Celtschmerz

Continuing his policy, begun with the Live At Crawley album, of releasing high quality alternatives to bootlegs, Thompson released this live album in 1998. The album was recorded during his tour of Britain earlier the same year.

Thompson tours more often as a solo, acoustic act than with a band these days and Celtschmerz captures him in this "unplugged" setting. Thompson has long been renowned as a guitar player, but he continues to improve and extend his playing. Comparing Celtschmerz to 1984's Small Town Romance shows how Thompson has evolved his acoustic guitar technique over the years. It is frequently observed that Thompson playing solo creates the effect of two guitarists playing simultaneously.

Thompson's son Teddy was the support act on this tour and joined his father each night to perform some duets. Several of these are included on Celtschmerz - most notably "A Heart Needs A Home", which is associated with Teddy's mother Linda Thompson, and "Persuasion", which is a tune from the Sweet Talker soundtrack with lyrics added by Tim Finn and which, as a song rather than a tune, had not been available on any Thompson release prior to Celtschmerz.

Celtschmerz is now out of print. It was released under a deal with Capitol Records, Thompson's label at the time, which permitted him to supplement his income with albums not recorded in the studio provided that they were not made available in retail outlets and were pressed in limited quantities. There are no plans to re-issue this album.