Rating 5.0
5 Stars are not enoughThis one resets the bar. I bought the CD a few months ago and put it in the pile of discs to listen to when I had the chance. Last week the disc rose to the top of the pile, I popped it into the player in the car when leaving on a long drive and it proceeded to knock my socks off. I have listened to it several times since then and it keeps getting better.
It is unlike anything I have ever heard. Part folk opera, part American pioneer life, part coming to terms with how where our ancestors have been establish the make up of what we are now. Sounds terrible no matter how I phrase it, but despite my inability to describe how wonderful the expereince is, it is one of the best two or three CDs I have ever heard.
Makes you grateful for being a second or third generation...This collection takes Russell's family experience emigrating to the US. Iris DeMent, Dolores Keane, and others join Tom in a rollicking set of folk songs that evoke the American experience.
The topics are varied. You'd expect the immigrant's experience with songs like "Patrick Russell". Lyrics describe Patrick as an 'American primitive man who washes his face in a frying pan.' "The Outcast" talks about the 'inbred second cousin' we all dread to invite to our weddings. "When Irish Girls Grow Up" is a fun song about young girlhood to marriage.
I wouldn't recommend this collection if you're feeling somewhat down. This isn't always a happy collection, but I believe a very true one. Beautiful Folk GeneaologyWe are a nation of immigrants. Some of us have come sooner, some later, but except for the American Indians, we all came from somewhere else. Tom Russell has taken that reality, his family history, from Ireland and Norway, some fine stories, and turned it into a song cycle that is the work of his career. Haunting and beautiful, he has drawn on years of songwriting, and years for friendships with musicians and folksingers, and created an album we will listen to 50 years from now.Most songs are his own, although he does a moving, fitting version of Massingill's "The Orphan Train." Not all of Russell's family tree is fit for his in-laws. Dave van Ronk's raspy version of "The Outcast," Russell's own songs about his gambling and alcohol addicted father; it rings true. There is mixed pain and pride in a lot of these songs. It's not all gloomy. Doris McKeane's singing of "When Irish Girls Grow Up" is a hoot. And some of these stories are the kind your uncle only would tell after his third drink at Thanskgiving. There's that kind of intimacy, some wonderful melodies, all with Russell's gravelly voice and the singing of his friends. I saw Tom Russell on the tour for this album, and the stories he told to introduce some of these songs have made them even more memorable. If you get the chance, see him yourself, and ask him to sing the title track. And get this album; you'll play it often. It's Russell's best work. |
