Live Review: Teddy Thompson at Fibbers, York

It seems to have come round full circle now for Teddy Thompson, having returned to his original passion, Country Music. It's hard to imagine a young English kid of famed parentage living in a Sufi commune listening to George Jones, but that is apparently what happened. Teddy actually says he hadn't heard anything recorded after 1959 until he was 16, and I am struggling to imagine that. If only I hadn't been exposed to The Monkees when I was ten, things could've been so much better now.

Teddy Thompson played a predominantly country set at Fibbers tonight with his small but highly competent band featuring New Yorker David Mansfield on pedal steel, dobro, lead guitar and fiddle (but not all at once), well respected Graham Hawthorne on drums and Brad Albetta on both double and electric bass. Opening with a short set of new and old acoustic numbers, including the only song of the night from his critically acclaimed second album Separate Ways, Everybody Move It, Teddy went on to play almost all of the new album, the country-covers CD Up Front and Down Low, which features an entire album's worth of country standards and one Thompson original Down Low.

Teddy admits that the idea of a country covers album at this stage of his career might have been ill-advised but it was precisely this fact that made him determined to do it. Despite it working well a couple of decades ago for Elvis Costello when he recorded the Almost Blue album, it does come across as a strange choice in light of the fact that Teddy's songwriting ability is showing increased maturity. Although Teddy's set tonight was assured and tight, it was not dissimilar to any number of bands you can catch at Layla's in Nashville. This is not a negative statement by any means, as most of the bands who get to play on the Broadway bar circuit are particularly good. Where the album worked best though, was in the stunning arrangements by Robert Kirby, famed arranger on Nick Drake's first couple of albums, which couldn't possibly be transferred to the intimate setting of Fibbers. Perhaps I'm just pouting because I wanted more Separate Ways.

There's a melancholy air about Teddy Thompson which lends itself perfectly to good country music. Throughout his set, he maintained a stoic presence with occasional flirtatious interaction with the younger female members of the audience. I was unfortunately at the end of the line of females he was addressing, safely attached to the safety barrier, and to whom he apologised 'sorry, I only talk to women, but how are you anyway?' He didn't wait for a reply.

What was touching about Teddy tonight was the sincerity he expressed when speaking of his peers and in particular with working with Iris DeMent. My Heart Echoes is just one of several accomplished covers that Teddy tackles with relative ease both as a duet on the new album and pretty much solo live. There's a nod to Ernest Tubb, George Jones and Dolly Parton, to name but a few of the major leaguers Teddy was listening to back in the old days whilst his dad was doing his Rasul and mum was doing the ironing.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening despite the absence of I Wish It Was Over and I Should Get Up, with excellent support from New York based Jaymay and Glaswegian songsmith Brendan Campbell. Teddy's encore of Bob Luman's Let's Think About Living provided the audience with a memorably catchy tune to whistle their way back to the car parks of York.