The Richard Thompson Band: Live at Celtic Connections

Singer/guitarist Richard Thompson is in his element here, combining folk, rock, and dry wit for this 20-song 2011 performance from Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall that draws from 2010's Dream Attic, while also ranging across the artist's four-decade-long solo career. Thompson's band mates include Taras Prodaniuk (bass), Joel Zifkin (violin, mandolin), Michael Jerome (drums), and longtime associate Pete Zorn (guitar, flute, saxophone, mandolin), who played on Shoot Out the Lights and Hand of Kindness. Thompson amusingly dedicates the first song, "The Money Shuffle," to "our good friends in the financial sector; wonderful, selfless, public-spirited people they are." Later, he plays an expansive, jazz-inflected number about the desert festival Burning Man, which he compares to the British cult classic The Wicker Man. About his debut, Henry the Human Fly, which featured "The Angels Took My Racehorse Away," Thompson quips that it's "the worst selling album in Warner Brothers' history." Fan favorites include "Wall of Death" and "Tear Stained Letter," while other conversational topics include Tom Jones and the Kray twins. If Thompson's voice has lost a little suppleness over the years, his basic sound remains the same, and he continues to dazzle on the fret board, particularly during "If Love Whispers Your Name." Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, and LPCM stereo on Blu-ray, extras include two bonus songs from the Cambridge Folk Festival. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)