Sweet Warrior (album)

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Sweet Warrior
Studio album by Richard Thompson
Released	28 May 2007 (UK)
Recorded	October and December 2006 at House of Blues Studio
Genre	Rock, Folk rock
Length	68:03
Label	Proper Records (UK, Europe) The Planet Company (Australia) Shout! Factory (North America) P-Vine (Japan)
Producer	Richard Thompson, Simon Tassano
Professional reviews
BBC Collective (favourable) link The Guardian 5-25-2007 Independent 5-25-2007 Music Box 5-23-2007 Uncut link AMG link PopMatters 6-13-2007 The A.V. Club (B) 5-29-2007
Richard Thompson chronology
RT - The Life and Music of Richard Thompson (2006) Sweet Warrior (2007)

Sweet Warrior is an album by Richard Thompson released in 2007. Thompson financed the recording of this album himself and then licensed the finished album to various labels for distribution. On its release, Sweet Warrior entered Amazon.com's top 20 for music sales.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Track listing 3 Personnel 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Overview

The track "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" was given an advance release via Thompson's own web site and iTunes. The song was singled out for praise by critics ^[1] and featured prominently in Thompson's live performances in early 2007. This song's lyrics make extensive use of U.S. military slang (the "Dad" of the title is GI slang for "Baghdad"), and convey the thoughts and feelings of an uneasy U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq^[2].

This advance release also enjoyed airplay on several radio stations and attracted generally favourable comments from the press and advance publicity for the album.

The album received very favourable reviews.^{[3] [4]}

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson:

1. "Needle and Thread" - 4:43
2. "I'll Never Give It Up " - 3:22
3. "Take Care the Road You Choose" - 6:44
4. "Mr. Stupid" - 3:53
5. "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" - 5:16
6. "Poppy-Red" - 4:37
7. "Bad Monkey" - 5:13
8. "Francesca" - 5:17
9. "Too Late to Come Fishing" - 4:36
10. "Sneaky Boy" - 2:59
11. "She Sang Angels to Rest" - 3:25
12. "Johnny's Far Away" - 4:53
13. "Guns Are the Tongues" - 7:27
14. "Sunset Song" - 5:38

Bonus tracks on the P-Vine Records release for the Japanese market:

• "Any Old Body"
• "Dust and Wine"

[edit] Personnel

Musical

• Richard Thompson - vocals, electric guitar, steel-string acoustic guitar, mandolin, accordion, tin whistle, autoharp, harmonium, hurdy gurdy, electric organ, handclaps (on 10)
• Michael Hays - rhythm guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• Danny Thompson - double bass
• Taras Prodaniuk - electric bass guitar
• Michael Jerome - drums, percussion
• Judith Owen - backing vocals, handclaps (on 10)
• Sara Watkins - fiddle (on 5, 12-13)
• Joe Sublett - tenor saxophone (on 7-8)
• Joe Buck - first violin (on 11)
• Al Michaels - second violin (on 11)
• Novi Ola - viola (on 11)
• Simon Tassano - handclaps (on 10)
• Chris Kasych - handclaps (on 10)

Technical

• Doug Tyo - engineer (at House of Blues Studio, Encino, California)
• Chris Kasych - assistant engineer
• Simon Tassano - mixing (at Rumiville Studio, Austin, Texas)
• Jim Wilson - mastering (at Airshow Mastering, Boulder, Colorado)

[edit] References

Sources consulted

• Official credits page

Endnotes

[edit] External links

• Official lyrics page