Teddy Thompson

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Teddy Thompson

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Img_size = 250
Landscape = Yes
Background = solo_singer
Genre = Folk, Rock, Singer-Songwriter | Years active = 2000 - Present
Label = Virgin / Verve Forecast
Associated_acts = Richard Thompson, Linda Thompson, Rufus Wainwright
URL = http://teddythompson.com

Teddy Thompson (born February 19,1976 in London, England) is a British folk and rock musician. He released his first album in 2000 and has been producing music ever since.

Biography

Teddy Thompson was born in 1976 in a London Sufi commune to folk-rock musicians Richard and Linda Thompson. He is the brother to singer Kamila Thompson. At the age of 18, Teddy moved to Los Angeles to pursue his music career, which included work as a singer and guitar player in his father Richard's band during the 1990s. He appears on at least three Richard Thompson Band recordings from that time: "You? me? us?", the live album "Celtschmerz" (1998), and "Mock Tudor (1999)". He can be seen performing in his father's band on a number of internet videos from as early as 1993, including an appearance on the BBC's Jools Holland show.

Debut

In 2000 Thompson released his debut album, "Teddy Thompson", which received much critical acclaim but little commercial success. Between the time of his debut album and follow-up, he released the moderately successful EP, "Blunderbuss", and toured as part of Rosanne Cash's band. His song "Love Her For That" was featured in the 2002 film, "40 Days and 40 Nights".

"Separate Ways"

In 2005, Thompson released his second long player, "Separate Ways". The album has a strong "second-generation" artist theme, featuring both Rufus and Martha Wainwright, who are close friends of Thompson. He has toured and recorded with both the Wainwrights, including Rufus' 2003 album, "Want One". [ [http://www.musicomh.com/albums/teddy-thompson_0106.htm musicomh.com] ] Teddy and Rufus recorded a version of "King of the Road" for the 2005 film, "Brokeback Mountain", with Thompson also contributing a solo track: "I Don't Want to Say Goodbye". "Separate Ways" features Dave Mattacks, Tony Trischka and Garth Hudson of The Band and was produced by Brad Albetta, who also produced Martha Wainwright's much lauded debut album.

"Upfront & Down Low"

Teddy's third album, "Upfront & Down Low", was released on Verve Forecast in the United States on July 17, 2007, and in the UK and Europe later in 2007. The album contains covers of many of Teddy's favorite country songs, plus one of his own compositions, entitled "Down Low". The only single taken off "Upfront & Down Low" was "Change of Heart", which was written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.

"A Piece of What You Need"

Thompson's fourth studio album, "A Piece of What You Need", was released via Verve/Forecast on June 17, 2008 and contains all new Teddy original songs. It was produced by Marius de Vries, whom Teddy met while recording background vocals on Rufus Wainwright's "Want" records in 2002. Included are some new songs Teddy had been testing out live, such as "Turning the Gun On Myself", "In My Arms" and "Can't Sing Straight". The song "Turning the Gun On Myself" first appeared on Teddy's 2004 EP, "Blunderbuss".

The first single from "A Piece of What You Need" is "In My Arms". The music video for the song features a cameo appearance by Rufus Wainwright dressed as Elvis Presley. The song entered the UK Singles Chart at #107. [cite journal
title = The Official UK Singles Chart for the Week Ending 30 August 2008
journal = ChartsPlus
issue = 366
pages= 1-4
accessdate = 2008-08-26
publisher = IQ Ware Ltd
location = Milton Keynes] The album received rave reviews in the UK, and much critical acclaim elsewhere, with many stating that this album is Thompson's best work to date. "A Piece of What You Need" debuted at #10 after its first week in the UK Charts during August 2008.

Other musical work

Teddy co-wrote the bulk of his mother Linda Thompson's comeback album, "Fashionably Late" (2002). He also contributed guitar and vocals on the album. Interestingly, the song "All I See" written by Teddy and featuring Linda on vocals, first appeared on Teddy's 2000 debut album "Teddy Thompson".

Thompson participated in a series of Leonard Cohen tribute concerts, called "Came So Far For Beauty", produced and arranged by Hal Willner, performing along with Nick Cave, The McGarrigles, Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton, Laurie Anderson, Linda Thompson, Antony Hegarty, and Cohen's original backing singers Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen. The concerts were performed in New York, Brighton, Dublin and Sydney.

In December 2005, Thompson appeared on BBC Radio 2, along with numerous other artists, for a John Lennon tribute. Thompson performed "I'm Only Sleeping" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away."

In 2006, he participated in "Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man", a film tribute to the legendary songwriter, contributing interviews and covering some of Cohen's work (including "Tonight Will Be Fine" and "The Future") along with the Wainwrights, Nick Cave, and the McGarrigle sisters (among others). A CD soundtrack featuring select covers from the tribute concerts was released by Verve Records in 2006.

In December 2006, Thompson appeared with his mother Linda and younger sister Kamila as part of the Rufus and Martha Wainwright's "Christmas Spectacular" at Carnegie Hall in New York. [ [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/39767/Rufus_Wainwright_Talks_Christmas_Show_New_Album pitchforkmedia.com] ]

Thompson again co-wrote much of his mother's 2007 album, "Versatile Heart".

Teddy was featured in one of the episodes of "Live from Abbey Road", along with Brian Wilson and Martha Wainwright, during September 2008. Teddy contributed two songs: "In My Arms" and "Don`t Know What I Was Thinking", from his recent album, "A Piece of What You Need". Thompson and Martha Wainwright also performed the Beatles song, "We Can Work it Out" together at the end of the airing episode. The episode aired on The Sundance Channel on September 4th in the US and on September 13th in the UK.

Thompson is featured in a DVD with Keane, entitled "Curate a Night For a War Child" (released in September 2008), contributing two songs from "Upfront & Down Low".

tyle and musical genre

Coming from a family of folk-musicians, Thompson has naturally drawn influences from folk-music into his own musical sound. While still a teenager he was listening exclusively to American country music such as Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. Thompson also later stated that these artists are some of his main musical influences when he first started to write songs (quotation needed). Later when he grew up he began to listen more to contemporary pop music such as Crowded House, and his own musical style today is a mix of folk, country, rock and pop music.

In addition to his tenor singing voice, Thompson plays both the acoustic and electric guitar, and occasionally the ukulele. He has a strong, versatile and expressive voice which he uses both in the higher and lower vocal range with ease, but he apparently prefers using his voice in the middle register while singing.

In an interview, he stated that his voice was "his only weapon so to speak" in the early years as a vocalist and musician, while he played in his father's backing band. When drawn comparision to his parents, it has been said that Thompson has inherited much of his mother's singing voice. He has also often been compared vocally to Jackson Browne and Neil Finn of Crowded House.

Musical themes

Thompson's songs are often characterized by their personal and observational style and common use of black humor, such as "Turning the Gun On Myself" and "The Things I Do". He is also known for his ability of writing both personal and wry lyrics with a very melodic style, with such songs like "What's This?!!" and "In My Arms". As a lyricist, he has often been compared to his father, but has developed his own unique writing style. He is also said to have a knack of catching the exact state of mind into his songs, like in "Everybody Move It" and "Slippery Slope".

Teddy has said that "Everybody Move It" was inspired and partly based on personal experience with going out to clubs as a teenager, often ending up in a corner watching everybody else having all the fun.

Common themes are love, loss, the look at fame ("You Made It", "Shine So Bright"), popular culture ("A Piece of What You Need"), and regarding much of his earlier work, self-loathing.

While on his first two albums written songs only in a first-person perspective, Teddy has also explored writing songs in the third person, most notably in "Jonathan's Book".

The song "Nobody's Off the Hook" from Rufus Wainwright's most recent album, "Release the Stars", is said to be written to Thompson.

Discography

Albums

*"Teddy Thompson" (2000)
*"Separate Ways" (2005) UK #192cite web |title= Chart Log UK |accessdate=2008-09-03 |date=2007-06-16 |publisher=Zobbel |author=Zobbel |url=http://www.zobbel.de/cluk/CLUK_T.HTM]
*"Upfront & Down Low" (2007)
*"A Piece of What You Need" (2008) UK #10cite journal
title = The Official UK Albums Chart for the week ending 6 September 2008
journal = ChartsPlus
issue = 367
pages= 5-8
accessdate = 2008-09-03
publisher = IQ Ware Ltd
location = Milton Keynes]

EPs, etc.

*"L.A." (EP) (2001)
*"Blunderbuss" (EP) (2004)

ingles

* "Everybody Move It" (2005)
* "In My Arms" (2008)

Guest appearances

* 1996 - Richard Thompson's "You? me? us?" - "Bank Vault in Heaven" - vocals
* 1998 - Richard Thompson's "Celtschmerz" - "A Heart Needs a Home", "Persuasion" - vocals
* 1999 - Richard Thompson's "Mock Tudor" - guitar, backing vocals, harmony vocals
* 2001 - Richard Thompson "Action Packed" - "Persuasion" - live duet
* 2002 - Rufus Wainwright's "Poses" - guitar, background vocals
* 2002 - Richard Thompson's "Semi-Detached Mock Tudor" - dulcimer, guitar, vocals
* 2003 - Roseanne Cash's "Rules of Travel" - "Three Steps Down" - vocals
* 2002 - Linda Thompson's "Fashionably Late" - co-writer and guest vocals
* 2007 - Linda Thompson's "Versatile Heart" - co-writer and guest vocals
* 2006 - Shaun Colvin "These Four Walls" - "Let it Slide" - vocals
* 2007 - Rufus Wainwright's "Release the Stars" - "Sanssouci" - background vocals
* 2008 - Jason Crigler's "The Music of Jason Crigler" - "Through Tomorrow", "Dixie" - vocals
* 2008 - Marianne Faithfull's "Easy Come, Easy Go" - "How Many Worlds" - vocals

Compilation/soundtrack contributions

* 1998 - "Psycho" - "Psycho"
* 2006 - "Brokeback Mountain" - "I Don't Want to Say Goodbye," co-lead "King of the Road" (with Rufus Wainwright)
* 2006 - "Q Covered: The Eighties" - "Don't Dream it's Over"
* 2006 - "" - "The Future," "Tonight Will Be Fine"
* 2006 - "" - "Sally Brown"

References

External links

* [http://www.teddythompson.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/teddythompsonmusic Teddy Thompson] at MySpace