At first blush, this seems a bit presumptuous: An artist compiling a tribute album to himself? That appears to be the case with Wounded Knee, which collects Tom Russell songs rendered by the likes of Johnny Cash, Dave Van Ronk, Iris DeMent, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Doug Sahm and others, plus a handful of Russell’s own [...]

Living in El Paso has given Tom Russell a close-up view of the debate over controlling U.S. borders. Like a modern Woody Guthrie, Russell’s response is “The Immigrant Suite”, three songs with contrasting viewpoints on the issue. The rollicking title track, powered by Joel Guzman’s accordion, is a defense of those laboring for the upper [...]

“Pray your passion ain’t used up and gone,” Tom Russell declares in the opening minutes of Love & Fear. On his first album of all original songs since 2001′s Borderland, Russell demonstrates an undiminished passion for his art with penetrating songs about the two title subjects. On “The Pugilist At 59″, the leadoff track, Russell [...]

Over eighteen albums, balladeer Tom Russell has written lasting songs that have been recorded by everyone from Johnny Cash to Doug Sahm, and sung them in a smooth, cleanly enunciated baritone that make even his collections of songs by others compelling. He’s been devoted to all things Americana, shown especially on theme albums about cowboy [...]

Tom Russell has long felt a kinship with the American West, examining its people, land and history. On Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs, his third album in the cowboy/western genre, he explores that tradition and adds to it with a well-executed set of originals and covers. “Tonight We Ride” mixes defiance and bravado in a rollicking [...]

A classic “songwriter’s songwriter” (he’s been covered by Joe Ely, Steve Young, Dave Alvin, Nanci Griffith, Peter Case, Suzy Bogguss, Doug Sahm, Katy Moffat, Tom Paxton, Ian & Sylvia Tyson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Bob Neuwirth), Tom Russell has assembled an uncompromising body of work exploring the American mythos. Employing a sturdy, no-nonsense vocal delivery [...]

Last time out, on The Man From God Knows Where, Tom Russell (along with a stack of musical guests) played fast and loose with time and place, spinning a great sprawling tale of his family’s European origins and their lives in the New World. This time Russell focuses the action around his new home on [...]

Geography and imagination are funny things. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott lives in California, but he grew up in Brooklyn. Tom Russell grew up California, but he lives in Brooklyn (or he did for many years before a recent relocation to West Texas). And both fancy themselves cowboys. On the liner notes inside Russell’s new disc, subtitled [...]