(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Teddy Thompson, a native Englishman who has adopted New York City as his home and is the son of groundbreaking English folk-rock singer-songwriters Richard and Linda Thompson, performs at Club Helsinki on Friday, January 20, 2012, at 9 p.m.

Thompson boasts a gorgeous tenor voice that recalls Roy Orbison, and his most recent album, Bella, sets his vocals in arrangements that recall Orbison’s lean rock and roll with lush string arrangements, on original material that is both disarmingly catchy and often startlingly frank.

Thompson, who emigrated to the U.S. more than a decade ago, often performs with Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright, like him, folk-rock royalty born to the manor. Thompson shares with his father a wry sense of black humor in some of his lyrics, but his music is more rooted in American country and Everly Brothers-style rockabilly. Some of his more upbeat, pop-influenced numbers are influenced by 1980s creative pop group Crowded House.

Recorded in New York City and produced by David Kahne (Regina Spektor, Paul McCartney, the Strokes), Bella teases listeners with immediately addictive melodies that then pull the rug out from under them with unsparingly confessional or darkly amusing lyrics. Says Thompson, “My sense of humor, my sensibility. It’s very English, very sarcastic, self-deprecating, In one way, that’s just how my songs come out; in another way, that’s my favorite style: a pretty melody with a twist.”

For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800

Club Helsinki Hudson
405 Columbia Street
Hudson, N.Y.