Richard Thompson - Hots for the Smarts - Non-Album Acoustic Tracks (2003-2005)

It's been a while since I've posted a Richard Thompson stray tracks album. But yesterday someone asked me for the third volume of his "1000 Years of Popular Music" shows. I want to keep posting things in chronological order, so I need to get through a few albums before I get to that one. This next one contains only acoustic versions of songs.

My aim was to include unique songs that don't appear in similar versions somewhere else. Some of the songs here were done for his "1000 Years of Popular Music," such as the first two. But these were done in studio settings without any crowd noise, so the sound quality is markedly better. "Genesis Hall" and "Crazy Man Michael" were first done by Fairport Convention back in the 1960s. But again it's rare to have acoustic studio versions with top notch sound quality.

All but three of the performances here have been officially released. Four of those came from the "Life and Music Of" box set, and two more were on a BBC compilation. The three unreleased ones are from in-person radio station appearances, so the sound quality is excellent.

I did a little tweaking to "Dear Janet Jackson," so that's why it has "[Edit]" in the title. Although this version is from the box set, it's from a concert and the sound quality is a bit rough. I was able to use the Spleeter sound editing program to remove some of the crowd noise, including a brief clap along during the middle of the song.

I believe "Dear Janet Jackson" and "Hots for the Smarts" are both Thompson originals, and both are very funny. It would be interesting to put an album together of all his humorous songs, but I'm not sure if there's enough for an album.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 Blackleg Miner (Richard Thompson)
02 Tempted (Richard Thompson)
03 Watch Me Go (Richard Thompson)
04 Genesis Hall (Richard Thompson)
05 Dear Janet Jackson [Edit] (Richard Thompson)
06 One Door Opens (Richard Thompson)
07 Crazy Man Michael (Richard Thompson)
08 Josef Locke (Richard Thompson)
09 Let It Blow (Richard Thompson)
10 Hots for the Smarts (Richard Thompson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376719/RICHRDTHMPSN2003-2005_HtsfrtheSmrtsAcustc_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from a concert in Amsterdam in 2003.