Those who consider themselves true music fans may want to make it a point to go see Teddy Thompson.
The singer-songwriter plays solo as part of the free, summer-long Backyard Concert series hosted by radio station The Krush 95.9 this Thursday—in its literal backyard.
Can’t make it? All the better for the people who can, as it will be less crowded for a show that potentially may be the best one of the summer. Is that a bold statement considering the plethora of amazing bands this summer has put forth? It sure is, and with good reason.
Teddy Thompson is the son of music royalty—his parents are Richard and Linda Thompson. Yet rather than lean in to the nepo-baby accusation, Teddy Thompson has carved out a lovely niche for himself with his honey-sweet, high and lonesome voice and penchant towards achy-breaky, country tinged torch songs that are at once sardonic and self-effacing. Seeing as he was indeed a wee lad when his parents recorded arguably the greatest breakup album of all time with 1982’s Shoot Out the Lights, Teddy Thompson insists he’s really not a sad guy.
“That has a lot to do with the quality of my voice, and just what people hear in that rather than the material itself is maybe what I think makes people think that my whole world is heartache,” he says. “But it’s also what songwriters do. I think Otis Redding sang more about heartache and heartbreak than I ever have, but he didn’t sound quite as high and lonesome.”
He continues, “Most songs are about love or loss in some way. And so I’m just doing what most of us do, and not because it’s the obvious thing to do; it’s just because there’s a reason for that, and it’s because the most powerful emotion that most of us have is love and loss. So that’s why people keep writing about it, and that’s why it’s effective.”
For his latest album, Never Be the Same, Thompson again worked with producer David Mansfield, who has a storied career as session player for countless artists as well as becoming a member of Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour. He is also composer for film soundtracks such as those from Heaven’s Gate, The Apostle and Killers of the Flower Moon and worked with Thompson’s 2023 album My Love of Country.
That album is an adoring tribute to country music icons like Dolly Parton, Lorrie Morgan and Randy Travis and includes a version of the all-time great drinking song, “I’ll Regret It All in the Morning,” which appears on the aforementioned album by his parents, Shoot Out the Lights.
When asked about his process of putting together an album and how it relates to his seemingly slower output, Thompson remains self-effacing.
“I just get up and try to do some music every day and write and work on things. And when I’m done is really the time when I figure out maybe what most of the songs are about, if anything. If there’s any kind of unifying theme, it’s more in retrospect. I’m not self-aware or self-important enough to be constructing some grand design, some overarching theme of terrible importance that’s going to rock everybody’s world,” he notes.
Still, it’s worth noting that Never Be the Same is dripping with sad songs about loss of all kinds. And while also sounding very much like a Teddy Thompson album, it feels very different from previous ones. Even the title, “Never Be the Same,” has a double entendre vibe as both an admonition and statement on one’s condition after going through a change like a breakup, a move or letting go of a bad habit.
“I’m just doing the songs. I’m not thinking. I’m just trying to be honest and authentic and write something good. But then at the end of it, when I had the songs and I was typing out the lyrics and I was able to see what I’d done … it’s an interesting thing,” he says. “You don’t really see the forest for the trees maybe when you’re doing it, and then when you’re putting it all together is when you realize there is a lot of that theme sometimes on the surface and sometimes just on the periphery of the songs, which is about change or the lack thereof.”
Teddy Thompson appears in the Krush Backyard Concert series on Thursday, July 23. Doors open at 5:30pm, and music starts at 6:30pm with John Hollier & the Reverie opening the show at Wine Country Radio, 3565 Standish Ave., Santa Rosa. Beer, wine and food are cash only. For more information, visit krsh.com.
