Two nights with Richard Thompson

Singer-songwriter guitarist Richard Thompson comes to the Mystic Theatre for two shows this week, Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 2 and 3.

Few artists to emerge in the second half of the ‘60s have gone on to have a more productive and vital career than Thompson. While still a teenager, he founded and led Fairport Convention, which was to British folk-rock what the Byrds were to the idiom’s American equivalent.

Thompson, who was recently described in Rolling Stone as the “Thinking Man’s Guitar God”, is among the most distinctive of guitar virtuosos, capable of breathtaking drama and sublime delicacy, depending on the song and the amp setting.

Over the course of his career, Thompson has earned numerous awards and honors, including the Ivor Novello Award for songwriting, the Orville Gibson Award for guitarists, and a spot in the Top 20 of Rolling Stone’s list of all-time Guitar Greats. In 2006, he was awarded the BBC Lifetime Achievement Award.

His songs have been covered by other quality artists, a stellar list that includes the likes of Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Del McCoury, Graham Nash, X, Los Lobos and Bob Mould.

Thompson has put out a steady supply of albums -- more than 40 to date -- including major label releases and a number of "homemade" discs available only through BeesWeb (www.richardthompson-music.com). Recent years have yielded the release of multiple live performance documents, including "Live in Providence" (band DVD), "Austin City Limits" (CD and DVD from the television program), and "1000 Years of Popular Music" (DVD/CD).

Thompson has also worked in film and TV where he composed and performed the soundtracks to Werner Herzog’s film Grizzly Man, “The Grizzly Man Diaries” television series, as well as the recent Harlan Ellison documentary “Dreams With Sharp Teeth”

The new 4-CD box set release of “Walking on a Wire” spans Thompson’s career from 1968 to 2009.

2009 also saw the concert debut of “Cabaret of Souls,” a 30-movement classical rock “oratorico” written by Thompson in honor of bassist Danny Thompson (no relation), and performed to a standing ovation by an ensemble which included a 10-piece string section and featured vocalists Harry Shearer and Judith Owen.

What keeps him going? “It’s just a drive -- you’re driven to do it,” Thompson says. “If you’re not driven, maybe you shouldn’t bother. If you haven’t written a song for a couple of weeks, you get itchy, you start twitching. You have to get it out there, whatever it is. I’ve been twitching for 40 years, which is great. It’s wonderful to still be enthusiastic about what is basically one’s employment, and to have been that way all the way through. I still guiltily look over my shoulder sometimes, thinking, ‘This is too much fun.’”