Once you’ve been following an artist for 30 years or more you get to know all their quirks and foibles and they become like family. You refer to them by their first names, in this case Richard and Neil, and you recall a long shared history even though you may never have actually met. And even if it’s not the same as having a grade school loyalty to the Beatles or the Stones, if you’ve followed someone long enough it says something about you.
What does it say about me, then, for following around Richard Thompson and Neil Young for all this time? Certainly it shows that I favor iconoclasm, and variety. Depth and breadth. Loud and louder. Electric and acoustic. This part isn’t so well defined. Both artists have developed dual electric and acoustic tracks, recording albums and touring with one theme or another.
On an acoustic stage Young’s songwriting and plaintive voice prevails while Thompson’s fingerpicking gymnastics make you search around the room to find the other four guitarists. Even so, I strongly favor their electric incarnations
