It's been 17 years since Linda Thompson released her last album. In 1985, the woman who Time Magazine said, "may be Rock's best woman singer" stopped singing for the public. That year, she released her first solo album, "One Clear Moment". As a matter of fact, one of its songs even earned a Grammy nomination when performed by The Trio. In 1988, Linda Thompson began her second album, but she never finished it. Now, in 2002, Linda Thompson is once again sharing her formidable vocal gift. The appropriately entitled "Fashionably Late" stands with her best work.

Q: Linda, "Fashionably Late" starts with this family reunion. Dear Mary has two of your three children -- your son, Teddy; your daughter, Kamila; and your ex-husband, Richard Thompson. How did this reunion come about?

A: I don't know. I just found -- I just sort of fancied a reunion. It's like, you know, they're the coming together of the Borges (laughs). No, it was lovely. I just asked Richard if he would play on it and he said yes. And he liked the song. And then when he came to play the guitar, he said, "Oh, I think I'll sing on it, too." So it was just -- it was great. And Teddy and Kami, two of my kids feature quite heavily on it. And it was lovely all to be working together.

Q: So everybody was in the studio at once?

A: Actually, well, no. We were in the studio together, but at various different times. Do you know what I mean? We did the odd overdub. But you know, we were face-to-face for most of the time.

Q: You've been married to Steve Kenis, who is a motion picture agent, for about 20 years. How did he feel about this reunion and the fact that you use your surname (as) your stage name still?

A: Oh, well, he's in the movie business so he completely understands that. He's from Hollywood. He's a Los Angeles person. I think if he thought I was going to sell records, he'd let me remarry Richard.

Q: There's this sense of community on the new album "Fashionably Late". You have musicians who are past and current members of Solas, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span. John Wood is working with you. Nick Drake's string arranger is working with you. Had you kept in touch with this community over the last 17 years?

A: Not very much, no. No, I hadn't, actually. I mean, I'd occasionally go to gigs and see these people. But I hadn't kept in touch very much. But they're the sort of friends, you know, that you can just pick up where you left off. You know, people like Dave Mattacks and things like that. You know, even if I didn't see him for ten years, it's just like we've just been together. Actually, I particularly love Dave Mattacks. He's a great guy.

Q: And these musicians lend "Fashionably Late" this timeless feel. The producer is a gentleman named Edward Haber. I've seen his name -- I saw his name on your retrospective "Dreams Fly Away." So where does Edward Haber fit into this record?

A: I've known Ed for ages. I mean, I met him when I was with Richard. I mean, he's -- I think the best word to describe Ed is, he's a musicologist. You know, he's like insanely knowledgeable about British music, particularly Irish music. But, you know, he loves the genre. I don't know how we got in touch again, but we somehow did and decided we'd, you know, do some demos together.

Teddy Thompson with Rufus Wainwright

Q: Another song on the album is called All I See. A bit bluesy. Rufus and Martha Wainwright on backing vocals. And this song was written solely by your son, Teddy, who also sings on it. When Teddy writes for you, would you tell him if there were certain lines that you didn't feel comfortable singing?

A: Oh, no. He'd already actually written and recorded this song, but I was mad about it. No. Hey, Teddy's like Harold Pinter: "Don't change a comma." He doesn't like people to change his lyrics.

Q: "Fashionably Late". What a great title. How did you come up with the title of the album?

A: My son, you know, just comes up with these great, great titles. And I was thinking -- I can't even remember the ones I was thinking of using. You know, all deeply pretentious rubbish. And he said," "Fashionably Late". You've got to call it "Fashionably Late"." And it's -- it was one of the best things about the record, actually, you guys.

Q: The title?

A: Yes, the title.

Q: A lot of this album was recorded in America. Do you live in the States and is that why you recorded a lot of it here?

A: No, Ed lives in the States. And when we started this project, we were doing it for ourselves. You know, paying for it and stuff. And I really didn't envisage anybody buying it. Ed did, you know. You know, good old Ed, he was optimistic about it and believed in it. But I just thought, well, we'll just make it. We're going to be out of pocket, but I'll have a record. So he lives here and he has access to a studio here. So I'd just come over here and stay for a few weeks, do a couple of tracks or whatever and then go home for six months. Although it didn't actually take a lot of time in studio time to make the record, it took years, you know, three years or something because we did it so sporadically.

Q: Where is home?

A: London.

Q: Linda, your voice is such a natural force. And the way people talk about it is very, well -- Time Magazine simply said, "Linda Thompson may be rock's best singer." Rolling Stone's new review of the album got very flowery. And I was wondering what your musical upbringing was like. When did you realize you had a gift to sing?

A: Oh, I think it was in the Girl Scouts, the Brownies we called it. You know, I sang a song... Tammy. But none of you will remember it. You're all too flipping young. And I sang and everybody was quiet. And I thought, whoa, that's good. So I guess about then, 11 or something?

Q: And I know you did a couple of 45s, what we called 45 RPM records.

A: You had to bring up the 45s, right? Insisting on putting the nail in my coffin.

Q: I'll skip past them quickly. But shortly afterwards, you lived with Tim Buckley, you had a crush on Nick Drake. What was it like in those years before you teamed up with Richard, running with that crowd and playing clubs like the Troubadour? What do you remember about that?

A: Very little. I was in a permanent haze. But no, it was great. I mean, running around with Tim Buckley and Nick Drake and Bob Marley and -- you know, we were all on Island Records, you know, so I was always playing pool with Bob Marley, him and his huge spliff and you know, (he) was playing pool. It was incredible times. But I didn't think any of them -- you know, who knew? I didn't know they were going to be legends, you know.

Q: Well, like Tim Buckley and Nick Drake, you have sung some of the saddest songs on the planet.

A: That's true.

Q: And then -- inside the cover of One Clear Moment, you're smiling in the photo with a rose in your teeth. And in the booklet of "Fashionably Late", you're showing off your "Mum" tattoo and you're posing with painted toenails. I mean, you're fun! So how do you reconcile this darkness in your songs with the playfulness of your personality?

A: I think it's the same with a lot of people who write songs or singers or -- you know, comedians are famous for being very funny people and being incredibly miserable. And I'm kind of the opposite of a comedian. You know, my work is incredibly miserable and I'm actually a barrel of laughs.

Q: Someone once told me the cure for the blues is listening to the blues and then you get happy. So maybe it's a similar --

A: It works for me. You know, I mean, very sad songs make me very happy. I went to see the "Road to Perdition," Sam Mendes' movie the other night. It's a very sad, dark movie. And I was absolutely elated when I came out, because it was so good. So...

Q: And your new album, "Fashionably Late", some very happy topics -- death, whoring, heartbreak...

A: Oh, yeah.

Q: One of the songs is the murder ballad Nine Stone Rig. Can you tell me just a little bit about it?

A: Yeah, it's what's known as a sham ballad. People used to give ballads to Sir Walter Scott, a great Scottish writer, and say, "This was handed down to me from my great, great, great grandmother." In fact, they'd just written it. But Walter Scott fell for it every time. "Oh, yeah, an old song." So this is a sham ballad with a little bit added by me and a tune by Teddy. You know, full of the things that those ballads are about, murder, touch of incest. All the things that you should never do.
Teddy Thompson

Linda & Teddy with Jody Denberg in NY

Q: Linda, on that co-write, Teddy's name gets listed first. And on others, yours does. What's the difference?

A: This is all Ed Haber, who's pedantic to the point of lunacy. Like, if I wrote a little bit more of the song, he puts my name first. And if Teddy wrote a little bit more of the song, he puts Teddy's name first. So now you know.

Q: In the '70s and '80s you did six records with your former husband, Richard Thompson. And there was only one or two songwriting credits for you along the way. Then on "One Clear Moment," you had a hand in writing seven songs. On the new album, you're involved in writing eight. Did you really only start writing a lot after you split with Richard?

A: I did. I did. I mean, you wouldn't write songs either if Richard Thompson was writing songs for you. It's just he writes such good songs. So it's fantastic in one way, because you're singing this incredible material. And it's a bit hampering in another way because you think, well, you know, "bah-bah black sheep" -- you think you can't kind of live up to it. But you know, now I like to write songs for myself.

Q: After "One Clear Moment" back in '85, you started a record in '88. And then you decided not to finish it. And now, here (in) 2002 you've made this record "Fashionably Late". What motivated you to want to sing again and be in public and play live and all that stuff?

A: A lot of things. My youngest child started college and my mother died. My mother had been living with us and she died. And I hadn't -- I've mentioned my mother dying before in interviews and I've never gone doolally. Anyway, so I thought I'd get out of the house and do something. I miss my Mum.

Q: Doolally?

A: Doolally, which I found out yesterday is an incredible -- it's an English expression for going mad. And one of the technicians yesterday was Indian - on the radio show I did yesterday - and he lives in Doolally. And he told me the origin of the word is that when British Army officers went mad, they sent them to a lunatic asylum which was in Doolally. So my whole trip to America has been worthwhile. I mean, fancy finding that out.

Q: What a revelation.

A: So cool. What a revelation.

Q: You were doing other things, though, in between, like theater and -- what, working with antique jewelry?

A: Yeah, I was working with antique (jewelry) -- that didn't pan out at all because I kept buying the stuff and not selling it, you know, so I went broke. I'd buy it and think, I don't want to sell that. I like it too much.

But I did a lot of theater stuff, yeah, for the National Theater.

Q: The song Ivona Darling, you and Teddy duet on. And this is a Lal Waterson song, but it evolved in a strange way, right?

A: It did, because we were going to do a tribute album, a lot of people, for Lal, who sadly died. A great artist, Lal Waterson. And I was going to do a song and Teddy listened to the tape and said, "No, we're going to do this song. This is the song to do." And it wasn't finished. He said, "Oh, never mind about that, I'll finish it." So he did, and did a fantastic job of it. It just

Q: Linda, I once saw Sean Lennon play with his mother and it was odd, as if he was taking his dad's place. So is it strange singing and writing with your son, Teddy, after so many years of working with his father, Richard?

A: No, it's not strange at all. There's the same tradition in America, but in England, there's a tradition for thousands and thousands of years, families have sung together in the folk world. You know, maybe not so much in the pop world. But I notice it happening more and more. It just makes sense, you know, people who are related sing well together. There's a blood connection. The sound is better, somehow. You know, you have a timbre in your voice that works with -- you know, the only thing that's difficult is that he's -- you know, he's young and moody. I'm going on the road with a whole load of -- I think everybody in my band, if you add up their ages, that still doesn't come to my age. I swear to God. So I'm just going to have all these hormonal, spotty people around.