"Hysterical dysphonia" sounds like the name of a bad heavy metal record, or maybe a popular Off Broadway musical. But in truth it's the ailment that sidelined folk rock legend Linda Thompson for much of the past two decades. When she opened her mouth to sing, sometimes nothing came out. The condition first manifested itself as her marriage to Richard Thompson was dissolving, and many suspected its effects were accelerated by the stress of their creative and romantic break-up.
That could have been the end, but of course, it wasn't. Linda Thompson remained mostly mum, yes, but it was partly by choice, as the pleasures of domestic life took precedent over the pressures of professional life. It took prodding from son Teddy to push her back into the spotlight, and when she returned with 2002's Fashionably Late, it wasn't as some wounded, withered old crone but as a funny and modest entertainer, still possessed of a beautiful voice.
Fashionably Late, which followed almost 20 years of relative silence, was something of a family affair, featuring contributions from children Teddy and Kamila, and also a cameo from Richard (as well as from such folk-rock hall of famers as Danny Thompson and Dave Mattacks). While the album marked Linda's grand reintroduction, it also marked Teddy's coming out as a great songwriter. He wrote or co-wrote every song on the disc, and helped direct mom back to what Richard gleefully used to call "doom and gloom."
Versatile Heart, released a mere five years after Fashionably Late, features some Linda Thompson originals, a few more from Teddy, and (like Fashionably Late) one from Teddy's fellow folk-rock scion Rufus Wainwright, "Beauty", a string-laden swoon of a song that features Antony Hegarty as duet partner and manages to namedrop both Oscar Wilde and Michael Jackson. It's a refreshingly light moment from a singer known for the heavy, and Versatile Heart features a few more of them. The slow and dusty country ditty "Do Your Best for Rock'n'Roll", for example, requests absolution from God but settles for his support of good music.
In fact, contrary to common perception, Thompson's proven herself quite lighthearted and funny, both on stage and in recently interviews-- she's said her children have taken to calling her "Shozzy," because she looks like a bit like Sharon Osbourne and flakes out like Ozzy. But it's weary heartache she sells like a pro. Thompson's work may not be as hip or fashionable as such peers as, say, Bridget St. John or Vashti Bunyan, but she's still a force to be reckoned with, with nigh-infallible delivery and an instinct for selling old country weepers like few others.
"I wish that you were here/ Running around my heels/ Only you and I know how this lonely feels," she sings in "The Way I Love You". In "Nice Cars" (written by daughter Kamila) she's about as unromantic as one can be about such an over-romanticized material possession (even if her Mercedes turns out to be a stand-in for a poorly chosen lover-- "Ladies shouldn't drive nice cars/ they're only going to break our hearts" indeed). "Blue & Gold" (which supposedly dates somewhere back to her days with Richard, aka, per the liners, ''a little known but extremely useful guitarist.'') and "Katy Cruel" draw from traditional English folk, while a tender reading of Tom Waits' "Day After Tomorrow" demonstrates Thompson's transformative abilities with contemporary material as well.
Maybe it's the slow pace of her releases, or maybe it's just her good taste, but this continuation of Thompson's unlikely comeback finds her if not necessarily as strong in voice as she was in the 1970s (we apparently have Botox shots to the throat to thank for anything at all) then certainly equal in spirit. It captures the same ultimately warm and comforting old school vibes as the confluence of good times conveyed in her nostalgic tribute to England's folk patriarch Bob Copper, "Whisky, Bob Copper and Me": "Davy's playing, Shirley's singing, it's the weekend, England's winning." And if you want to keep the good (bad) times going, Linda's latest is streaming from the stereo.
