Born Linda Pettifer, Linda Thompson, then known as Linda Peters, made an inauspicious debut as half of Paul & Linda in 1968. The duo, which included singer Paul McNeill, recorded two singles, the first being a cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" for MGM in the U.K. In 1972, following a couple of years of session work, singing commercial jingles, and working the folk clubs around London, she teamed with friend Sandy Denny and other assorted members of the British folk-rock scene to record Rock On, a collection of early rock & roll favorites, under the name of the Bunch. She was featured on the King-Goffin classic "The Loco-Motion" and a beautiful duet with Denny on Phil Everly's "When Will I Be Loved.

Born Linda Pettifer, Linda Thompson, then known as Linda Peters, made an inauspicious debut as half of Paul & Linda in 1968. The duo, which included singer Paul McNeill, recorded two singles, the first being a cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" for MGM in the U.K. In 1972, following a couple of years of session work, singing commercial jingles, and working the folk clubs around London, she teamed with friend Sandy Denny and other assorted members of the British folk-rock scene to record Rock On, a collection of early rock & roll favorites, under the name of the Bunch. She was featured on the King-Goffin classic "The Loco-Motion" and a beautiful duet with Denny on Phil Everly's "When Will I Be Loved."

Peters met Fairport Convention guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson in 1969, but did not work with him until 1972 when they performed together on the Rock On record and later that year on Richard's solo debut, Henry the Human Fly. That same year, Richard and Linda were married, and in 1974, with the now classic I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, began a musical partnership that would span nearly ten years and six critically acclaimed, yet commercially unsuccessful, albums. During this time Linda would also make her mark as one of the finest female voices in pop music. The Thompsons' musical, as well as personal, relationship came to an end just as they were gaining some long overdue notoriety, especially in the U.S., with their brilliant and moving 1982 release Shoot Out the Lights. The record, recorded on a shoestring budget for tiny Hannibal Records, has been widely heralded as one of the true masterpieces of the rock & roll era and garnered Linda Thompson honors as Female Vocalist of the Year in many year-end critics polls. 1982 also saw the couple embark on their first and only U.S. tour.

Following the breakup, Linda performed in the English theater, touring with The Mysteries and appearing in the National Theatre's production of Don Quixote, before signing with Warner Bros. Records in 1985. The subsequent record, One Clear Moment, produced by Hugh Murphy (Gerry Rafferty), turned out to be her only post-Richard album. Hysterical dysphonia, a psychological inability to produce speech sounds which had plagued Thompson on and off throughout her career, eventually ended it. A project for CBS in the late '80s was aborted because of her vocal difficulties, although one track from those sessions, a reworking of Richard and Linda's classic "Dimming of the Day," eventually surfaced on the 1996 compilation Dreams Fly Away.

Thompson, having retired from music and running an antique jewelry shop in London, had some success as a songwriter, mostly in collaboration with Betsy Cook. Their "Telling Me Lies," recorded for the Trio LP by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris, earned the pair a Grammy nomination for 1987's Country Song of the Year, with Thompson and Cook performing it on the broadcast. Thompson resurfaced in 2002 with Fashionably Late, her first new record in 17 years, on Rounder Records. A second Rounder release, Versatile Heart, appeared in 2007. ~ Brett Hartenbach, All Music Guide

For years, Richard Thompson resided in relative obscurity, while at the same time garnering vast critical praise for his magnificent guitar work and the dark wit and richness of his extraordinary songwriting. A founding member of the seminal British folk-rock group Fairport Convention, he remained with the band for five studio albums -- Fairport Convention (1968), What We Did on Our Holiday (released as Fairport Convention in the U.S.) (1968), Unhalfbricking (1969), Liege and Lief (1969), and Full House (1970) -- and one live recording (Live at the L.A. Troubadour [recorded in September 1970, released 1976], reissued as House Full [1986]). In early 1971, Thompson, feeling that the material he had been writing at the time was not right for the band, decided to leave for a solo career.

For years, Richard Thompson resided in relative obscurity, while at the same time garnering vast critical praise for his magnificent guitar work and the dark wit and richness of his extraordinary songwriting. A founding member of the seminal British folk-rock group Fairport Convention, he remained with the band for five studio albums -- Fairport Convention (1968), What We Did on Our Holiday (released as Fairport Convention in the U.S.) (1968), Unhalfbricking (1969), Liege and Lief (1969), and Full House (1970) -- and one live recording (Live at the L.A. Troubadour [recorded in September 1970, released 1976], reissued as House Full [1986]). In early 1971, Thompson, feeling that the material he had been writing at the time was not right for the band, decided to leave for a solo career. In between sessions and dates supporting former Fairport mates Sandy Denny and Ian Matthews, he entered the studio to record his first record, Henry the Human Fly (1972), which was a more idiosyncratic version of the British traditional, rock & roll mix that he had begun with his old band. During this time, he also contributed to the rock & roll homage The Bunch (1972) as well as the traditional Morris On (1972), both of which featured various members, past and present, of Fairport Convention and its offshoots. None of these did anything to change the general public's view of Thompson, to the point where Henry the Human Fly gained the notable distinction of being the worst-selling album in the history of Warner Brothers Records.

Following tours of the U.S. (his last for ten years) and the U.K. with Sandy Denny, Thompson ended 1972 by performing dates with singer Linda Peters, who had appeared on both Henry and The Bunch. The couple was married, and in 1973, they began work on their first recording together, the now classic I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (April 1974). The Thompsons went on to release five more records, including Hokey Pokey (March 1975), Pour Down Like Silver (November 1975), First Light (November 1978), Sunnyvista (1979), and Shoot Out the Lights (February 1982). Between 1975 and 1978, however, Richard and Linda all but dropped out of the music scene when they moved into a Muslim community outside of London. During this period, Guitar, Vocal (1976), a collection of outtakes and live recordings from Richard's career, was released to fill the void. It would also be his final release for Island Records, his U.K. home since 1968. Returning to the music business in 1978, the Thompsons recorded First Light for Chrysalis Records, which showed a definite Islamic and North African influence, along with their characteristic British folk-rock. Sunnyvista followed to more public indifference, and they were dropped by the label.

The early '80s would prove to be a period of major ups and downs, both professionally and personally, for Richard and Linda. Without a record contract, the pair demoed eight songs in the summer of 1980, before going into the studio for their next project, with singer/songwriter Gerry Rafferty producing. Rafferty had gained a great deal of success during the latter part of the '70s, and being a huge fan, was looking to bring the Thompsons' music to a larger audience. The subsequent tracks were dumped due to Richard's dissatisfaction with the outcome. In the meantime, Richard went back to work by himself in 1981, recording a collection of instrumental tunes entitled Strict Tempo!, which he released independently on his own Elixir label. Richard and Linda eventually ended up back in the studio, with former Fairport manager and producer Joe Boyd, to re-record some of the material from the Rafferty sessions, as well as three new songs. The finished product, Shoot Out the Lights, was the most powerful album in the Thompsons' oeuvre, as well as their first real breakthrough. Released by Boyd's own Hannibal Records, it not only received universally glowing reviews, but was also their biggest seller to date. It also marked the end of their marriage, and following a tumultuous tour of America, their musical partnership as well.

Richard remained with Hannibal for 1983's Hand of Kindness, before leaving for a major-label deal with Polydor the following year. Cajun artist Jo-El Sonnier scored a Top 20 country hit in 1988 with his cover of Thompson's "Tear-Stained Letter" from that album. A live, solo acoustic set taken from shows recorded in New York City in 1982 entitled Small Town Romance (1984) was released just prior to his departure from Hannibal. With Joe Boyd once again producing, Across a Crowded Room (February 1985) came one year later for Polydor. The record was a success by Thompson's standards, if not the label's, and after a disappointing showing by the follow-up, Daring Adventures (October 1986), he was released. A concert video from the Across a Crowded Room tour was issued in 1985.

Once again between labels, Thompson found various side projects to keep him busy, including a soundtrack for the BBC's The Marksman and a record (Live, Love, Larf & Loaf [1987]) with former Magic Band drummer John French and avant-garde musicians Fred Frith (Henry Cow) and Henry Kaiser. The quartet, called simply French Frith Kaiser Thompson, recorded a second album, Invisible Means, in 1990. Thompson then struck a deal with Capitol Records and released Amnesia (October 1988) with producer Mitchell Froom at the helm for the second of what would be a string of five records. His first release for the label, Amnesia, kept Thompson's career in a bit of a holding pattern, but it was Rumor and Sigh (May 1991), though not exactly making him a household name, that took him to another level commercially. And though his sound and approach had been picking up more of an American flavor, he continued to retain ties to his traditional roots, from the use of accordion, hurdy-gurdy, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, and various medieval instruments, to songs such as the folk ballad "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" and "Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shands."

Throughout the '90s, Thompson maintained his fervent cult following and recorded three more solo albums for Capitol, including Mirror Blue (1994), the double-disc you? me? us? (1996), and Mock Tudor (1999), as well as working on Hard Cash (1990), a collection of songs inspired by a BBC documentary about the British working class, a soundtrack for the film Sweet Talker (1992), and a concept album about the industrial age (Industry [1997]) with bassist Danny Thompson. Hannibal, which had been purchased by Rykodisc, issued a three-CD retrospective of Thompson's career in the spring of 1993, entitled Watching the Dark, while also continuing to keep Thompson's (solo and with Linda) pre-1984 catalog in print.Capitol dropped Thompson from its roster in 2001, shortly after the release of the compilation Action Packed: The Best of the Capitol Years, and in 2003 he returned to the ranks of the independent recording artists with his album The Old Kit Bag, released by Cooking Vinyl in the U.K. and Spinart in the United States. Thompson continued to follow the indie path with his next release, 2005's Front Parlour Ballads, a primarily acoustic effort that Thompson recorded in his own garage studio.

In 2000, Island Records released the single-disc The Best of Richard & Linda Thompson: The Island Years, culled from Richard and Linda's time with the label. As a testament to Richard Thompson's reputation as one of the era's finest songwriters, as well as a guitarist nonpareil, two tribute albums were released: The World Is a Wonderful Place (1993) (Victoria Williams, Christine Collister, Tom Robinson, Plainsong, and others) and Beat the Retreat (October 1994) (R.E.M., Bob Mould, X, June Tabor, Bonnie Raitt, Dinosaur Jr., Martin Carthy, and others). The former also includes a previously unreleased song/recording of Richard and Linda's. In 2006, Free Reed released RT: The Life and Music of Richard Thompson, a five-disc set of outtakes, live recordings, and album cuts, many of which were pulled from Thompson's personal collection. ~ Brett Hartenbach, All Music Guide

Maddy Prior, Jacqui McShee, and June Tabor all give her a run for her money, but the late Sandy Denny remains the pre-eminent British folk-rock singer. In addition to recording several albums of her own, Denny was an integral force behind the best work of the most respected British folk-rock band of all, Fairport Convention, and also contributed mightily to recordings by the Strawbs and Fotheringay. It's impossible for words to fully evoke the haunting, spectral presence of her powerful and penetrating alto voice, which seemed to bring the mythology of English moors and folktales to life in contemporary, 20th century settings.

Denny was studying to be a nurse when she began to pursue music seriously in the mid-'60s, partially at the encouragement of the then-struggling Simon & Garfunkel, whom she met when they were still unknown.

Maddy Prior, Jacqui McShee, and June Tabor all give her a run for her money, but the late Sandy Denny remains the pre-eminent British folk-rock singer. In addition to recording several albums of her own, Denny was an integral force behind the best work of the most respected British folk-rock band of all, Fairport Convention, and also contributed mightily to recordings by the Strawbs and Fotheringay. It's impossible for words to fully evoke the haunting, spectral presence of her powerful and penetrating alto voice, which seemed to bring the mythology of English moors and folktales to life in contemporary, 20th century settings.

Denny was studying to be a nurse when she began to pursue music seriously in the mid-'60s, partially at the encouragement of the then-struggling Simon & Garfunkel, whom she met when they were still unknown. She was also friendly with the American folk singer Jackson Frank, and recorded a couple of his songs on her first album (now available as The Original Sandy Denny). While this solo acoustic recording was her most traditional folk effort, it showed considerable potential, which she came closer to realizing on the 1967 album she recorded as a member of the Strawbs. This found her singing with fuller folk-rock arrangements, and also included her first recorded composition, "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." The song gave Denny her first international recognition when Judy Collins recorded it in 1968.

Denny was tapped to replace Judy Dyble in Fairport Convention in 1968, and is prominently featured on their late-'60s albums What We Did on Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking, and Liege and Lief. These are not only recognized as Fairport's best work, but as some of the finest British folk-rock records of all time. Although Denny shared the lead vocal chores with other members of the group, it was her singing that highlighted the best tracks, such as "Tam Lin," "Fotheringay," and "Autopsy" (the last two of which she wrote).

Denny left Fairport Convention in 1970, and while both she and Fairport would produce some worthwhile work in the future, it's fair to say that neither band nor singer would reach the same peaks again. She formed the short-lived Fotheringay, which also included her future husband Trevor Lucas on guitar, but which disbanded after one decent album (a planned second LP was never completed). She recorded a few solo albums for Island in the 1970s that sometimes suffered from unsympathetic over-production and weak material, though the highlights are worth hearing. There was also an unremarkable album of oldies covers that she helped out with as a member of the Bunch, a British folk supersession of sorts that also included Richard Thompson. When mainstream rock listeners heard her voice in the 1970s, however, it was usually not on her own records, but as a guest vocalist on Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore."

Much of the best of Denny's later solo work, oddly, is found on live and BBC recordings, some of which surfaced on the box set Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (others appear on the bootleg Dark the Night). While Denny was a first-rate folk-rock singer, she usually didn't mesh well with mainstream rock or hard rock arrangements, and the live work usually framed her vocals in more appropriately sparse settings. She joined Fairport again for a while in the mid-'70s, appearing on the 1975 album Rising for the Moon, but the reunion didn't really excite either the participants or the audiences, and she left for good in 1976. Her final LP, Rendezvous, came out in 1977; the following year, she died from injuries sustained in a fall down a flight of stairs. In 1998, Island released Gold Dust, a recording of her final live performance taped at London's Royalty Theatre on November 27, 1977. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Ashley "Tyger" Hutchings first achieved recognition as a co-founder of Fairport Convention in 1967, but his work and his musical influences predate Fairport Covention by several years, and he has since gone on to found and lead numerous other notable groups, including Steeleye Span, and the various Albion Bands. In many respects, he is to English folk-rock the rough equivalent of what John Mayall is to British blues, except that his recordings have remained interesting for far longer.

Ashley Hutchings started his musical life as a fan of skiffle, a highly rhythmic British answer to American folk and R&B, played at its most basic level on acoustic guitars, washtub bass, and washboard percussion, which became popular in England in the middle and late '50s.

Ashley "Tyger" Hutchings first achieved recognition as a co-founder of Fairport Convention in 1967, but his work and his musical influences predate Fairport Covention by several years, and he has since gone on to found and lead numerous other notable groups, including Steeleye Span, and the various Albion Bands. In many respects, he is to English folk-rock the rough equivalent of what John Mayall is to British blues, except that his recordings have remained interesting for far longer.

Ashley Hutchings started his musical life as a fan of skiffle, a highly rhythmic British answer to American folk and R&B, played at its most basic level on acoustic guitars, washtub bass, and washboard percussion, which became popular in England in the middle and late '50s. He also had an appreciation for "trad," a British form of Dixieland jazz that had become popular in Britain at the beginning of the 1950s. He listened to a lot of early English and American rock & roll, but by the early '60s had developed a deep and abiding love for folk music as well. He began singing and playing bass in a skiffle band, and later graduated from the washtub version of the instrument to a proper upright bass.

In 1966, he formed the Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra with Simon Nicol (guitar), Steve Airey (guitar), and Bryan King (washboard), which played a mixture of English skiffle, American R&B, and folk music from the British Isles. Their work together led Hutchings -- who was known then as "Tyger," a nickname he'd picked up because of his aggressiveness on the football field -- and Nicol, and new colleague Richard Thompson to form Fairport Convention in 1967, with Martin Lamble (succeeded, after his death in a car crash, by Dave Mattacks) and Judy Dyble (later replaced by Sandy Denny) added to the line-up. Fairport Convention performed a similar mix of traditional English folk, original songs, and American singer/songwriter material. After three albums structured along those lines, the band recorded Liege and Lief, a record drawn largely from traditional folk material. When it became clear to Hutchings, however, that future albums would include far more original material, he exited the line-up and began organizing a new band, Steeleye Span.

Formed by Hutchings, Tim Hart, Maddy Prior, and Peter Knight, with Martin Carthy coming in as the fifth member, Steeleye Span in its original form (and for several line-up changes after) was devoted to purely traditional music, adapted to the forces of a five-piece band with a growing arsenal of electric instruments. Ultimately they shared the limelight with Fairport Convention, vying for the greater loyalty of folk music fans and even reaching out for a time to rock audiences -- the decision to go almost fully electric, and the addition of a full-time drummer toughened their sound considerably, and an association with Jethro Tull, opening for the chart-topping band on an American tour, and getting the services of Ian Anderson as producer for one album.

Before that point, Hutchings was gone, having exited after the recording of the group's third album Below the Salt. In late 1971, he found himself a member of the Albion Country Band, formed to back his then-wife, Shirley Collins, on one of her albums, and decided to keep the studio ensemble together under that name. The initial line-up included his ex-Fairport bandmates Simon Nicol (guitar) and Richard Thompson (guitar), and vocalist/concertina players John Kirkpatrick and the late Royston Wood, and the group subsequently had upwards of 26 musicians in it at various times. This Albion lasted in various line-ups (Kirkpatrick exited the original line-up very quickly, to return later on, while Wood was gone after October of 1972 -- Steve Ashley joined on harmonica, along with ex-Fairport drummer Dave Mattacks, Linda Thompson came in on vocals, fiddle and banjo player Sue Draheim came into the fold for a time).

In January of 1974, the Albion Country Band evolved into the Etchingham Steam Band, with Hutchings on acoustic bass guitar, Shirley Collins on vocals, Ian Holder on accordion, and Terry Potter on mouth-organ. Nicol, Mattacks, and Hutchings' Steeleye Span bandmate Martin Carthy all passed through this line-up, which lasted into 1975. The group's next incarnation, lasting from 1975 until 1977, was the Albion Dance Band, with Hutchings (back on electric bass) and Nicol still at the core. Finally, in 1978, Hutchings formed the Albion Band, with a line-up that included future Fairport Convention member Ric Sanders on violin. This group, with some line-up changes (including Nicol and Mattacks passing through) has lasted into the 1990s, recording numerous albums, and also became the subject of a BBC documentary. (See separate entry on the Albion Band).

Hutchings also recorded several quasi-solo projects during the 1970s and '80s, including Kickin' Up the Sawdust, A Word in Your Ear, The View from Pa's Piano Stool, and By the Gloucester Docks, The Compleat Dancing Master with John Kirkpatrick, Rattlebone and Ploughjack (credited to Ashley Hutchings & chums) and Morris On, Son of Morris On, and Sway with Me (Hutchings and Judy Dunlop). He appeared on numerous albums by other artists throughout the 1970s and '80s, including work with Ian Matthews, The Bunch (a rock showcase album by a group of English folkies), Shirley Collins, Royston and Heather Wood, Ray Fisher, Richard Thompson (Henry the Human Fly), Mike and Lal Waterson, Martin Carthy, the Kipper Family, and Polly Bolton. With so many associations in his past, Hutchings has turned up on numerous compilation albums and boxed sets devoted to such artists as Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny, among others. During the 1980s, Hutchings also wrote and performed his own one-man show about folksong collector Cecil Sharp, which he took throughout England beginning in 1984, and resulted in the album An Hour with Cecil Sharp and Ashley Hutchings. In the 1990s, he also put together Ashley Hutchings' Big Beat Combo, a revival group specializing in skiffle, trad, and early English rock & roll.

By now one of the grand old men of English folk-rock, Hutchings has been a major force for close to 30 years, fostering the foundation of more than his share of legendary and important bands. His skills as a bassist have placed him in demand beyond the boundaries of typical folk bands, but the most important aspect of his contribution to music, apart from the bands he has organized, is his ability to take traditional music, long predating this century, and transmute it into something accessible to young, modern listeners, without violating its spirit wholesale. He also has a sense of humor that radiates as brightly as his musical ability on most every project he has ever participated in. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide