Continuing his policy, begun with the Live at Crawley album, of releasing high quality alternatives to bootlegs, Thompson released this live album in 1998. The album was recorded during his tour of England earlier the same year.

Starting in the early 1980s Thompson began to perform live solo and with an acoustic guitar. By the late 1990s he was performing more frequently in this format than with a band. Celtschmerz captures him in this "unplugged" setting. Comparing Celtschmerz to 1984's Small Town Romance shows how Thompson has evolved his solo acoustic guitar technique over the years.

Thompson's son Teddy was the support act on this tour and joined his father each night to perform some duets. Several of these are included on Celtschmerz - most notably "A Heart Needs A Home", which is associated with Teddy's mother Linda Thompson, and "Persuasion" which was co-written with Tim Finn.

All songs written by Richard Thompson except where noted

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