Rock Minutes

You would not expect the son of Richard and Linda Thompson to make a straight up country record but that is exactly what Teddy Thompson did on his third album “Up Front and Down Low”. Other than the song “Down Low” this album is comprised of all classic country songs from some of Thompson’s favorite artists. Thompson is not what you would call a country singer but he makes a better country record than 99.9% of the artists in Nashville. It is a shame this album did not get the attention it deserves.

Thompson assembled a top notch band for this record including his father on guitar. He remains fairly true to a lot of the original versions while putting his stamp on the songs. He absolutley kills the George Jones classic “She Thinks I Still Care”. You can’t compete with the voice of George Jones and Thompson does not try and he makes it work. He even uses a string section to recreate the “Nashville Sound” of the 50′s and 60′s only he uses the strings in a way that does not over power the song and does not come off in a cheesy way the originals did.

The entire album really flows nicely as Thompson works his way from the Ernest Tubbs classic “Walking The Floor Over You” to “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone” which was made popular by Elvis Presley. Ironically on an album full of covers Thompson might do his best work on the original song “Down Low”. Thompson sings “love you’d be better off dead, with a bullet in your head, than come back to me”. The lyrics show a certain sadness but what really does it is his voice. Tift Merritt does a fine job of backing vocals on the song as well.

Albums like “Up Front and Down Low” don’t come around very often. It is not every day an English born pop singer has the balls to release a country record and it sound just as authentic has one made by anyone in Nashville could ever make. If you have been craving some traditional country music made by a contemporary artist then pick up this album. I think you will be surprised at how much you like it and how often you play it.

Later,

Nick

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