To subsidize his emerging album, Thompson led his mother’s touring band, and also went out on the road with Rosanne Cash. During these spells, he enjoyed putting distance between himself and what would become Separate Ways.
“Up until the end, I was mostly producing it all by myself,” he says. “It was trial and error, and I made a lot of mistakes. But it worked out well, because I would do some recording, then stop for a couple of months and do something else, and then come back and look at what I’d done. And I got it right in the end. I certainly learned a lot.”
Helping him along the way was an impressive array of guests. His father and Smokey Hormel (Beck, Cibo Matto) play guitars, and Garth Hudson from The Band contributes keyboards. Innovative banjoist Tony Trischka, Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks, and cellist Julia Kent (Antony & the Johnsons, Rasputina) also figure prominently in the album credits. Backing vocals come courtesy of the Wainwright siblings Rufus and Martha Wainwright, plus yet another second-generation musical progeny, Jenni Muldaur. (Thompson’s mother, Linda, also pops up, on the bonus track “Take A Message To Mary”, his second hidden Everly Brothers’ cover in as many albums.)
One musician in particular played a vital role in the making and completion of Separate Ways: bassist and keyboardist Brad Albetta, who had produced tracks on Martha Wainwright’s self-titled 2005 debut. “I did a bit of recording at his studio very early on in the process,” Thompson recalls. “We didn’t know each other, but as we became friends socially, and I did more work at his place, it became a bit more collaborative.”
As completion neared, Thompson realized his sonic evolution hadn’t been achieved single-handedly. “Right up until the end, I was the producer, and Brad was just being a good friend, helping and giving advice. When it was all done, though, looking back over the recording, it was clear he deserved a production credit.”
Along the journey, Thompson and Albetta made a quick detour to record a self-released EP, Blunderbuss. “I’d actually done a lot of the album by that point, and [Blunderbuss] was made in direct response to the process of recording a whole album,” he explains. “I really wanted to cut loose, and do something fast, live, and fun, and not take it too seriously.”
It was also a chance to preserve some strong songs that didn’t suit the emerging overall character of Separate Ways. The duo knocked out the six-song disc in a single weekend.
Making the EP helped Thompson remain focused on establishing the particular vibe he wanted for the full-length, one that tempered the polish of his debut with the spark of his concerts and new material. “I’m quite impatient,” he says. “I love things that are done very quickly and live, and I’m always enamored of that sound. But I had to restrain myself, and try and find a good balance. There are a lot of live vocals, and live performances, on this record, but there are also other parts that I worked very hard on, and messed around with a lot. I had to step back, and try hard to be patient.”
While Thompson’s patience was being tested just a wee bit more by the lag time between completing Separate Ways and confirming a U.S. release of the album on Verve Forecast (it came out February 21), he undertook one more modest, creative venture: Recording two songs for the soundtrack to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. In addition to a solo turn on “I Don’t Want To Say Goodbye”, written by composer Gustavo Santaolalla and lyricist Bernie Taupin, Thompson also teamed with Wainwright for a devil-may-care take on the ’60s classic “King Of The Road”.
“There’s an example of a very good, quick, live recording,” says Thompson, who co-produced the session with Wainwright. “That was fun. We did it in just a couple of hours, with good musicians. You don’t need to spend too much time plunking around with something like that, because, after all, it’s ‘only for a soundtrack,’ and so there’s no pressure. It’s just a Roger Miller song, in a big, fat, Oscar-nominated movie…nothing to worry about,” he concludes, chuckling.
Two performances in a “big, fat, Oscar-nominated” blockbuster. A riveting appearance in a new documentary about one of the most revered songwriters ever. And, most importantly, a sophomore album of stunning, yet often seemingly effortless, artistry. Teddy Thompson may not quite be ready to eclipse his parents in the rock history books, but he has certainly emerged completely from their shadows. Not that Thompson, like the Wainwright siblings, has ever spent much time contemplating that topic. (Outside of interviews, of course.)
If the child of a bricklayer goes into the same line of work, he or she will undoubtedly come across clients who compare the two generations. So be it. “If you add into that [scenario] any sort of public domain, then the situation becomes that much more amplified,” he acknowledges.
“But at the same time, when I’m building a building, I hire my dad to come lay bricks with me. So that’s how I go about that one,” he reasons. “I grew up in a family of English folk musicians, where making music, and talking about it, and everybody playing together, is something to be celebrated, not shied away from.”
ND contributing editor Kurt B. Reighley is the oldest son of two very talented singers, a bass and a mezzo-soprano. The Reighleys still perform weekly at their church in Roanoke, Virginia, and throughout the surrounding region, and, more importantly, remain happily married after 40-plus years.
