ALBUM REVIEW: Teddy Thompson Revisits Classic Country Weepers
Jon Young
Posted On August 17, 2023
Teddy Thompson has been here before. In 2007, the son of British folk greats Richard and Linda Thompson took a detour from recording original material to put down some vintage country songs on his third album, Upfront & Down Low. (However, his first two outings both included Everly Brothers songs as hidden tracks — remember that annoying practice? — revealing Thompson’s archival inclinations.)
Teddy Thompson (photo by Ethan Covey)
Returning to oldies but goodies, Thompson goes straight for the heart on My Love of Country. On this nearly perfect album, Thompson pulls off the remarkable feat of putting his own stamp on Nashville standards while hewing closely to their original spirit. Subtlety is the key. A supple crooner who can evoke a torrent of emotion with one well-turned phrase, Thompson understands that the eloquent simplicity of Patsy Cline’s aching “I Fall to Pieces,” penned by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard, or Buck Owens’ morose “Crying Time” doesn’t require a hard sell (which could quickly veer into self-parody). Meanwhile, Americana all-star David Mansfield, who also produced, adds understated dashes of guitar, accordion, steel, and fiddle, and Jon Cowherd supplies bright, Floyd Cramer-style piano fills. Harmony vocals by the likes of Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, and Aoife O’Donovan hover sweetly in the background.
Crushing heartache is the theme throughout My Love of Country. From Bill Anderson’s arresting wordplay on the peppy “I Don’t Love You Anymore” — “Trouble is, I don’t love you any less” — to “Oh, What a Feeling,” another inspired Everlys cover, to the profoundly sad Eddy Arnold-Cindy Walker composition “You Don’t Know Me,” Thompson plays the victim of romance to restrained perfection. Only the gentle “Love and Learn,” a Dolly Parton album cut from the ’60s, puts the suffering into perspective, observing hopefully, “I’ll be hurt many times, before the right one I find / But that’s the way love is.”
Written by his dad and featured on Richard and Linda Thompson’s 1975 LP Hokey Pokey, “I’ll Regret It All in the Morning” is an intriguing outlier that makes explicit the link between old-school Brit folk and traditional Nashville country. Like many of Richard’s other rueful songs, this alcohol-soaked ballad takes an unflinching look at familiar human failings, withholding any promise of catharsis.
If the album has a flaw, it’s brevity. Featuring 10 songs and running just under a half-hour, this winning set cries out for an encore. And in fact, one’s on the way (as a coal miner’s daughter once sang). Thompson recently teamed up with Jenni Muldaur to celebrate legendary duos, cutting four songs apiece from the catalogs of Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, and Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn for Once More: Teddy Thompson & Jenni Muldaur Sing the Great Country Duets, coming Sept. 8 on Sun Records. These delightful sessions are also produced by Mansfield.
In the meantime, My Love of Country is a thoroughly satisfying journey through the past.
Teddy Thompson’s My Love of Country is out Aug. 18 via Chalky Sounds.
