Most of the time with guitar players, you either get the shredder or the songwriter. Either the guy (or gal) dances up the fretboard with little care for melody or he constructs perfect pop creations that are rarely technically dazzling. With Richard Thompson, you get both.
The legendary British singer/songwriter/guitarist plays tonight at the Lakewood Theater where he should once again dazzle the dedicated fans who have followed him over the course of his lengthy (as in half-century) career.
Named by Rolling Stone as the 19th greatest guitar player of all time, Thompson has made his way to Dallas several times of the past couple of years, and each time he has performed songs from his acclaimed solo recordings as well as chestnuts from his days in Fairport Convention.
But those in the folk/rock loop know the greatness of such albums as Shoot out the Lights, Henry the Human Fly and I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, too. Thompson is one of the very few guitarists whose technique is on equal par with his compositional abilities; his sad and reflective songs always look at the world in wonderfully skewed ways while his fingers do things that are not humanly possible.
Meanwhile, he turns 60 in a couple of weeks, so all you aspiring guitar plays ought to bring at least a cupcake out to the show.