Todd Thibaud was born to be a musician. Genuinely. How many people can have their kindergarten teacher tell them that their beloved child was going to be a musician? He managed to get a guitar at the age of eight, but it took him a few years and another guitar for him to get properly into exactly how to play it. This achievement, together with a childhood delving into his mother’s box of classic ’50s and ’60s vinyl singles, which he calls his “foundation“, meant he was in a perfect position to make sure he didn’t disappoint his kindergarten teacher. This, combined with the natural good luck that he was born with a simply gorgeous singing voice, meant he was poised to make his dream come true.
He’s gone on to record fourteen albums, either solo or in various bands, together with a handful of live albums, and he’s a genuinely accomplished singer-songwriter with a catalogue of simply superb songs that deserve much wider attention. His first proper band was The Courage Brothers, who made two well-received albums and made live trips to the UK and Ireland, and critics paid attention. In 1997, he managed to get a record deal with Doolittle Records and Favourite Waste Of Time was released, and it was a winner.
I came across Thibaud thanks to the wonderful Bob Harris, who wisely played a track of his second solo album, Little Mystery, called Suffer Me, and it was a blisteringly powerful and punchy guitar rocker that blew my socks off. It’s also a proper raunchy song in that it ends with a cracking, explosive ending. I was instantly hooked and bought the album, and it was absolutely superb. I recently read an article where a journalist recounts how they were in a record shop, minding their own business, some years ago, and they suddenly heard the song Anywhere from this album, and it literally stopped him in his tracks, and he had to find out more about the singer. Now that sort of reaction to a piece of music is a musician’s dream; yes, Thibaud’s music is that good.
His next album in 2000 was Squash, and is another solid collection and includes ‘Sacred’, a song which stays with you long after first listening. His strongest album to date is Northern Skies, which includes my personal favourite Thibaud song Where You Can’t Be Found, a sure-fire classic with gentle acoustic strumming and a tune to die for. There are eight gold-plated, really memorable songs on this album, and as with most of Thibaud’s albums, it’s well worth checking out.
Thibaud’s back catalogue also includes two collaborations with Joseph Parsons, an album with Sean Staples, an album with Hardpan, and a beautiful collaboration with Kim Taylor on the album Water and Sand. He’s also released four live albums, and his material is a heady mixture of easy-going acoustic loveliness and band-oriented up-tempo songs. Many of his albums have been released on the German label Blue Rose. His most recent album was 2019’s Hill West.
He’s also such a nice and generous guy that, if you go on his website, you can download for free a large collection of acoustic songs he recorded over lockdown. Looking back at the songs I love from Thibaud’s back catalogue, it’s just chock-full of just really good songs. I only wish I could go back in time and be able to feel the emotion and utter joy of first listening to Suffer Me and how impactful it was. Here’s hoping you, too, might get a kick out of this master musician’s first-class songs.
