Richard Thompson - Grizzly Guitarist

Last year, Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man was released. The tragic hero of this story being Timothy Treadwell, a maverick, Steve Irwin type of character who spent thirteen summers living with wild grizzly bears in an Alaskan nature reserve, and was eventually eaten alive by one of his 'bear friends'.

This film itself is a little monotonous. The general feeling is there from the first five minutes & cutting it's lenth in half may have held my interest more tightly. The animals, of course, are brilliant to watch. Even more entertaining than the bears are the friendly foxes who climb on Timothy's tent and steal his hat!

The jewel in Grizzly Man's crown though is the soundtrack and the hour-long special feature on the DVD showing the group of musicians who scored it, one of whom was Richard Thompson.

Richard's guitar work since his Fairport Convention days is built upon his range of influences which span both jazz greats and rock legends, Django Reinhardt, Louis Armstrong, Jerry Lee Lewis. His style of playing in this soundstrack has all the grace of Mark Knopfler's electric guitar fused with the down-to-earth acoustic sound of John Martin. He explains his musical philosophy; "I always liked a sound that is harmonically sophisticated, but crude. If you take those edges away, you've got a load of notes, but no music."

This footage is well worth watching, it's the creation of the glue that holds the Grizzly Man main feature together.