Richard Thompson Band at the Wellmont

Read to end for a ticket giveaway.

Named by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the Top 20 Guitarists of all-time, iconic British folk rock legend Richard Thompson will ply his craft at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair this Friday, October 22 at 8 p.m.

The maverick musician was awarded the Mojo Les Paul Award for “Guitar Legend” last June, and has had a cult following since he performed with Fairport Convention in the 1960’s. Fairport Convention — which is still recording and touring today — is widely regarded as the single most important group in the English folk rock movement.

Thompson’s song writing skill has been often compared with Bob Dylan’s and his guitar playing prowess with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. His music has been covered by a wide range of artists, including Robert Plant, Del McCoury, R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Shawn Colvin, Los Lobos, Greg Brown, Loudon Wainwright III, and The Blind Boys of Alabama, to name a few.

By any standard, Thompson is a living rock legend. Highly prolific, he has recorded more than 40 albums — the most recent of which, Dream Attic, was released this past August.

Having seen Thompson perform 5 or 6 times myself, I can tell you first hand that watching his brand of “hybrid picking” is astounding. This technique of playing bass notes and rhythm with a pick between his first finger and thumb, and melody and punctuation by plucking the treble strings with his other fingers sounds like he is single-handedly playing two guitars (check out the video to get a taste).

The last time I saw Thompson, solo at the Montreal Jazz Festival a few years back, I decided that it was the most incredible concert I’d ever been to. Many of his fans travel long distances to see him perform (including my brother Mark, who thinks nothing of driving from Cape May for the evening to see him at the Wellmont for his 50th Thompson concert in 40 years — seriously). For Baristaville, the rock legend will be hyper-local, just how we all like it.

Baristanet has two pairs of tickets for our readers. We’ll give them to the first two commenters to correctly answer the question below. Post answers as comment, please.

Question: In Thompson’s song, Wall of Death, about an amusement park ride, what might “the tunnel of love” do to you?

For more information and tickets, click here.

Photo above by Anthony Pepitone.