This week on American Routes, we'll talk to the beloved electric and eclectic, folk rocker songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson. An advocate for British lyric and music tradition in new settings with refashioned traditional songs and stories like "Matty Groves" and "Tam Lin," Thompson evolved from playing in the seminal late 1960s English folk-rock band, Fairport Convention to his present day role as an in-demand guitarist and songwriter. Now based in Los Angeles, Richard's career of memorable songs and epicure guitar is heard in a variety of genres from Cajun and country to rock and pop. Thompson's iconic songs include "Meet on the Ledge," "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," "Dimming of the Day" and "Tear Stained Letter." Among the artists who have recorded his work are Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, Del McCoury and R.E.M.
Then we'll visit with accordion-man Zachary Richard about growing up in French-speaking South Louisiana but needing to go to France and Quebec to realize the significance of the Cajun culture into which he was born. Zachary Richard's 40-year career reflects new ways with old Cajun waltzes and two steps, the R & B glow of near by New Orleans, American folk rock mixed with swamp pop, and elegiac new songs that draw on continental French, Quebecois and Acadian sources. Richard's recent "Le Fou" may be the first Americana record made largely in the French of his homeland: South Louisiana's Cajun country.