Loud & Rich is Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson.
 
LW3 is one of America’s most cherished music icons, a darkly witty and  touchingly personal songwriter and storyteller.  He started out in the folk clubs of New York and Boston before going on to parallel music and acting careers, giving birth to over 20 albums, acting in a long list of productions, from MASH to the 40 Year Old Virgin, as well as creating music for film and theatre.  2010 brought him a Grammy award for his ‘High Wide & Handsome – the Charlie Poole Projectt” CD.
 
RT is the product of  a working class London family, teenage founder of British musical pioneers Fairport Convention, creator with then-wife Linda Thompson of a series of critically acclaimed musical masterpieces in the 1970’s and 80’s, and proud owner of an ongoing legacy of great solo albums that continues to this day.   He was named by Rolling Stone to their top 20 all-time guitarists list, and is the recipient of a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
Richard Thompson:  What a pleasure to be working with Loudon, not just because he’s a mate, he’s also one of my favourite musicians – here’s a few reasons why:
- Still confrontational, in your face, moving forward.
- One of the best two ‘confessional’ songwriters around (I think Joni Mitchell is the other one). That style requires ruthless self-examination and honesty. Many pretenders fall by the wayside.
- I was producer on an album or two for Loud back in the 80s, and hardly deserved the title, because there was nothing to do. Everything was first take, but we’d do two or three because the studio time had been booked. In other words, a phenomenal performer.
Oh, quite funny too. 
 
Loudon Wainwright:  I’ve known and worked with Richard Thompson nigh on 30 years now. He started playing on my records in 1982 and the 2 he produced in the mid 80s were Grammy nominated. More recently Richard was gloriously featured on my 2007 effort “Strange Weirdos”. And as if all that weren’t enough, over the decades he and I have played old guy tennis against each other on 3 continents.  It’s fairly pointless to write about Thompson’s guitar playing so I’ll just toss out a few apt adjectives: daring, fierce, majestic. As for Rich’s songwriting, how about: eloquent, darkly funny, heartfelt? And folks when it comes to the almost lost art of in-between song patter, not since the great Tom Lehrer has there been such high grade drollery as RT can provide, should he so choose. It’s true I am Mr. Thompson’s senior by (just) a few years. Yet I will conclude my blurb with the following challenge in verse to the great man himself:
Rich aka The Human Fly
What a talent! Quite a guy!
Yet on our tour I’ll kick your ass
On surfaces hard, clay, or grass!

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