THE NEW RECORD
After taking the bold step of recording his last album of new songs live, when it came to recording "ELECTRIC", Thompson turned to Buddy Miller (Robert Plant, Solomon Burke, Emmylou Harris. Patty Griffin) to produce, recording at Miller's home studio in Nashville, TN. Miller who himself is renowned for his guitar skills recently told Rolling Stone: "I played along on the record, playing rhythm guitar for him, and I got a two-week guitar lesson while he camped out in my house." The record was recorded as an electric trio with Thompson, drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, who both sing background vocals. Jerome and Prodaniuk formed part of the band which recorded and toured the UK Top Twenty album DREAM ATTIC, released in August 2010.

They make up the trio, with Thompson, on his forthcoming UK dates, his first extensive tour in two years.

Guests on "ELECTRIC" include the legendary Alison Krauss who joins Thompson on "The Snow Goose", while English singer-songwriter Siobhan Maher Kennedy (formerly with River City People and now resident in Nashville) adds vocals on several tracks as well. Fiddle great Stuart Duncan also plays on the record; one of America's leading bluegrass musicians he played on recent albums by Robert Plant/Alison Krauss and Elvis Costello and will be familiar in the UK from BBC4's Transatlantic Sessions.

Richard Thompson himself commented that: "We did it ridiculously quickly. It was just stupid. But it sounds great. It turned out surprisingly funky, sort of a new genre - folk-funk. It's quite snappy, somewhere between Judy Collins and Bootsy Collins."

"ELECTRIC" will be released as a Standard CD, Deluxe two-disc set and on 180 gram vinyl.

Note: Pre-order information for North America will be available soon!

TRACK LISTING

1. Stony Ground
2. Salford Sunday
3. Sally B
4. Stuck on the Treadmill
5. My Enemy
6. Good Things Happen To Bad People
7. Where's Home?
8. Another Small Thing In her Favour
9. Straight and Narrow
10. The Snow Goose
11. Saving The Good Stuff For You

***

Recipient of BBC's Lifetime Achievement Award, Mojo's Les Paul Award and curator of the prestigious Meltdown Festival at the Southbank in 2010, Thompson was most recently honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting by the Americana Music Association.

"ELECTRIC" was recorded earlier this year, 2012 marking the fortieth anniversary of Richard Thompson's debut solo album, "Henry The Human Fly". Thompson has now released some forty albums, played on countless other classic recordings, and written more than 400 songs which have been covered by R.E.M., Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, The Futureheads, Bonnie Raitt, Dinosaur Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, and many more.

Declared by Rolling Stone as one of the Top 20 Guitarists of all time, the magazine hailed him as "a perennial dark horse contender for the title of greatest living rock guitarist." The Independent recently described him as "probably the best guitarist this country has produced, an utterly sui generis talent…"

Thompson says of his fellow trio members: "Michael Jerome has been with me for about 12 years. He's actually from Texas; he is a great musician, able to respond to anything that's put in front of him. Taras Prodaniuk worked a lot with Dwight Yoakam, and more recently with Lucinda Williams. His roots may be in country music, but he's another extremely gifted and versatile musician."

it is so odd that RT went with Proper for his last couple. Proper is known for being a really bad UK public domain jazz label!

Proper Records is a record label founded in 1996 commencing with a handful of releases, including The Balham Alligators and Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. The label grew in stature and renowned through its reissue imprint, 'Properbox', a series of great value 4 CD sets focussing on important historical recording in the jazz, country and rock ‘n’ roll genres.

The label continues to plough this rich furrow but is now more well known for being the UK home to highly regarded artists such as Joan Baez, Richard Thompson, Nick Lowe, The Waterboys, Loudon Wainwright III, Dr. John, Jimmie Vaughan, Little Feat, Paul Heaton, Cowboy Junkies, Chris Barber, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Los Lobos, Jimmy Webb, Hot Club Of Cowtown, Tom Russell, Sonny Landreth, Mary Gauthier, Paul Brady, Ian McLagan, Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham, Bill Kirchen, Dennis Locorierre, Robyn Hitchcock and many more. Proper is also nurturing newer talents, releasing albums by the likes of Diana Jones, Elizabeth Cook, Ruthie Foster and Red Sky July.

There is also a subsidiary jazz label, Specific Jazz whose roster currently includes award winning artists Jacqui Dankworth, Tony Kofi, Anita Wardell, Alan Barnes and Jay Phelps.