tom russell
Recent content on Elsewhere by Graham Reid tagged as tom russell.
Warren Love Band: Warren Love Band (Elite)
Former busker Love leaped straight into the foreground of New Zealand music on the strength of this impressive album released a year ago: it is drawn to your attention now because the singer-songwriter is one of the three finalists for a Tui award in the country music awards to be held in June*. If there's any justice . . . Love's voice...
Various: Wounded Heart of America; Tom Russell Songs (Hightone)
Some weeks ago I was invited to give a talk about some of my favourite music to a group of people in someone's home. It was a very pleasant night and the first few things I played were either by the American singer-songwriter Tom Russell or his songs sung by others (notably Joe Ely covering the dramatic Gallo Del Cielo which I said I could...
music/1339/various-wounded-heart-of-america-tom-russell-songs-hightone/
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2008: James McMurtry: Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod/Elite)
The murky photo of a small, barroom audience on the inner sleeve of this brittle and typically dark album by singer-poet McMurtry might have included me. It looks like it was taken in the Continental Club in Austin where I caught him and his band the Heartless Bastards a couple of years ago playing their regular gig. Since his remarkable...
music/1576/best-of-elsewhere-2008-james-mcmurtry-just-us-kids-lightning-rod-elite/
John Hiatt: Same Old Man (Elite)
It has been two decades since John Hiatt hit a high profile with the albums Bring the Family and Slow Turning. But despite some fine albums since (and a few duffers) he seems to be missed by the spotlight and has now become one of those rock-country journeymen who is more respected than actually listened to.His Crossing Muddy Waters at the start...
Malcolm Holcombe: Gamblin' House (Borders)
Your first response to this gruff-voiced, whisky-stained singer-songwriter may be, "how come I haven't heard of him sooner?"Well, diligent Elsewhere listeners may well have: he appeared on the massive and ambitious Songs of America triple set which appeared here some months back. He sang The Old Woman Taught Wisdom, a song which dates...
Jakob Dylan: Seeing Things (Sony/BMG)
This son of Bob will be 40 next year and has a substantial career behind him with the Wallflowers (five albums) plus some high-profile guest spots. But with this debut under his own name you have to ask, "Aren't you a bit young for this?"That's because the album is a stripped-back (mostly) solo affair produced by Rick Rubin who is...
TOM RUSSELL INTERVIEWED: The stories he could tell
Julio Gonzalez was pumped up and crazy when he was tossed out of the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx in mid-March 1990. He was 36, unemployed and had been in the States for only 10 years after arriving with thousands of other Cubans in the Mariel boatlift. An argument with his former girlfriend who worked in the cloakroom, a couple of...
absoluteelsewhere/1845/tom-russell-interviewed-the-stories-he-could-tell/
BONFIRE OF ROADMAPS by JOE ELY (2008)
Joe Ely who grew up in Lubbock, West Texas (Buddy Holly's hometown) is something of a legend in Americana/alt.country rock: he was on the road in the early 70s hitching around to play gigs far and wide but also formed the formidable band the Flatlanders with Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore (both of whom have gone on to remarkable...
Warren Cate: The Reparation Tapes (Warcat)
Cate is what we might call an "occasional" rock'n'roll singer-songwriter: this is only his fourth album in about 14 years. He has a day job. I recognise on his website some highly favourable comments (uncredited) from me down the years, and his music has always found a place on my Sunday afternoon Kiwi FM show. This album will...
Tom Russell: Blood and Candle Smoke (Proper/Southbound)
Tom Russell is a cinematic singer-songwriter whose storytelling is compelling, and whose whisky’n’grit vocals can take you to the heart of Tex-Mex territory. The poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti said he was “Johnny Cash, [poet and novelist] Jim Harrison and [barfly writer] Charles Bukowski rolled into one“. Born and...
music/2670/tom-russell-blood-and-candle-smoke-proper-southbound/
Warren Zevon, The Wind
The late Warren Zevon was a self-destructive guy - throwing himself down stairs while in the grip of the demon drink was one of his things - but this Jekyll and Hyde of sunny California in the 80s, who wrote the lovely Hasten Down the Wind, could also pen, "He took little Susie to the Junior Prom, and he raped her and killed her, then he...
Various Artists: Introducing Townes Van Zandt via the Great Unknown (For the Sake of the Song)
The late Van Zandt is hardly the little-known cult artist he once was: there are many tribute albums (Steve Earle most recently) and his estate must coin it in from all the covers alt.country artists do. Most of Van Zandt’s originals were spare, lowkey and acoustic -- so the surprise here is what an embellishing or reconfiguring...
THE BARGAIN BUY: Warren Zevon; The Original Album Series (Rhino)
Singer songwriter Warren Zevon (1947- 2003) was a different one alright. When he emerged in LA in the mid Seventies he was like the anti-Jackson Browne: he was the anthesis of those mellow singer-songwriters from Laurel Canyon. His sardonic wit and sometimes weird songs caught the ears and the imaginations of critics and fellow artists, although...
bargainbuy/3020/the-bargain-buy-warren-zevon-the-original-album-series-rhino/
CHRIS WHITLEY INTERVIEWED (1991): The Law man living with the lore
Sometimes you can just get too much too soon - and the wrong kind of attention. Take American singer Chris Whitley, whose debut album Living with the Law has been picking up praise by the bucketload. Sure it’s a great album; Rolling Stone called it “riveting and original” before acclaiming Whitley as “a visionary...
absoluteelsewhere/3097/chris-whitley-interviewed-1991-the-law-man-living-with-the-lore/
Greg Fleming: Taken (LucaDiscs/Rhythmethod)
The excellent liner notes by New Zealand's Greg Fleming (with lyrics and reflections on the genesis of these songs) tell their own story about why Taken never appeared in '95 after the excellent Ghosts Are White album (remastered and added here as a bonus disc). But we should be very glad it has come out because after the alt.rock blast of...
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses: Junky Star (Lost Highway)
The name "Ryan Bingham" has been getting a lot of eartime recently -- it was the name of George Clooney's character in the movie Up in the Air. But more importantly in the real world it belongs to one of the most interesting Americana singer-songwriters of the past deacde -- the man who picked up an Oscar for his song The Weary...
music/3377/best-of-elsewhere-2010-ryan-bingham-and-the-dead-horses-junky-star-lost-highway/
Lee Clayton: Industry (live, 1989)
Rocking country singer Lee Clayton out of Alabama and Tennessee almost made the big time at the end of the Seventies with two exceptional albums, Border Affair and Naked Child. In some ways he was ahead of his time and if they had arrrived around the same time as James McMurtry, Chris Whitley and a few others a decade later he might have...
JAMES McMURTRY INTERVIEWED (1990): In from the wasteland
The literary landscape of the American south sets it apart from that of the rest of the country. The hard indifference of William Faulkner’s world is reflected in his lean poetic writing; the inhospitable, suspicious small towns and brooding menace stand stark in Eudora Welty’s stories, and crippling heat brings sweat and...
absoluteelsewhere/3493/james-mcmurtry-interviewed-1990-in-from-the-wasteland/
Andrew McKenzie: The Edge of the World (Arch Hill)
Andrew McKenzie is the singer-guitarist in the New Zealand band Grand Prix which has long delivered a very pointed kind of slightly snarling alt.country with a rock'n'roll heartbeat and a dark, unsettling edge. For this album under his own name McKenzie (who plays almost everything from drums and bass to harmonica and sitar) mines some of...
The Thomas Oliver Band: Baby, I'll Play (Rhythmethod)
As with his fellow Wellingtonian Darren Watson, Thomas Oliver is a finalist in the blues category of the International Song Writing Competition to be judged in April 2011. The song is Goin' Home - which kicks off this rootsy, bluesy and alt.country-tinged album -- and the video of it released a year ago was named among the top 30...
music/4019/the-thomas-oliver-band-baby-ill-play-rhythmethod/
Known Associates: Penny Love (Warcat)
Auckland singer/writer/guitarist Warren Cate of Known Associates has made some fine and deliberately unpolished rock albums under his own name in the past but here, with a team of equals who hunkered down for weekly sessions last year to toughen themselves up and work out material, he excels himself. Cate always possessed a slightly...
Tom Russell: Mesabi (Proper)
Although American singer-songwriter Tom Russell's name isn't as widely known as that of Joe Ely, Townes Van Zandt and others, his songs have been covered by Johnny Cash, Peter Case, Iris DeMent and many more, and his story-telling tied to a backbeat has consistently drawn praise from critics and peers. Jerry Jeff Walker, poet Lawrence...
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alt.country best of elsewhere 2006 best of elsewhere 2007 best of elsewhere 2008 best of elsewhere 2009 best of elsewhere 2010 blues in elsewhere bob dylan bruce springsteen chris whitley crazy heart dave alvin drive by truckers felice brothers greg fleming guy clark hayes carll jackson browne james mcmurtry jimmy webb joe ely john hiatt john prine johnny cash justin townes earle kris kristofferson lawrence ferlinghetti lee clayton luther james dickinson malcolm holcombe mississippi all stars nashville, tennessee pete molinari ramblin' jack elliott richmond fontaine ry cooder ryan bingham solomon burke songs of america steve earle tom waits townes van zandt warren cate warren love band warren zevon watermelon slim wilco