Richard Thompson, the iconic British folk rock legend, is bringing his original show "1000 Years of Popular Music" to performing arts centers in 07/08. The story behind the project is that Thompson was asked by Playboy to list the 10 greatest songs of the past millennium. Thompson took the request quite literally and delivered 10 choices covering the entire last thousand years. While the list was passed over for publication, it gave birth to this performance concept, which Thompson has given his own beautiful treatment. The show runs about 2 hours and features accompanists Judith Owen (keyboards, vocals) and Debra Dobkin (percussion, vocals).  In the show Thompson has been known to include "Summer is Icumen In", the oldest known song in the English language, and continue through time from madrigals, ballads, sea shanties, British Music Hall, Broadway tunes, garage rock and even Britney Spears. Rolling Stone says "this show proves two things: Richard Thompson can play anything, from thirteenth-century rounds and minersí ballads to Squeeze and Abba; and he can make anything rock."

Richard Thompson is the recent recipient of the Ivor Novello Award for Songwriting and the 2006 BBC Lifetime Achievement Award. Rolling Stone named him one of the Top 20 guitarists of all-time and his original songs have been recorded by a long list of admirers including Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, the Del McCoury Band, Linda Ronstadt & Ann Savoy, X, Mary Black, among others.

Richard Thompson's "1000 Years of Popular Music" official site >>