Teddy Thompson, 'Up Front' About Loving Country

Singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson leaves his folk-rock roots and goes country on the self-produced album Up Front and Down Low, his first full- length disc since Separate Ways.

It's a collection of classic tunes and lesser-known gems from country greats — he covers "The Worst is Yet to Come," Elvis Presley's "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" and Dolly Parton's "My Blue Tears" — but Thompson turns in an original track, "Down Low," as well.

Critic Ken Tucker says Thompson infuses his music with an extraordinary soulfulness — there's "a nicely baleful version of Jimmy Osborn's 1948 hit 'My Heart Echoes' with typically subtle backup harmonies by Iris DeMent" — and the range of his choices shows he knows country cold.

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