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''The Old Kit Bag'' is the eleventh studio album by British singer-songwriter and guitarist
Richard Thompson, released in 2003 on the
Cooking Vinyl
Cooking Vinyl is a British independent record label, based in Acton, London, England, founded in 1986 by former manager and booking agent Martin Goldschmidt and business partner Pete Lawrence. Goldschmidt remains the current owner and chairma ...
label.
Background
The title refers to the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
marching song "
Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag
"Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile" is the full name of a World War I marching song, published in 1915 in London. It was written by Welsh songwriter George Henry Powell under the pseudonym of "George Asaf", and s ...
". When asked if the album had a theme, Thompson had no immediate answer, then said "I suppose the title is a theme of sorts. It's a reference to the old World War I song, 'Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag,' which is about smiling and whistling a happy tune as the Germans rain shells down on you."
After years of being a prestigious but small-selling signing with a big label, Thompson signed with the small, independent and independently-minded
Cooking Vinyl
Cooking Vinyl is a British independent record label, based in Acton, London, England, founded in 1986 by former manager and booking agent Martin Goldschmidt and business partner Pete Lawrence. Goldschmidt remains the current owner and chairma ...
label in 2002. The first fruits of this new partnership was ''The Old Kit Bag''.
Thompson had financed the recording himself and relied on his new label for marketing and distribution ("I should have started doing that years ago because it means you own your own recordings").
The album is markedly different from its predecessors, with unobtrusive production by John Chelew and a smaller set of backing musicians ("the idea was to keep it small. I did do a few overdubs – second guitar, dulcimer, single-finger keyboard parts, all the easy stuff – but other than that, everything was pretty much a live performance"). Thompson's electric guitar playing is more prominent than it had been for some time on a studio album.
Despite the stripped down arrangements and sound, the album is stylistically diverse with Thompson even making a rare excursion into the blues on "I've Got No Right To Have It All". As is often the case with Thompson, the lyrics reflect darker side of life: "Gethsemane" deals with the disillusionment and pressure that follows an idyllic childhood, and "Outside Of The Inside" (which Thompson introduced on tour as "a song about how the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...
see the West").
Reception
Ironically the move to a much smaller record label bought a bigger marketing push and healthier sales. Thompson had engineered a situation where live shows were his major revenue stream, but now ''The Old Kit Bag'' did better on release than any other Thompson album since ''Rumor And Sigh'', entering the
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
Top 200 and entering Billboard's "Indie" chart at number 5.
Track listing
All songs written by Richard Thompson
Chapter 1: The Haunted Keepsake
#"Gethsemane"
#"Jealous Words"
#"I'll Tag Along"
#"A Love You Can't Survive"
#"One Door Opens"
#"First Breath"
Chapter 2: The Pilgrims Fancy
#
"She Said It Was Destiny"
#"I've Got No Right To Have It All"
#"Pearly Jim"
#"Word Unspoken, Sight Unseen"
#"Outside Of The Inside"
#"Happy Days And Auld Lang Syne"
Personnel
Musicians
* Richard Thompson - electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
, acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
, mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
, accordion, harmonium
The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
and vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...
* Judith Owen
Judith Owen (born 2 January 1969) is a Welsh singer-songwriter. Her first North American album, ''Emotions on a Postcard'', was released in 1996 and has been followed by several additional albums. She is co-founder of Twanky Records with her hu ...
- backing vocals
* 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 Mar ...
- double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
* Michael Jerome
Michael Jerome Moore, known as Michael Jerome is an American rock musician and drummer. He is a former member of the Toadies (1990–91), Course of Empire (1994–1998), and James Hall's band Pleasure Club, which was formed in 2002. He was a ...
- drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
, percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
and backing vocals
Technical
* John Chelew - producer
* Jimmy Hoyson - recorder, mixer
* Mike Glines - assistant engineer
* Tornado design - package design
* Nancy Nimoy - illustrations
* Ron Slenzak+Associates - photography
References
Other sources
*''Richard Thompson - The Biography'', Patrick Humphries, Schirmer Books
G. Schirmer, Inc. is an American classical music publishing company based in New York City, founded in 1861. The oldest active music publisher in the United States, Schirmer publishes sheet music for sale and rental, and represents some well-know ...
*''The Great Valerio'', Dave Smith
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Kit Bag, The
Richard Thompson (musician) albums
2003 albums
Albums recorded at Capitol Studios