Chris Thompson (Anthology)

This selection of twenty-six of Chris' songs (three of which are settings of lyric poems by Yeats, Longfellow and Christina Rossetti)is a re-issue of Chris' original self-titled 1973 debut album for Village Thing Records(U.K.) Ltd. plus out-takes, alternate takes and ten bonus tracks chosen from subsequent N.Z. albums like "Hometown Voodoo" , "Song for Laura","Coffee Break" and "For my Double".Following a re-union concert featuring many of the artists that had been on the Village Thing label that was held in London last year(musicians like Wizz Jones, Derroll Adams, Dave Evans et al), Sunbeam Records approached Chris and invited him to work closely with them to assemble a double CD("Chris Thompson"Sunbeam Records SBR2CD5078) based around what they have called "One of the best Acid-Folk albums of the Seventies".It not only contains the original recordings of songs like "London Blues" and "The River Song" and Chris' collaborations with Indian, English and Irish musicians, but incorporates examples of Chris' more country and blues influenced work, like "Hamilton" and "We need Oil", and humorous songs that have proved popular like "Barcelona" and "Chop Suey Blues". There are 13 or 14 other musicians on the album, including Chris' daughter Lora (who plays bass on "When I am Dead"-the lyric poem by Christina Rossetti), and Brendan Power-harmonica virtuoso, who has played with Sting and Ray Charles- from Auckland, now living in England.Please see Graham Reids's(The N.Z. Herald)recent review in his "Elsewhere" column:http://www.elsewhere.co.nz/music/3815/chris-thompson-chris-thompson-sunbeam/