Name: Richard Thompson at Musikfest Cafe
Start: 2024-07-26T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Musikfest Cafe

Richard Thompson
with special guest Alexa Rose
Price: $40-$75
Venue: Musikfest Café
Buy Tickets: https://www.steelstacks.org/event/15991/richard-thompson/
Doors and Bar Food: 7 p.m. | Show: 8 p.m.
Richard Thompson
Genre: Folk Rock
Artist Website: richardthompson-music.com
Facebook: @RichardThompsonMusic | Instagram: rthompsonmusic | Twitter: RthompsonMusic
Richard Thompson’s musical influence cannot be overstated. Having co-founded the groundbreaking group Fairport Convention as a teenager in the ‘60s, he and his bandmates invented the distinctive strain of British Folk Rock. He left the group by the age of 21 which was followed by a decade long musical partnership with his then-wife Linda, to over 30 years as a highly successful solo artist. In 2011, Thompson received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) personally bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. The Los Angeles Times called him “the finest rock songwriter after Dylan and the best electric guitarist since Hendrix” and Rolling Stone has named him one of the Top 100 Guitarists of All Time. He has received lifetime achievement awards for songwriting from the BBC Radio 2 Awards, the Americana Music Association, and was awarded the prestigious Ivor Novello Award. His song “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” was named one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Greatest Songs Since 1923.” A wide range of musicians have recorded Thompson’s songs including Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Sleater-Kinney, Del McCoury, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Jones, David Byrne, Don Henley, Los Lobos, and many more. His massive body of work includes many Grammy nominated albums as well as numerous soundtracks, including Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man and 2019’s The Cold Blue. His genre defying mastery of both acoustic and electric guitar along with engaging energy and onstage wit continue to earn him new fans and a place as one of the most distinctive virtuosos and writers in Folk Rock history. On May 31, 2024 Richard Thompson will release the anticipated Ship To Shore, his first studio album in six years.
Alexa Rose
Genre: Folk Rock
Artist Website: alexarosemusic.com
Facebook: @alexarosemusic | Instagram: alexarosemusic
Alexa Rose was born in the Alleghany Highlands of western Virginia, raised in the tiny railroad town of Clifton Forge. Though no one in her immediate family played or sang, she inherited a deep musical legacy.
“Growing up I would hear stories of my great-grandfather Alvie who, for a time, lived and played with [bluegrass great] Lester Flatt when they were both young men,” says Rose. “Apparently, Lester tried to get him to move to Nashville and pursue a career. But my great-grandfather decided to stay in the mountains with his wife on their farm.”
That sense of place and storytelling spirit became woven into Rose’s voice and songwriting. In 2019, she released her debut album Medicine For Living, the title track of which won Merlefest’s revered Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. Her 2021 follow up Headwaters garnered national attention from American Songwriter and Rolling Stone, among others. Rose wrote most of the album in the early stages of the pandemic, which she astutely characterizes as having “that weird lucid feeling of not-time.”
“Headwaters are the source of a river. The furthest point from where water merges with something else. They are not mighty. Just a network of small tributaries, like a creek, not necessarily picturesque, but they’re the most important part of the river. Water is fluid and inconsistent and sacred and indifferent. You can be miles down a river, but you’re still at the origin. And in that way, water feels like it has transcended time. That’s how these songs found me—the same way memories do, in that slivering, elusive water. As quickly as you come across them, you bend in another direction.”
Perhaps following in the steps of her great grandfather, Rose’s songs feel like oil paint landscapes of her own life in the mountains, often wringing out the beauty in mundanity and exploring timeless topics. Her earnest, well crafted stylings are a multi-layered merger of old country music and traditional folk songs, colored by rock and roll and mountain soul.