__NOTOC__ ''Mirror Blue'' is the eighth studio album by

Richard Thompson Richard Thompson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Richard Thompson (animator) (1914–1998), Warner Bros. cartoon animator in the 1950s * Richard Thompson (cartoonist) (1957–2016), cartoonist who also worked as an illustrator * Richard Tho ...

, released in 1994. The follow-up to 1991's successful ''

Rumor and Sigh ''Rumor and Sigh'' is a 1991 album by British singer/songwriter Richard Thompson, his thirteenth album since leaving the band Fairport Convention in 1971. Released on the Capitol label, it was a commercial success for Thompson, featuring his bi ...

'' was recorded in January 1993 with

Mitchell Froom Mitchell Froom (born June 29, 1953) is an American musician and record producer. He was a member of the bands Gamma and Latin Playboys, and is the keyboardist for Crowded House. He has produced albums for several artists, including David LaFl ...

once again in the producer’s chair. Despite the increase in sales for his previous two albums, ''Mirror Blue'' was held back. The delay was partly due to changes at the top at

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

which saw long time Thompson fan and supporter Hale Milgrim being replaced by Gary Gersh. When the album was eventually released it did not enjoy the record company support given to Thompson’s previous releases on Capitol. Critical response to the album was centered on the production, especially the unusual treatment of the drums. Thompson: "I thought it was a sort of deconstruction of the rock rhythm section... It was a radical record – and a brave record – it was off the back of the records Mitchell had done with

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter of Folk music, folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans 40 years. In the mid-1980s and 1990s she released four singles that entered the Top 40 charts in the ...

and

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") is a Mexican American rock group, rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional ...

and the couple of records ngineer

Tchad Blake Tchad Blake (born 1955) is an American record producer, audio engineer, mixer and musician. A native of Baytown, Texas, he has worked with artists and musicians including Al Green, American Music Club, Ani DiFranco, Apartment 26, Arctic Monke ...

had done with

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the American folk music, fo ...

. All of which I thought were terrific records and they all had a kind of character to them – a sound that was really trying to strip away some clichés, like why have a snare drum, why the

backbeat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a pi ...

? And just looking at the song and seeing what does the song need, what’s going to work?" Despite the critical backlash and the poor sales, some of the songs on the album have become concert staples and favourites of Thompson’s fans. In particular "Beeswing" – a tale about a travelling girl and the prices that she and the young man who falls in love with her pay for the choices they make – has come to be regarded as one of Thompson’s very best compositions. He revealed in his autobiography “Beeswing: Finding My Way and Losing My Voice” that the female protagonist is based on the English folksinger

Anne Briggs Anne Patricia Briggs (born 29 September 1944) is an English folk singer. Although she travelled widely in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in Britain and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achie ...

, whom Thompson did not know personally but had heard many stories of from their mutual close friend

Sandy Denny Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978) was an English singer-songwriter who was lead singer of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. She has been described as " guably the pre-eminent British folk-rock sin ...

. On March 10, 2009, "The Way That It Shows" was released as a downloadable song for the video game ''

Rock Band 2 ''Rock Band 2'' is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to ''Rock Band (video game), Rock Band'' (2007) and the second installment in the Rock Band, ''Rock Band ' ...

''. ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists and fans of guitar-based music and trends. The magazine has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original a ...

'' placed ''Mirror Blue'' at number 40 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.

Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson. #"For the Sake of Mary" – 4:19 #"I Can’t Wake Up to Save My Life" – 3:11 #"MGB-GT" – 3:35 #"The Way That It Shows" – 6:08 #"Easy There, Steady Now" – 4:43 #"King of Bohemia" – 3:42 #"Shane and Dixie" – 4:05 #"Mingus Eyes" – 4:47 #"I Ride in Your Slipstream" – 4:06 #"Beeswing" – 5:30 #"Fast Food" – 2:44 #"Mascara Tears" – 3:36 #"Taking My Business Elsewhere" – 4:28

Personnel

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

– keyboards *

Jerry Scheff Jerry Obern Scheff (born January 31, 1941) is an American bassist, best known for his work with Elvis Presley from 1969 to 1977 as a member of his TCB Band and on the Doors' '' L.A. Woman''. Biography Scheff grew up in Vallejo, California. After ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

* Pete Thomas –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Christine Collister Christine Collister (born 28 December 1961) is a Manx folk, blues and jazz singer-songwriter. She was born and grew up on the Isle of Man and first came to public attention in 1986 as the singer of the theme song for the BBC's television adaptat ...

– backing vocals *Michael Parker – backing vocals * John Kirkpatrick –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

concertina A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front. The ...

s *

Danny Thompson Daniel Henry Edward Thompson (born 4 April 1939) is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson and John Ma ...

– double bass on "Easy There, Steady Now" *

Alistair Anderson The High Level Ranters are a Northumbrian traditional musical group founded in 1964, best known for being one of the first bands in the revival of the Northumbrian smallpipes. Name and history The name was chosen as a combination of the locat ...

–

Northumbrian pipes The Northumbrian smallpipes (also known as the Northumbrian pipes) are bellows-blown bagpipes from Northeastern England, where they have been an important factor in the local musical culture for more than 250 years. The family of the Duke of ...

*Tom McConville –

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

*Martin Dunn –

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

Philip Pickett Philip Pickett (born 17 November 1950) is an English musician. Pickett was director of early music ensembles including the New London Consort, and taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He played recorders, shawms and similar in ...

–

shawm The shawm () is a Bore (wind instruments)#Conical bore, conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 13th or possibly 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissanc ...

References

External links

Richard Thompson Music
{{Authority control 1994 albums Richard Thompson (musician) albums Albums produced by Mitchell Froom Capitol Records albums

Track listing

Personnel

References

Further reading

External links