The Richard Thompson Band: Live at Celtic Connections Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

The Richard Thompson Band: Live at Celtic Connections Blu-ray Movie Review

There's no dimming of the day in sight for Richard Thompson.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 19, 2012

The Richard Thompson Band Live at Celtic Connections might beg the question: is Richard Thompson’s music really Celtic? That question might in turn beg an even more impertinent one: what exactly is Celtic Music? Modern day dilettantes might only know of Celtic Music through the ersatz PBS pledge week phenomenon of Celtic Woman. (Note to these folks: even with Irish tin whistle and fiddle included in the instrumentation, “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic is not authentic Celtic music.) Other, more worldly and experienced, types might mention everyone from The Chieftains to Clannad to Alan Stivell to Capercaillie to Deanta to Aine Minogue to Anuna to The Corrs to, yes, U2 in even a cursory overview of this seemingly indefinable genre (if genre is even the right word for something so obviously far reaching and varied). Perhaps if Celtic Music is simply seen as a rather large niche within the larger Folk Music category can its inclusion of so many disparate artists be understood, and there was arguably no more influential band in the United Kingdom’s halcyon era of Folk Music than Fairport Convention, the band that introduced many people to the particular (and at times, peculiar) charms of one Richard Thompson. Thompson himself is on record eschewing either the folk or the Celtic labels, stating that he’s a “roots influenced rock ‘n’ roll guitarist who’s still managing to get by after all these years,” and, false modesty aside, that may indeed be the best way to approach and enjoy the incredible variety of music on display in this Celtic Connections concert. The “connection” to Celtic Music may be tenuous at best (at least with regard to some of the selections played here), but Thompson is squarely in a troubadour—even a bard—tradition, full of stories to tell which spill out of him in often unusually eloquent lyrics and typically arresting and unexpected harmonic changes. Ultimately, who cares what anyone wants to call this music: Celtic, folk, rock, whatever. It’s often fantastic, and Thompson has lost little of his formidable guitar technique as he moves into his sixties.

As critically loved, even adored, as Richard Thompson is today, it’s hard to remember that his first forays away from Fairport Convention weren’t always roundly acclaimed. In fact his first solo album, the evocatively named Henry the Human Fly, was rather soundly lambasted at the time of its release, though it has slowly attained at least a relatively more appreciated status in the intervening years. Thompson went on to a series of albums with his then wife Linda before reestablishing himself as a solo artist in the early eighties. The Richard Thompson Band Live at Celtic Connections covers all of these eras in varying degrees, though the first half of the concert is given over entirely to Richard’s latest album Dream Attic, an album Richard and his fantastic band spent most of last year touring in support of.

Thompson’s band for this outing includes Michael Jerome on drums, Taras Prodaniuk on bass, Pete Zorn on guitars, flute, sax and mandolin, and Joel Zifkin on violin and mandolin. Thompson’s voice is an acquired taste, and truth be told his vocal prowess comes and goes throughout this concert, but he has the force of authority even when tonally he’s not quite there. One small quibble with this release is the lack of subtitles, which would have helped to clarify some of Thompson’s redolent lyric writing. But the music is incredibly varied, easily traversing everything from fairly straight ahead rock to more traditional ethnic sounds that, while perhaps not authentically “Celtic” (and we already know how broad that term is), still manage to evoke something ancient and perhaps even appropriately Scottish (as per Thompson’s ancestry).

The long and strong rapport between Thompson and his band, some of whom he’s played with for years (if not decades), is almost palpable throughout this concert. Thompson also seems to be having a great time, and jokes in an understated (and almost inaudible at times) way with the audience, which seems almost surprised that an artist of his caliber would be so self deprecating, not to mention so approachable and accessible. Several of Thompson’s comments are quite funny, but the audience is strangely reserved and reticent, and never really busts a gut laughing, perhaps out of some perceived sense of respect. Thompson spends the bulk of this concert playing an electric guitar, but he does switch out to acoustic for a few numbers, and proves that whatever his instrument, he’s lost not of his facility with increasing age. As problematic as Thompson’s voice can be at times, his guitar playing is still near miraculous and is one of the strongest selling points for this release.

The Richard Thompson Band's set list for this concert includes:

The Money Shuffle

Among the Gorse, Among the Grey

Haul Me Up

Burning Man

Here Comes Geordie

Demons in Her Dancing Shoes

Big Sun Falling in the River

Stumble On

Sidney Wells

A Brother Slips Away

If Love Whispers Your Name

The Angels Took My Racehorse Away

Can’t Win

One Door Opens

Al Bowlly’s in Heaven

I’ll Never Give it Up

Wall of Death

Tear Stained Letter

Take Care the Road You Choose

A Man in Need

The Richard Thompson Band: Live at Celtic Connections Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Richard Thompson Band Live at Celtic Connections is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision and Eagle Rock Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a very sharp and appealing looking high definition presentation, at least when it deals (as it does in abundance) in close-ups. Some of the great close-up shots of Thompson's fingers plucking the strings reveal incredible fine detail to the point that the vibrations of the strings can almost be individualized. Colors are nicely presented and flesh tones are accurate looking. The results are somewhat more mixed in the midrange and far range shots, where things become noticeably murkier and softer looking, with an overall fuzziness that borders on becoming nothing more than blobs of color in the widest angles. Luckily, the vast bulk of this piece consists of the up close and personal footage, and these sequences offer very appealing detail, sharpness and clarity.

The Richard Thompson Band: Live at Celtic Connections Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As is usually the case with these Eagle Rock concert releases, The Richard Thompson Band Live at Celtic Connections features three audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix, an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo mix, and a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix. Generally the two lossless tracks offer stellar fidelity, with brilliant clarity in all of the instruments and in the case of the 5.1 mix a really appealingly wide soundstage that allows the listener to seemingly "enter" the music. The one major complaint that some audiophiles might have with all of the tracks is the somewhat muddy sound of having so many low frequencies competing with Thompson's voice, so much so that often his singing is at least partially incomprehensible. This is really not the fault of the tracks per se, but might be more attributable to the mix, and as mentioned above in the main body of the review, the lack of subtitles makes this an especially bothersome situation. With that caveat in mind, otherwise both of the lossless tracks are extremely enjoyable and present the Thompson Band's music cleanly and clearly.

The Richard Thompson Band: Live at Celtic Connections Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Bonus Tracks (1080i; 10:41). Two performances from the 2011 Cambridge Folk Festival are included, both featuring Thompson solo, singing and playing acoustic guitar. The songs are "Uninhabited Man" and "Johnny's Far Away".

The Richard Thompson Band: Live at Celtic Connections Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Does it matter what you call music? There are some who insist The Beatles shouldn't properly be called "rock" and instead belong more squarely in the "pop" category, but when you're listening to something as iconic as a Lennon/McCartney tune, does it really matter what category it's in? The same might be said of Richard Thompson's music, and truth be told, he works such a huge variety of styles in this concert that trying to pigeonhole Live at Celtic Connections as "this" or "that" is a losing enterprise. Thompson's music is fun but challenging, and he is both an inveterate storyteller as well as a piquant social critic. His band sounds magnificent in this outing, and while Thompson's voice is not especially pleasing at times here, it nonetheless conveys the heart and soul of a true poet, and that ultimately is all that matters. Though supplementary material here is on the light side, the video is acceptable and the sound is mostly superb. Recommended.