''Mock Tudor'' is the tenth studio album by Richard Thompson. Released in 1999, it was his final album released by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

and his last to date for a major record label. Subsequent Thompson studio albums would be self-financed and distributed by smaller independent labels. For this, his fifth album for Capitol,

Thompson Thompson may refer to: People * Thompson (surname) * Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician Places Australia *Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality Bulgaria * Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province Canada * ...

teamed up with

producers Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Tom Rothrock Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

and

Rob Schnapf Rob Schnapf is an American record producer and musician. He was the co-producer (along with Tom Rothrock) of Elliott Smith's albums ''Either/Or'', '' XO'' (on which he also played guitar on the song " Baby Britain"), '' Figure 8'' and ''From a ...

, and ''Mock Tudor'' had a more straightforward production than his preceding albums on Capitol which had been produced by

Mitchell Froom Mitchell Froom (born June 29, 1953) is an American musician and record producer. He was a member of the bands Gamma (band), Gamma and Latin Playboys, and is currently the keyboardist for Crowded House. He has produced albums for several artists, ...

. In this album Thompson draws predominantly on the musical styles of 1960s England—the time and place of his youth. The lyrics have a nostalgic tinge and are rich with allusion to fairy tales and children's books as well as to

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and T. S. Eliot. Thematically, ''Mock Tudor'' is split into three sections: ''Metroland''—comprising the first five songs, "Cooksferry Queen" to "Hard on Me", ''Heroes In The Suburbs''—covering "Crawl Back (Under My Stone)" through "Walking the Long Miles Home", and concluding with ''Street Cries And Stage Whispers''—encompassing the last three songs (on the original release). Although widely regarded by critics and Thompson fans as one of his best works, ''Mock Tudor'' did not enjoy much popularity among the public.

Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson. #"Cooksferry Queen" – 4:14 #"Sibella" – 4:15 #"Bathsheba Smiles" – 3:54 #"Two-Faced Love" – 4:03 #"Hard on Me" – 5:55 #"Crawl Back (Under My Stone)" – 3:59 #"Uninhabited Man" – 4:52 #"Dry My Tears and Move On" – 3:48 #"Walking the Long Miles Home" – 4:10 #"Sights and Sounds of London Town" – 4:54 #"That's All, Amen, Close the Door" – 5:56 #"Hope You Like the New Me" – 5:00 ''Mock Tudor'' was released on Bong Load Records as a double

vinyl LP The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...

and with two extra songs. *"Fully Qualified to Be Your Man" *"Mr. Rebound"

Personnel

* Richard Thompson -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

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 without ...

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 ...

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 ...

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vio ...

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Atom Ellis Atom Ellis (born April 8, 1966) is a bass guitarist from San Francisco, California. Atom was a founding member of the Thrash Funk band Psychefunkapus from 1986 to 1992 and a member of the San Francisco band Dieselhed from 1993 to 2000. During a ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Dave Mattacks David James Mattacks (born 13 March 1948) is an English rock and folk drummer. Best known for his work with Fairport Convention, Mattacks has also worked both as a session musician and as a performing artist. Apart from playing the drums, he i ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

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 ...

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 on "Uninhabited Man" & "Two-Faced Love" *

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 Mart ...

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 ...

Teddy Thompson Teddy Thompson (born 19 February 1976) is an English folk and rock musician. He is the son of folk rock musicians Richard and Linda Thompson and brother of singer Kamila Thompson. He released his first album in 2000. Biography Teddy Thompson ...

- guitar and backing vocals *David McKelsy -

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

*Jeff Turmes -

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

*Charles Davis –

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopr ...

*Leslie Benedict –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

*Randall Aldcroft – trombone *Larry Hall - cornet *

Joey Waronker Jon Joseph Waronker (born May 20, 1969) is an American drummer and music producer. He is best known as a regular drummer of both Beck and R.E.M., and as member of the experimental rock bands Atoms for Peace and Ultraísta. Background Waronker w ...

- extra drums on "Bathsheba Smiles" *

Alicia Previn Alicia Previn (also known as Lovely Previn) is an American violinist, songwriter, recording artist and author. She is the daughter of André Previn KBE, the conductor of the Houston, Pittsburgh, and London Symphony Orchestras and the Royal Philh ...

aka Lovely Previn -

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

on "Mr. Rebound" *John Bergamot -

on "Mr. Rebound" ;Technical *

– producers, recordists, mixers *Dan Thompson – recordist *Don Tyler – mastering

References

*''Richard Thompson - The Biography'' by Patrick Humprhies. Schirmer Books. 0-02-864752-1 *''The Great Valerio'' by Dave Smith *http://www.richardthompson-music.com/ *http://www.dmattacks.co.uk/tech3.htm {{Authority control 1999 albums Richard Thompson (musician) albums Albums produced by Tom Rothrock Albums produced by Rob Schnapf Capitol Records albums

Track listing

Personnel

See also

References