Tom Russell
On Friday Aug 29th Tom Russell was in concert at the World Cafe in Philadelphia. He is a singer-songwriter from Texas who writes topical songs that are quasi-political. Yesterday (Sunday Sept 7) he was on NPR’s Weekend Edition talking about the impetus behind the song “Whose gonna build your wall?” which was the first song of his that I heard over a year ago (?). I was impressed enough to purchase the EP which lead me to hear some of his other songs and and I finally attended his concert.
Naturally as I am very selective about who I go to see, the concert was excellent. One exciting moment was when feedback from the microphone somehow caused his guitar to bust a string or two. He did, thankfully, sing Whose Gonna Build Your Wall as I would not have forgiven him otherwise, but otherwise he said his show was mostly new songs, which were great. He has an anthology coming out in Oct so I intend to buy that to catch up with my Tom Russell history. Unsurprisingly, he seems to have performed or co-written songs with every one – that is the folk music world is small.
Michael Martin on mandolin with Tom Russell
Michael Martin accompanied Tom Russell on lead guitar, mandolin and high harmonies. He was an amazing performer increasing my mandolin desires exponentially. I want a mandolin NOW! I am surprised that I did not phone up a music store and buy a mandolin the next day. Probably doing my accounts before I made the call was a good move.
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As always photos copyright © 2008 cdavies. Please ask for permission before using.
Lab Cat 