Biography

Linda Thompson is one of the most accomplished singers in British Folk Rock. While she was on the London scene in the late sixties and recorded a few stray singles under her maiden name Linda Peters, it was her 1972 marriage to Richard Thompson and their professional collaboration that brought her to a wider audience.

In 1974, Richard and Linda released the first album as a duo, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, which is widely and rightly acknowledged as a classic. It was the first of a string of masterpieces, culminating in their finale—1982’s Shoot Out The Lights which famously was accompanied by a tour of America after the couple had separated—with the drama playing out nightly on stage.

Linda developed a condition, Dysphonia, which affected her voice, but managed to put out one solo album in 1985—Dreams Fly Away. Linda’s song “Telling Me Lies” was recorded a few years later by The Trio: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt, but Linda’s performing career would go dormant. In 2003 she released a remarkable comeback album, Fashionably Late, which was centered around her collaborations with her children Teddy & Kami. She toured the UK and America behind that record, but dysphonia made it hard to maintain a live performance schedule.

Linda made two more solo albums—Versatile Heart (2007) and Won’t Be Long Now (2013)—both centered around her compositions, often collaborating with Teddy. But when her next batch of songs was complete, Linda found the dysphonia too much to overcome. She came up with the idea of having her family and friends sing the songs for her, and her latest recording Proxy Music came to be. With vocal contributions from Kami, Teddy, and friends like Rufus and Martha Wainwright and Eliza Carthy, it is a singular entry in a career that now spans over fifty years.