For singer Teddy Thompson, it was the best of times and maybe the most awkward of times, too. The amiable scion of the turbulently majestic British folk-rock couple, Linda and Richard Thompson, hosted an all-star celebration of the new album by his mother, Proxy Music, at New York’s City Winery on 30 June. Due to an illness called spasmatic dysphonia, Linda can no longer sing. But in a way, this tragedy may have added even greater depth to her still somewhat underrated talents as a writer of harmonically and lyrically mature songs.
On the new album, Linda’s new compositions are voiced by an all-star cast, including Martha Wainwright and Rufus Wainwright, John Grant, Ren Harvieu, the Proclaimers, the Rails, Dori Freeman, the Unthanks, Eliza Carthy, and Kami and Teddy Thompson. The City Winery event included a few of the above and notables like Amy Helm, Jenni Muldaur, Syd Straw, Vicky Peterson, and Tammy Faye Starlite, New York City’s most entertaining cabaret chanteuse. The evening boasted performances of select songs from the new album and some of Linda’s best solo and duet classics with ex-husband Richard Thompson.
Teddy hosted this 90-minute concert, handling the introductions and dueting on many songs. As for the awkwardness, the guest vocalists humorously introduced nearly every tune as being about Linda’s sex life to the faux embarrassment of the younger Thompson.
The evening commenced with a high-energy rendering of one song that is about sex in a weirdly wonderful way, “Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song)”, the title track of Richard and Linda’s 1975 album. This track contains a boatload of double-entendres sung and acted out to the audience’s delight by Tammy Faye. In introducing the song, Starlite commented on the way Linda sang this song: “You just know she must really love sex!” This song was elevated by the stabbing solos of guitarist Bob Dylan band veteran David Mansfield, who also added mandolin and fiddle to other tunes. Mansfield’s riffing on his vintage Fender Telecaster seemed to take its lead from Richard Thompson’s much-praised style.
Starlite returned later to sing one of the strongest tunes off the new album, “Darling This Will Never Do”. With its classic, great American songbook chord changes and melody, this song about a May-December romance was the perfect vehicle for Starlite’s fusion of torch song and burlesque comedy. On the new album, it is performed more directly by Rufus Wainwright. I, for one, would love to hear this covered by Tom Waits in his early Small Change-era style.
Amy Helm was up next and delivered two of the most soul-stirring performances of the night. The first was a duet with Teddy on another glorious offering from the new album, “Mudlark”. As with many of Linda’s songs, “Mudlark” is musical maturity at its finest, with subtle time changes and unexpected chords that elevate her composition to a higher level of artistic expression. Helm’s powerful voice and Teddy’s sure-footed lower harmonies came to the fore on her second performance, “Nice Cars”, from Linda’s solo album, Versatile Heart.
A true standout of the evening was the performance of the new album track, “John Grant”, by John Grant himself, the American singer-songwriter best known for his work with the Czars, who now resides in Iceland. The song began life as a poem Linda wrote about having tea with Grant in London, one that Teddy wrote the music to and recorded in Reykjavik with Grant. Grant is gifted with a warm, resonant voice that would, as they used to say, sound great singing a phone book – granted, you can find one these days! He would return to sing one of Linda’s most famous compositions, “Telling Me Lies”. That comes from Linda’s first solo record, 1985’s One Clear Day, but is perhaps best known for its Top 10 country charting cover by Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton on their 1987 album, Trio.
Teddy’s sometimes musical partner Jenni Muldaur brought the blues mama to the proceedings with a swampy, rocking take on another Versatile Heart tune, “Do Your Best to Rock-N-Roll”. It’s a lament over life’s pain where she tells God – “If you can’t save me, just do your best to rock ‘n’ roll.” Muldaur would return to sing another classic-to-be from the new album, the glorious “Shores of America”.
The Bangles‘ Vicki Peterson must’ve drawn the short straw at rehearsal by getting to perform Proxy Music’s album opener, “Solitary Traveler”. The song, which deals with Linda’s loss of voice and temporary loss of direction, is stuffed with unexpected chord changes and tricky melodic twists. Its circus/oomph pha pha musical backing provides the perfect kickoff for the album. Peterson dueted with Teddy on a second song, this one perfectly suited for her voice, “Wall of Death”, from Linda and Richard’s classic record, Shoot Out the Lights.
The raspy-voiced Syd Straw, who humorously referred to herself as “the disheveled diva of this evening of divas”, brought out the mournful in “Three Shaky Ships” from the new album. Her voice and Teddy’s harmonies were also the perfect marriage for the Richard Thompson-penned “Dimming of the Day”.
The emotional highlight of the evening came with Martha Wainwright’s performance of a song she also sang on the new LP, “Or Nothing at All”. With only the sensitive accompaniment of pianist Eric Deutsch, she made the full house crowd breathless with this show-stopping love ballad. Wainwright commented that Linda probably wrote the song as it made Martha sound exactly like her late mother, singer Kate McGarrigle. The tune is a classic tearjerker of romance, something that could only be the product of a life well-lived and with much experience in the ways of romance. Wainwright would return for a rollicking duet with Teddy on another Linda/Richard chestnut, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”. All the artists would take to the stage, along with Linda, for an encore of the Proxy Music closer, “Those Damn Roches”. Like John Phillips’ “Creeque Alley”, it’s a music salute to some of America’s great families of harmony, including the Roche Sisters and the Wainwright/McGarrigles.
My words honestly cannot describe how rich and moving Linda’s songwriting on Proxy Music is. Lyrically, she expertly communicates the many joys and sorrows of life and romance, always with an eye on rising above circumstances. As stated earlier, the music that frames these adult observations always steers clear of cliché, with chords and melodies that move the songs and your soul to unexpected places. The collective effort to bring Proxy Music and this musical night saluting it to life was nothing short of magical.