[ Music plays ] [ Applause ] Man: Whoo!

[ Music plays ] Thompson: [ Singing ] Says Red Molly to James, "That's a fine motorbike.

You know, a girl could feel special on any such like."

Says James to Red Molly, "My hat's off to you.

It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952."

[ Talking ] As a songwriter, you accumulate like a catalog and some of which you're not ashamed of.

I've got, like, 500 songs and having a lot of songs.

And having a lot of songs, you also forget what you've written, so it's a nice surprise sometimes to come back and say, "Oh, good, I'm not as stupid as I thought I was."

You know, I actually have an ounce of talent.

Thank God for that.

[ Chuckles ] [ Singing ] I'll give you my Vincent... to ride.

Narrator: He started in 1967 with Fairport Convention.

Ever since, the British folk rock singer and songwriter has been building his catalog over the course of 20 albums.

Thompson: [ Singing ] If I could hold her in my arms today.

Well, I wouldn't want her... Narrator: Known for both his lyrical storytelling and powerful guitar work, Richard Thompson has long been covered by recording artists from R.E.M.

to Emmylou Harris.

Thompson: [ Talking ] As a performer, now you're visiting all points of your career.

You might have a song you wrote last week cheek by jowl with a song you wrote in 1967.

Sometimes they're happy bedfellows, so sometimes they sit fine with each other.

Thompson and Phillips: [Singing] But you don't want me.

You think I'm something tainted.

Narrator: After touring together with a full band in 2024 for his new album, "Ship to Shore," husband and wife Richard Thompson and Zara Phillips revisited some of his songs, both old and new, with a stripped down approach in the intimate setting of the Tabernacle in Mount Tabor.

Thompson and Phillips: [ Both singing ] Thompson: [ Talking ] It's nice to have Zara along, if she's available, to sing harmony.

For me, it adds another dimension to shows.

Phillips: [ Talking ] Richard is such an amazing songwriter, so he's so good at storytelling and pulling you in.

Thompson and Phillips: [ Both singing ] Philips: [ Talking ] But there is that great feeling, too, of being on stage when you're singing a particular song and you can feel that the audience is connecting with it.

Thompson and Phillips: [ Both singing ] Phillips: [ Talking ] And it's special.

Thompson and Phillips: [Singing] On the wall of death.

All the world is far from me.

On the wall of death, it's the nearest to being free.

Phillips: [ Talking ] You know, in a band, and when we're recording, you can hide a little bit.

Thompson and Phillips: [ Singing ] The switchback will make you crazy.

Beware of the bearded lady.

Phillips: [ Talking ] Playing somewhere like The Tabernacle, I have to nail those harmonies because people are going to hear everything.

Narrator: Many of the folk and rock legends who've played inside this unique Victorian era meeting house love coming back.

Philhower: We're finishing our 27th year, and the whole idea was it's a listening room, a strict listening room.

You can hear a pin drop.

And that's the important thing about this place.

Simonson: You walk in, and the first thing you do is look up at all of this open beam structure, which was hand-built back in the 1880s.

It's basically modeled on an old revival tent with a -- some people call it a cupola.

Architecturally, it's called a lantern at the top.

It allowed a lot of ventilation because these buildings were used in the summer.

Philhower: So the acoustics in the Tabernacle are extraordinary because that's what it was designed for.

It was designed for traveling preachers.

Thompson: Thanks very much.

Ooh, you're very quiet.

Sort of reverential.

I like it.

It's good.

[ Laughter ] Simonson: We're based around acoustic music.

And so Richard coming in doing a solo show is really fitting for At The Tabernacle.

He's a musician's musician, so a lot of the people in the audience are really serious listeners, and this is a serious listening place.

Thomson: [ Singing ] This cruel country has driven me down.

Thompson and Phillips: [ Singing ] Teased me and lied.

Teased me and lied.

Phillips: [ Talking ] There was a wonderful energy in there, and all of that helps, I think, when you're singing.

And what's so lovely as an artist is when you're playing and you know people are really there to literally enjoy and lap up the music.

Thompson and Phillips: [ Singing ] My dreams have withered and died.

Thompson: [ Talking ] It's an intimate venue, which is great fun to play.

And the nice thing about the Tabernacle audience is they're very respectful and they're very responsive.

[ Applause ] Simonson: This is not the easiest place to see a show.

You are sitting in 1800s pews.

There's no lobby to go out to, you know, to go on out to the lobby and -- [laughs] and take a break.

Phillips: Just the whole area outside the Tabernacle -- the houses -- I mean, it's like a storybook.

It's so beautiful.

Philhower: It's general admission.

And so the very first show that we did here, I wasn't exactly sure how the line was going to happen.

I assumed that the line was going to go down the hill, and they instinctively went up the hill and have ever since.

There's a camaraderie on the line that -- that happens.

It's very special.

And they come back and they come back and they come back.

Simonson: So it's not the performer alone.

It's not the lighting.

It's not the sound.

It's not just the audience.

It's all those things coming together.

It always makes some kind of magic.

Thompson and Phillips: [ Singing ] But her love is a mystical thing.

I swear I hear choirs celestial sing.

Her love doesn't come every day It comes like a bolt from the blue, burning and blinding and true.

Phillips: When I first met Richard, I said to him, "I'm never going to sing with you, and I'm never going to play guitar [Laughing] in front of you.

Thompson and Phillips: [ Singing ] Her love is a mystical thing.

Phillips: [ Talking ] And he was like, "You really need to get over that."

So now here I am, singing with him.

But I was, you know, intimidated.

Thompson: "Singapore Sadie" -- I wrote it about Zara, but it's heavily disguised.

I mean, the whole Singapore thing is a bit of a red herring.

It's a song that probably tries to play up her good points.

Thompson and Phillips: [Singing] Burning and blinding and true.

Burning and blinding... and true.

Phillips: [ Talking ] I started as a singer about 40 years ago, with pop bands in the UK in the '80s, and then had my own bands, so I was really a songwriter for a long time.

[ Singing ] Somebody's daughter.

Narrator: Zara's experiences growing up as an adoptee inspired her to speak up and create, including writing, producing a film, and performing a one-woman show.

Phillips: [ Singing ] Somebody's daughter.

[ Talking ] We as adoptees can feel that no one really understands what we go through.

I was now in the adoption community, and I realized that I wasn't alone -- a lot of people struggled with these feelings.

So I wrote the one-woman show, and I had songs that I had written which I knew would be perfect for the show, and Richard helped me a lot.

Thompson and Phillips: [Singing] Love is worth every fall.

Narrator: While Zara and Richard consider the UK home, they've both lived in the US for decades.

When they married in 2019, New Jersey became their second home.

Thompson and Phillips: [Singing] Even to beg, even to crawl.

Phillips: [ Talking ] He teaches me some really hard harmonies, but it pushes me, and he's also open to suggestion, so I feel it really is a two-way thing.

Even on his material, I'll say, "Well, how about this or that?"

Just making out that.

It works well.

Thompson: [ Singing ] I'm walking on a wire.

I'm walking on a wire.

As a solo acoustic guitar player, one of the challenges is to make enough noise.

[ Music plays ] So I play kind of a pick-and-fingers sort of hybrid finger style, which also helps to get the sound bigger.

In the style that I play there, you can -- you can play solos.

[ Music plays ] During a set, you might play stuff that's louder.

Thompson and Phillips: [Singing] She twists the knife again.

When I get up off my knees, she twists the knife again.

Thompson: [ Talking ] One of the nice things about playing acoustic and about playing in a small venue -- If you throw in a quieter song, you can almost feel the audience kind of leaning in.

[ Singing ] Dutch courage is the game.

And the ghost of you walks.

The ghost of you walks.

The ghost of you walks.

[ Talking ] I've got a song that I play -- "The Ghost of You Walks."

I really think of that as a leaning-in song.

It has that quality to it, and it's also down sometimes to the kind of stillness that you can create, almost the silence you can create in the room so that you can hear a pin drop.

[ Music plays ] It's quite rewarding to get that kind of stillness and get people listening in that way.

At the end of an evening where you can do that a couple of times, then you'd be very happy.

[ Applause ]