I first heard Linda Thompson sing on the album Shoot Out The Lights, recorded and released with her then-husband, Richard Thompson in 1982. The duo had been making music together since 1974’s I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight and this was their sixth and, as it would turn out, final album.

Long time readers of this blog will know that I have remained a passionate Richard Thompson fan. My devotion is chronicled in my post of August 31, 2010 entitled: “Another Obsession On My List.”

I did not, I’m embarrassed to say, keep up with Linda’s career after she and Richard parted company and therefore missed her first solo album, One Clear Moment in 1985. I did most fortunately pick up her 2002 sophmore CD, Fashionably Late. That’s where I, and most of the rest of the world, discovered Linda’s song “No Telling.”

“No Telling” is another song that effected me on the first listen like Gillian Welch’s “Hard Times” did.

This was a song that I had to learn, that I had to be able to play and sing and savor and share.

This is the kind of song that I sing about in one of my own songs, “There Are (Songs To Be Sung),” in the first line of the first verse: “There are songs so good, songs that must be heard. There are songs that are more than melody and words.”

Please. Take a few minutes and hear for yourself.

There you go.

“No telling what a love song will do.”

That’s some song.

I hope you enjoyed that. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Maybe you’ll post a comment!

“No Telling” from the Linda Thompson 2002 CD, Fashionably Late.