Music review: ‘Ship to Shore’ by British guitarist Richard Thompson is a gem, with stunning solos

For more than half a century, British guitarist Richard Thompson has created albums filled with curious characters, love laments, dark chords, dark humor and incomparable guitar work.

This makes each release a reason to celebrate, as is the case with her new album “Ship to Shore”. It ends a five-year recording hiatus, the longest break of Thompson’s career. from his engaging 2021 memoir, “Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975.”

“Ship to Shore” was worth the wait because the album lives up to their consistently high standard while sounding like no other. He’s never sung better, and his jagged solos are concise, steady marvels.

Thompson produced the set, recorded in Woodstock, New York. It includes their excellent rhythm section of bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Michael Jerome. David Mansfield provides occasional violin.

The mood is dark, as always for Thompson, with much of the song in a minor key as he sings about demons and ghosts, fear and dread, hard times, PTSD and heartache – lots of heartache. Love blinds, causes confusion, goes wrong and falls apart. “Romance,” he concludes, “is overrated” in the song “Trust.”

There are traces of Britishness, as when Thompson rhymes flirty and dirty with shirt on “Maybe,” a strangely upbeat song that evokes the 1965 pop charts until it turns into a wild bridge. He explores his interest in Renaissance music in “The Old Pack Mule,” a ditty with appropriately macabre guitar and a sing-along chorus.

Other highlights include “Turnstile Casanova,” driven by a bright guitar chorus and jovial singing, and “Life’s a Bloody Show,” the story of a dead soul who bears a resemblance to “Fergus Laing,” the clownish scoundrel from a song by Thompson from 2015. of the same name that was soon overtaken by real events.

The set opens with “Freeze”, a song and a call to stay active. Thompson, 75, follows that advice, and at the close of “We Roll,” he reflects on life in a suitcase as a result of his still-busy touring schedule.

“I must be crazy,” reflects the road warrior, but there are new songs to be sung.

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