July 14 - Al Bowlly's In Heaven

Richard Thompson is one of my favorite singer/songwriters, and while he tells a lot of stories about heartaches and other similar woes, he has a very British approach to the working class and features the blue collar worker in several songs. My favorite of these has to be Al Bowlly's In Heaven from the 1986 album Daring Adventures. It tells the story of a man coming back from WWII, and the effects of a civilian life with unemployment and poverty that awaited him after the war. He is lamenting the stature he lost when he had to give up his uniform and feels like a walking dead ("I'm in limbo now"). Al Bowlly was a British jazz crooner of the 1930s who died in 1941, and he clearly was the soundtrack of his better days - but now that he is dead, the main character is envious. It's a beautiful song, and the version I have chosen is from the album Live From Austin TX and features spectacular fretwork from both Richard Thompson on guitar and Danny Thompson (no relation) on bass. This trio is rounded out by Michael Jerome on drums, and it has to be one of my favorite constellations of any of Richard Thompson's bands. This is a song to lay back and enjoy...