First Entered December 8, 2005
to music, or when it’s not the sound in my space,
2005 has afforded little opportunity to review
and buy new music.
I could blame it on my iPod, now containing
my complete collection of CDs making for
easy listening. Whatever the reason,
I still feel qualified to share my pick
for album of the year, Tom Russell’s
“Hotwalker.”
Tom has written and produced a
Ken Burns-style audio journey in an
America where misfits, the other side
of Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wraft,”
troubadours, lost heroes, street people
and poets, bemused by corporate America,
provide a scene of what remains of our soul.
A soul trying to exist in “ . . . a system
where our guts and heart and creativity
are wrenched from us and we become
a nation of domesticated animals.”
kenne
Post Script — December 19, 2008
The Hotwalker release was the second part of a planned
“Americana trilogy”. The first part was “The Man From
God Knows Where” released in 1999. Recently, Russell
released, The Tom Russell Anthology – Veteran’s Day,
and as it did with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one song again
rang true to my ear – “Man from God Knows Where.”
“I’ve always said the real poets in this country are the folk
singers like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash,
Bob Dylan, John Denver, Tom Russell– not the poets of
the written word. I’ve just listened again to your
“Man from God Knows Where,” and it’s a true American classic.
It’s the real voice of the American experience, down on
the ground, sounding through old time America.”
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The song tells of Tom Russell and the 1798 Rebellion.
Oh, they hung me in Downpatrick,
Up near St. Patrick’s tomb,
But my ghost rose up in the peat fire smoke
Toward the rising of the moon.
Now as I drift through your villages,
All the maidens stop and stare,
‘There goes old Tom, the vagabond,
The Man From God Knows Where.’
To learn more about Russell’s first “folk opera” read
Bill Nevins’s 1999 interview with Tom Russell.
then listen to Phil Coulter – The Man from God Knows Where –
Tom Russell, 1798 Rebellion.
Tom Russell still remains one of my favorite folk musicians
and even more during these times of challenge for so many.
Here’s one of Russell’s latest songs: “Whose Gonna Build Your Wall.”
kenne
Filed under: Information, Music, Peace & War, video Tagged: Hotwalker, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Man From God Knows Where, Tom Russell, Woody Guthrie
