Computer Painting by kenne
You ask me what’s a coyote fence? A crooked line of cedar poles
Surrounding our adobe, our refuge from the road
Some nights we can see light of fires as Indians dance
And the eyes of God shine through the coyote fence.
— from “The Light Beyond the Coyote Fence” by Tom Russell
“On The Roads Outside Of San Diego”
On the roads outside Oshiobo,
I fell down on my knees
There were female spirits
In old mud huts, iron bells
Ringing up in the trees and
An eighty-year white priestess,
Who made juju all night long
East of Woodstock,
West of Viet Nam.
— from “East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam” by Tom Russell
— kenne
Tom Russell posted the following on Facebook and I felt a need to share it — a collaborative effort of three great singer-songwriters:
“Exciting news….we were walking through the old Greenwich Village this afternoon, vastly changed, and I thought – “it would be great to do an album release show at The Bitter End.” So we walked into The Bitter End, and out walks the owner. He warms up to us and I tell him I used to work there every Sunday…so we might hook the opening gig there for the next album release tour.
Maybe a return to The Bitter End! Lets make Greenwich Village great again! This is Lucinda Williams and myself doing Bob Dylan‘s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” off of the record “Mesabi.” All records and books: www.fronterarecords.com
Your reporter for Nova Beat at the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal….”
Ronstadt Generations Live at Teri’s Bistro, Alamos, Sonora (January 26, 2016)
— Images and Video by kenne
(Short Video Clip by kenne)
Pulled these images and video clip out of my January travel archives in memory of Mike Ronstadt
(August 25, 1953 – August 7, 2016)
— from Beyond the Blues by Tom Russell
A Labyrinth of Wild Flowers — Image by kenne
— from Box of Visions by Tom Russell
Tom Russell with Iris Dement — Box of Visions (Audio)
Two-tailed Swallowtail, Just Grunge ‘n’ — Grunge Composition by kenne
— from “Love Abides” by Tom Russell
Image by kenne
— from Guadalupe by Tom Russell
Mt. Lemmon Rock Formation — Image by kenne
— from Love Abides by Tom Russell
– – Charles Bukowski (Source: Oldpoetry.com)
Image by kenne
I love the music of Tom Russell, he is a singer-songwriter who is in touch with those who ramble the earth. In the introduction to his 2012 book, “120 Songs” Russell writes about how songs beckon you to move a little closer, “Let me tell you a story.”
“They beguile us with their sing-song rhyme and tinkle-down melodies, yet they are imbued with trued feel for human history, poetry, emotion and cold hard facts of life, than a thousand dusty tomes from social scientists, poets, politicians, theologians and academic historians. Songs travel.”
Russell’s songs are about real people, their suffering and survival, and times when whiskey needs to be drank like wine — songs for as long as forever is.
GUADALUPE
There are ghosts out in the rain tonight,
high up in those ancient trees
Lord, I’ve given up without a fight,
another blind fool on his knees
and all the Gods that I’d abandoned,
begin to speak in simple tongue
and suddenly I’ve come to know,
there are no roads left to run
Now it’s the hour of dogs a barking,
that’s what the old ones used to say
It’s first light or it’s sundown,
before the children cease their play
when the mountains glow like mission wine,
then turn gray like a Spanish roan
ten thousand eyes will stop to worship,
then turn away and head on home
She is reaching out her arms tonight,
lord, my poverty is real
I pray roses shall rain down again,
from Guadalupe on her hill
and who am I to doubt these mysteries?
Cured in centuries of blood and candle smoke
I am the least of all your children here,
but I am most in need of hope
She appeared to Juan Diego,
she left her image on his cape
five hundred years of sorrow,
cannot destroy their deepest faith
so here I am, your ragged disbeliever,
old doubting Thomas drowns in tears
as I watch your church sink through the earth,
like a heart worn down through fear
She is reaching out her arms tonight. . .
When you read the words in Russell’s songs, you can see the influence of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Federico Garcia Lorca and Charles Broskoski. The words and songs, “. . . suck us in, slap us around, kick us in the belly and heart, and then push us back out into the world with a memory we’ll never purge from our blood.”
kenne
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
Tom Russell wrote a song about a destitute young man named Carlos Saragosa who steals a prize-fighting rooster named Gallo del Cielo. As the story goes, Saragosa wagers his sister’s locket, trying to win enough money to buy back the land stolen from his father.
This morning I stumbled on a short article in Counterpunch by Lorenzo Wolff titled, “Thirty Years Down the Road – Joe Ely, the Fighting Rooster of Rock.”
“The song is meant to be about Saragosa, his struggle, and his defeat, but when Ely sings it, you can tell that he’s not relating the protagonist. How could he relate to someone who is crushed after only one defeat? No, Ely isn’t Saragosa. He’s the rooster, Gallo Del Cielo. You won’t see him giving up, he’ll fight until he no longer can, and whether it’s his heart that gives out or his fingers, it sure as hell won’t be his spirit.” — Wolff
The article immediately brought back memories of when we first saw Joe Ely at “Rockefeller’s” in Houston. To this day, Joe remains one of our favorite Texas musicians, and his rendition of Russell’s song is legendary.
Kenne
First Entered December 8, 2005
My Recommendation for CD of the Year!
Although times are rare when I’m not listening
to music, or when it’s not the sound in my space,
2005 has afforded little opportunity to review
and purchase new music.
I could blame it on my iPod, now containing
my complete collection of CDs made 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 were 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” was 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 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.”
Russell’s Houston fans will be at the Mucky Duck on February 7, 2009.
— kenne
“If a man can’t piss in his own front yard, he’s livin’ too close to town.”
— Edward Abbey, re Tom Russell
“Ed died one day at sundown, in his Tucson writing shack
They wrapped him in a sleeping bag, and drove him way out back
Beneath the wild Saguaro, the coyotes chewed Ed’s bones
And on the hidden marker, was “No comment” carved in.”
— from “The Ballad of Edward Abbey” by Tom Russell
Benediction: Edward Abbey, by Tom Russell
Be loyal to what you love, be true to the earth, fight your enemies with passion and laughter. ~Edward Abbey
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