FOLK rock evergreen Richard Thompson will play the Grand Opera House, York, on October 22 on the back of releasing his new album, 13 Rivers, on September 14 on Proper Records.

The 13-song set is Thompson's first self-produced record in more than a decade and was recorded 100 per cent analogue in only ten days with his regular accompanists, Michael Jerome, on drums and percussion, Taras Prodaniuk, on bass, and Bobby Eichorn, on guitar, at the Boulevard Recording Studio, the Los Angeles studio once owned by Liberace and his manager.

"There are 13 songs on the record, and each one is like a river," says Thompson of his bare-bones, emotionally direct album. "Some flow faster than others. Some follow a slow and winding current. They all culminate on this one body of work.

"The songs are a surprise in a good way. They came to me as a surprise in a dark time. They reflected my emotions in an oblique manner that I’ll never truly understand. It’s as if they’d been channelled from somewhere else. You find deeper meaning in the best records as time goes on. The reward comes later."

Thompson "doesn't know how the creative process works". "I suppose it is some kind of bizarre parallel existence to my own life. I often look at a finished song and wonder what the hell is going on inside me," he says. "We sequenced the weird stuff at the front of the record, and the tracks to grind your soul into submission at the back."

Thompson's autumn tour takes in Leeds Irish Centre on October 12, the Grand Opera House, York, on October 22 and Hull City Hall on October 23, and his support act will be Joan Shelley. Tickets can be booked via serious.org.uk/Thompson; York tickets at atgtickets.com/york and on 0844 871 3024.