The Beauty of Song, Part Ten: Linda Thompson

Linda Thompson s a big part of the folk-rock scene in Britain and America.

 

Born Linda Pettifer, she changed her name to Peters, but after she met Fairport Convention's ace guitarist, she eventually married him and he changed her name to Thompson. 😃  

 

Yes, she was the wife of Richard Thompson, one of the most impeccable folk rockers to ever come out of Great Britain.  Linda had been going from gig to gig as a folk-rock singer and eventually recorded with Richard in 1972 as well as with other members of Fairport Convention.  After they married, they began working as a permanent duo, simply called Richard and Linda Thompson.  Their 1974 debut album, I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight, yielded a classic song in the LP's title track.

Richard and Linda's sixth and final album, 1982's Shoot Out the Lights, was a huge success in America, but tensions between husband and wife ended the act and the marriage.  Both of them went solo after that, and Linda would go on to record three solo albums, including 1985's One Clear Moment and 2002's Fashionably Late - possibly so named because it was her first album in seventeen years, owing to a conditions that had produced spasms in her voice in between.

Linda has also worked with her and Richard's son Teddy, a fine musician in his own right.