Linda Thompson: Won't Be Long Now – review

Don't be put off by this album's title, or its ghastly cover photo, in which one of the folk scene's finest singers stares gloomily out to sea. Linda Thompson doesn't sound as if she is on the verge of quitting. This is her first album in six years, and she is on remarkably powerful, confident form, helped out by family and distinguished friends. The opening track alone makes the set worthwhile. Love's for Babies and Fools is a sturdy, bleak, self-written ballad in which her carefully articulated vocals are backed by the fine acoustic guitar work of her ex-husband Richard Thompson, with echoes of their classic work together in the 1970s. Elsewhere, there's romping country-rock on Anna McGarrigle's As Fast As My Feet, a fine ballad written by son Teddy featuring Dave Swarbrick's fiddle work, and a powerful, unaccompanied live treatment of Blue Bleezin Blind Drunk. She's still compelling.