As a member of the British folk music community that produced Fairport Convention, Linda Thompson clearly has great respect for the musical traditions of the United Kingdom, but this album is a look into the past one might not expect from her. Thompson has a soft spot for the songs of the golden age of British music hall, a form of variety entertainment not unlike American vaudeville that was popular from roughly 1850 to the end of World War I. The songs usually told compact stories that were humorous or broadly sentimental (or both), generally written in the first person. In 2005, Thompson indulged her fondness for the music hall era by staging a revue in which she and a handful of actors and musicians interpreted some of the better-remembered songs of the period. My Mother Doesn't Know I'm on the Stage combines recordings from the 2005 show with a handful of studio tracks of more recent vintage. Fans should pay heed to the cover's credit of "Linda Thompson Presents," since she only sings lead on two of the 14 selections. However, as an homage to a fruitful period in the history of popular song, My Mother Doesn't Know I'm on the Stage is a delight. The selections are often witty and always charming, and the performers deliver them with the right amount of brio without overplaying their hands. Thompson sounds lovely on "I Might Learn to Love Him Later On (Tra-La-La-La)" and "Good-Bye Dolly Gray," her son Teddy Thompson uses his naturally dour tone to his advantage on "Here I Am Broken Hearted" and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," and Justin Vivian Bond brings plenty of sassy gusto to his take on "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Actor Colin Firth is coolly hilarious on the title number, and John Foreman and Roy Hudd are veteran performers who bring both spark and historical perspective to (respectively) "If It Wasn't for the 'Ouses in Between (Or The Cockney's Garden)" and "Wotcher! (Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road)." And you don't have to know or care about music hall to be impressed by Martha Wainwright's rendition of "Beautiful Dreamer" or Cara Dillon singing "The Lark in the Clear Air." Anyone expecting Linda Thompson to lend her remarkable voice to a collection of new and vintage folk songs may be a bit puzzled by My Mother Doesn't Know I'm on the Stage, but anyone who appreciates a good song sung well, regardless of vintage, should find something to love in this set.
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