OnMilwaukee.com Review
By: Elaine Schmidt - onmilwaukee.com
When British folk rock legend Richard Thompson promises "1,000 Years of Popular Music," he means business. The songwriter/guitarist/singer opened his "1,000 Years" concert Thursday evening at the Pabst Theater with a medieval tune and merrily played and sang his way through history, landing in the 21st century. Along the way he touched on everything from Baroque opera to Cole Porter and an Abba tune. Thompson joked about taking "a bizarre romp through the last 1,000 years of popular music - wearing army boots." But he, singer/keyboardist Judith Owen and percussionist/singer Debra Dobkin actually delivered a completely engaging program that was light-hearted enough to be great fun and serious enough to make meaningful music. Thompson's guitar work ("Rolling Stone" named him one of the top 20 guitarists of all time) was a good part of the evening's success, although it was never really in the spotlight. He played, sang and spoke to the audience in a completely unassuming fashion, putting the music itself at center stage. There were no blazing solos or long, freewheeling improvisations. Instead, Thompson's playing was quietly spectacular. He moved from era to era and century to century, delivering the sounds and styles of each one with equal ease and musical integrity. He was as at home playing a troubadour tune with lyrics about Richard the Lionheart as he was pounding through Lennon and McCartney's "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or delivering a silky rendition of Drake and Oakland's "Java Jive." Thompson played one acoustic six-string all evening, altering its sound occasionally with a pedal. It's all he needed to play wailing honky-tonk, frothy Gilbert and Sullivan, a tidy Purcell opera aria and some driven Beatles tunes. The headliner took a backseat several times to Owen's vocal work. As wildly versatile a singer as Thompson is a guitarist, she handled everything from the Purcell to a British music-hall song, country and rock without faltering. Dobkin is one of those drummers who fits so perfectly into the music they're playing that it's possible to forget they're there. Just as versatile as her band mates, she took her own turn at some lovely vocals. |
