But, beware. The upbeat beat masks a bleaker portrayal of life in the lyrics.

The tune is happy, but the words warn: 'I'm sinking lower and lower in my friends' eyes'. Later he even suggests: 'I'm turning the gun on myself'.

Thompson has become a master of the sleight of hand which offers you one thing and sends you away with something completely different.

The melodies and arrangements captivate the heart while the lyrics perplex the mind. It's a potent brew.

The unifying fact is that melody and lyrics come together as quality music!

It's not all that surprising, though, considering that Teddy Thompson was brought up listening to bitter sweet country music where life's tough times are wrapped in sugar coated music.

He even re-worked a string of country classics to release as his third album, Up Front and Down Low.

Now he is back in songwriting mode and assaulting the charts with one of the best albums of the year, A Piece of What You Need (think Wallflowers meet David Gray and you will begin to get the picture).

The album also represents a steep trip along the learning curve of music making.

When he got the call to start recording, everything was in place from producer to musicians to studio time.

The only thing missing was the bulk of the songs.

Recalled Thompson: "I had five or six songs but I sort of lied when I got the call and told them I had finished all the songs.

"This was the first time I have had to finish songs to a deadline.

"It was a useful experience and good to have that discipline."

What didn't change was the source of the inspiration for the songs.

They come when Thompson is least expecting it: "I will be sitting around with a guitar and something catches my attention. It might be the image on TV of someone having their home repossessed or something. I never seem to be short of problems for inspiration. Things are always fairly close to the surface. I don't have to make a big scratch to bring them out.

"Then a sound and an idea will come to me. That's the easy part really.

The rest is just hard work, developing the theme musically and lyrically."

It is also something with which he has been familiar all his life.

For he is the son of folk-rock musicians Richard and Linda Thompson.

Music was always around as he was growing up, first in a London Sufi commune and latterly in the States where he set down roots to develop his music career.

He has worked as a singer and guitar player in his father Richard's band from the early 1990s, as well as playing in Rosanne Cash's Band and accompanying his mother on her stunning comeback album, Fashionably Late.

The apprenticeship has created a gifted craftsman.

It is unfortunately too easy to become distracted by his family links, or to draw parallels to the offspring of a legion of 60s/70s folkies who are now making names and waves in the music world.

And, to be fair, he patiently deals with the inevitable question: Was there ever any question that you would be a musician, considering who are your parents.

He replies: "It was 50-50, really.

"If you come from a really traditional folk family, or your parents are in vaudeville, I suppose it would be different. It would be expected of you to carry on the tradition.

"But that was never the case.

"If my dad had been a butcher, would I have followed? I don't know.

"But I do know that at one point, I needed a job, I didn't have any money and I didn't want to work in an office.

"So playing the guitar in other people's bands was my way of making ends meet. That was the obvious thing to do."

Having Richard Thompson as your father – a man who is consistently counted among the best guitar players in the world – can actually be something of a burden.

Said Teddy: "I'm used to hearing someone who plays the right thing all the time.

"I have been frustrated when playing with others and thinking: Why can't you just play the right thing?"

It has to be said, though, that Teddy Thompson can and does play the right thing.

He may have got the gig with his dad through family loyalty but he kept it for 10 years through talent.

And now, with the new album charting at number 10, he is long overdue the courtesy of being recognised as a gifted performer in his own right and his own write.

He arrives in Sheffield on Saturday to open the show for James Blunt at Sheffield Arena.

Said Teddy: "This is a good opportunity to play in large venues and to big crowds. There will be people there who haven't heard of me and I see that as a challenge."



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