Tom Russell

UNRESERVED SEATING. NO SUPPORT ACT. DOORS 7.30pm. 

For over four decades and 28 album releases Tom Russell has continued to live up to his status as “one of the best singer-songwriters of our time” (Washington Post). His previous two studio releases, Blood and Candle Smoke (2009) and Mesabi (2011), are considered his strongest composed works yet and were, in part, recorded with the groundbreaking roots band Calexico. 

In the 1990s, Russell and Dave Alvin were hailed as the architects of what came to be known as “Americana” music after their Merle Haggard tribute, Tulare Dust, initiated the Americana charts in the U.S. and remained number one for a year. Russell’s previous release, Aztec Jazz (2013), moved Americana into a new realm and his acclaimed song catalog into uncharted territory. 

Tom Russell’s songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Doug Sahm, Nanci Griffith, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dave Alvin, Joe Ely, and others. Tom will be touring in support of his new double-album “The Rose of Roscrae”, the third in a series of acclaimed folk operas, following The Man From God Knows Where (1999) and Hotwalker (2005). “The Rose of Roscrae” features a who's who of legendary Americana icons including: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, David Olney, Johnny Cash, Joe Ely, Augie Meyers, Fats Kaplin, Barry Walsh, Jimmy LaFave, Gretchen Peters, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Walt Whitman, Moses "Clear Rock" Platt, Jack Hardy, David Massengill, A.L. "Bert" Lloyd, Finbar Furey, Sourdough Slim, Blackie Farrell, Tex Ritter, Glen Orhlin, Pat Russell, John Trudell, Henry Real Bird, Thad Beckman, Maura Connell, Eliza Gilkyson, The McCrary Sisters, Ian Tyson, Bonnie Dobson, Lead Belly, Guy Clark, Dan Penn, Gurf Morlix, and Pat Manske. It also features an overture performed by the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, arranged by Mats Hålling, composed by Tom Russell. 

"Tom Russell is Johnny Cash, Jim Harrison and Charles Bukowski rolled into one. I feel a great affinity with Tom Russell's songs, for he is writing out of the wounded heart of America." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

"The greatest living folk-country songwriter is a man named Tom Russell. He's written songs that capture the essence of America. A trait that can only be matched by the country's greatest novelists....." - John Swenson, Rolling Stone