Thompson

One of British folk-rock’s most significant dynasties assembled under the name Thompson when the extended family of Richard and Linda Thompson entered the studio together for the very first time. After helping establish the groundbreaking U.K. group Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson had only just begun a solo path when he wed Linda Peters—an accomplished folksinger who had already collaborated with Nick Drake and Sandy Denny—in October 1972. The pair soon began recording jointly, and as Richard & Linda Thompson they issued six albums from 1974 through 1982. Their marriage was already unraveling by the time they cut their last record, the 1982 release Shoot Out the Lights; ironically, that album earned widespread critical praise and became their strongest-selling title in the United States, prompting a brief American tour that underscored their personal and professional divide.

Both Richard and Linda remarried soon afterward, and Richard immediately embarked on an extensive, prolific solo career. Linda Thompson issued her own solo album, One Clear Moment, in 1985, which drew favorable notices yet modest commercial returns; several years later she received a diagnosis of spasmodic dysphonia, a disorder producing involuntary laryngeal spasms that robbed her of the ability to sing and effectively ended her performing career. Meanwhile two of the couple’s three children, Teddy Thompson and Kami Thompson, each pursued music: Teddy delivered his debut solo album in 2000 while also working with Rufus Wainwright, Shawn Colvin, and Marianne Faithfull and occasionally joining his father on the road, and Kami released the solo album Love Lies in 2011 while singing and playing guitar with the Rails.

By 2002 Linda Thompson’s voice had improved enough for her to record a new album, Fashionably Late, on which Teddy co-wrote several songs; Richard contributed guitar to one track, and both Teddy and Kami performed in Linda’s backing band during a short U.S. promotional tour. She followed with a third solo effort, Versatile Heart, in 2007, again drawing assistance from Teddy and Kami in the studio, and on 2013’s Won’t Be Long Now Linda harmonized alongside Teddy, Kami, and Muna Thompson Mascolo, the eldest of Richard and Linda’s children.

That same year Teddy proposed that the family create a collaborative album in which Richard, Linda, Kami, and he would each supply two original songs. Richard, Linda, and Kami accepted, and Jack Thompson—Richard’s son with his second wife, Nancy Covey—along with Zak Hobbs, the son of Muna Thompson Mascolo and therefore Richard and Linda’s grandson, each added one song while also playing on the sessions; Kami’s husband and Rails bandmate James Walbourne likewise added guitar. After every participant submitted solo recordings of their material, Teddy, acting as producer, oversaw overdub sessions in London and Los Angeles where additional family members layered instrumental parts, then completed the final mixes. The resulting album, issued under the collective name Thompson and titled Family, appeared in November 2014.