Tom Russell [photo by Colin Young Wolff]My girlfriend and I were sitting around yesterday evening talking about singer-songwriter Tom Russell, when we started playing a word association game that went something like this: "When you think of Tom Russell's music, what words or images come to mind"? Here's what we came up with:"Dusty roads, the American Southwest, deserts, smoke, gone America, t...
Cut from the same cloth as songwriting alchemists Kris Kristofferson and Guy Clark, Russell's evocative portraits of everyday life draw as much from Graham Green as they do Johnny Cash.Tom Russell is not your average contemporary Americana artist. To the best of my knowledge, neither Toby Keith nor Kenny Chesney maintains a degree in Criminology. Odds are also pretty good that neither of those ...
My fist trip to Berkley since moving to the Bay Area was a great introduction to the town. After the beautiful, if congested, drive over the Bay Bridge at dusk, I headed to the Berkeley branch of Texas-based Half-Price Books (where I purchased a used copy of Gail Folkins' excellent Texas Dance Halls: A Two-Step [...]
I've been visited by 4 of them so far...From wikipedia:Thomas George "Tom" Russell (born 5 March 1950[1] in Los Angeles) is an American singer-songwriter. Although most identified with the country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex and the cowboy music of the American West. His songs have been recorded by artists such as Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith, Dave Alvi...
Forgive me for going a little lazy with the blog lately, but it happens.Here are a bunch of videos of bands I've seen over the last three weeks (one hell of a great run, I have to say. It's been a bit hard to wrap my head around it all, especially coming on the hells of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival). The videos are in a reverse chronological order based on when I saw the bands:Tom
All I can say about Tom Russell is WOW! I am extremely late to the party on Tom but consider me a huge fan! I had heard versions of his songs by other favorite artists, like Doug Sahm's version of St. Olav's Gate, and Johnny Cash's version of Veteran's Day but those versions are no match for Tom's. His latest album Blood and Candlesmoke (more on that coming up) is a modern masterpiece, and ...