songs, and it is his twentieth solo studio album.
He produced it himself with James Frazee, who also engineered and mastered it, at Hobosound Studio in Weehawken, New Jersey. Taras Prodaniuk plays bass, Michael Jerome drums and percussion and David Mansfield acoustic and electric guitars and fiddle, with Zara Phillips on harmony vocals. Thompson adds mandolin, organ and harmonium, and wrote the horn arrangements: Steven Bernstein and Tony Kadleck play cornet, Michael Davis trombone, Marcus Rojas tuba, and John Sherman and John Kirkpatrick accordion. The titles include “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, “Cocaine Walking, Booze Talking” — the first advance, out in July — “Pauper’s Grave”, “Unsung Hero”, “Everybody’s Stealing”, “The Soul In Me”, “Stringer” and “Siren”.
“After sixty years, the joy of not knowing where a song will take you hasn’t faded one bit,” Thompson says.
The previous one, “Ship To Shore”, came out on 31 May 2024, also through New West.
Thompson’s solo debut was “Henry the Human Fly” in 1972, after he left Fairport Convention.
Text by Alba Puiggròs