Richard Thompson - Oh I Swear - Non-Album Acoustic Tracks (1990)

1990 is a bumper crop year for Richard Thompson playing acoustic songs, at least in my world. I was able to make this entire album of acoustic songs just from that year, plus I have some more from 1990 on my next album in this series.

I think there's a couple of reasons for this. One is that he'd been mostly playing with a band in the late 1980s, then started doing more acoustic shows. But I think a bigger factor is luck, because he had been doing at least some acoustic concerts all along, but in 1990, a couple of the shows were bootlegged with outstanding soundboard sound quality. Two of the songs here are officially released. The rest all come from those two shows. So everything on this album sounds as good as official live albums usually do.

Regarding the songs themselves, most of them are cover versions. Some are traditional songs that go way back, and others are covers of more recent classics. He also covers himself in that he does a song he did with Fairport Convention twenty years earlier, "Now Be Thankful." "She Moves through the Fair" also was done by that band, although it's a traditional song and not one Thompson had a hand in writing. Similarly, "The Old Changing Way" is a Thompson original first put on album in 1972. I've included songs like these because the solo acoustic versions of them are so different.

A few of the songs are more recent Thompson originals. "Mrs. Rita" was written by Thompson, but sung by June Tabor for the 1990 album "Hard Cash." Apparently, he only sang his own song a few times in concert in 1990. "Oh I Swear" is also from "Hard Cash." On that album Thompson performs it, but with a full band. (I'll post that version on a different stray tracks album soon.) "Killing Jar" is another Thompson original from a 1990 French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson album. I'll be posting my version of that album soon.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 The May Day Psalter [Instrumental] (Richard Thompson)
02 I Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes - Stop Your Sobbing (Richard Thompson)
03 Oh I Swear (Richard Thompson)
04 Now Be Thankful (Richard Thompson)
05 Killing Jar (Richard Thompson)
06 Hickory Wind (Richard Thompson with Julian Dawson)
07 She's Not There (Richard Thompson with Julian Dawson)
08 High School Confidential (Richard Thompson)
09 Mind Your Own Business (Richard Thompson with Julian Dawson)
10 Mr. and Mrs. Mickey Mouse (Richard Thompson)
11 The Old Changing Way (Richard Thompson)
12 Mrs. Rita (Richard Thompson)
13 She Moves through the Fair (Richard Thompson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15268283/RichrdT_1990_OhISwearAcoustc_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is of Thompson playing an acoustic guitar in 1990.