Singer songwriter, painter, essayist – Tom Russell has recorded thirty five highly acclaimed records, & published five books: 120 Songs of Tom Russell; Tough Company – Letters with Charles Bukowski; Blue Horse Red Desert: the Art of Tom Russell; Blodsport a crime novel published by Aschehoug, Norway; and – And Then I Wrote: The Songwriter Speaks, with Sylvia Tyson.
Tom Russell songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Doug Sahm, Nanci Griffith, K.D. Lang, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Ian Tyson, Iris Dement, Joe Ely, and a hundred others.
Tom Russell graduated from The University of California with a Master’s Degree in Criminology. He was recently awarded the 2015 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism
In 2015 Russell released a 52 track “folk opera” on the West, The Rose of Roscrae, was deemed: maybe the most important Americana record of all time by UK Folk, the top Folk album of 2105 by Mojo Magazine, and hailed in top ten lists in two dozen publications including The Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on the David Letterman TV show five times.
His latest release (May 2016) is The Tom Russell Anthology 2 (Gunpowder Sunsets) – 19 Tracks.
Recent Quotes on Tom Russell: July 2016
(May 2016) These songs on The Tom Russell Anthology 2: Gunpowder Sunsets leaves me in anticipation of whatever might be coming next from the best songwriter of my generation.
Mike Regenstreiff, Montreal Gazette, Sing Out
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 (Poet)
Tom Russell is an original, a brilliant songwriter with a restless curiosity and an almost violent imagination. “Blood and Candle Smoke” is vintage Russell, and the Graham Greene connection is a ‘beaut.
Annie Proulx (The Shipping News, Brokeback Mountain)
Tom Russell is the last great American voice.
Ken Bruen (The Dramatist, The Cross)
How great is Tom Russell? Isn’t he the best? I’d like to quit my job and travel with him…if the money can be worked out…
David Letterman, Late Night with David Letterman
The greatest living folk-country songwriter is a man named Tom Russell…John Swenson, Rolling Stone
Tom Russell is the best songwriter of the generation following Bob Dylan…
The Montreal Gazette