Richard Thompson debuts album of new material

Thirteen new songs being recorded on West Coast tour

On a warm-up date for a quick West Coast tour, legendary British songwriter/guitarist Richard Thompson unleashed Thursday (2/11) the 13 new songs being considered for his next album, which is expected to be a live disc. Mostly an electric band affair, Thompson leans heavy on non-fiction in the new batch, singing about Wall Street mayhem, the craziness of the Burning Man festival and an unidentified pretentious man from Newcastle, England.

Death, a subject Thompson has delved into with considerable insight over the last 40 years, returns in three tunes. One is a requiem for three recently deceased friends, among them the folk guitarist Davy Graham. "Crime Scene," an acoustic tune, is set at the scene of a murder, the description being physical and speculative. It resolves with Thompson's typical maudlin approach: "Darkness wins the day/a soul is torn away." The third piece in the trilogy concerns a fictional serial killer named Sidney Wells.

Thompson has not shied away from love songs--"hold me up when I'm lost in confusion" and "this time I'll promise I'll do better" are refrains on two songs--nor intricate guitar solos.

The band includes a saxophonist, Peter Zorn, an instrument employed by Thompson only for a short while in the early 1990s. Zorn plays everything from flute up to baritone sax, giving Thompson's tunes folk airs and classic rock heft ("I'm Bad Again").

Thompson will be performing theses show, divided into a set of new tunes and a set of old favorites, through Feb. 25.