Tom Russell

Tom Russell establishes instant rapport with his audience, and soon the concert feels more like a roomful of friends listening to one of them perform. He's first-rate!

I have listened to Tom Russell for probably 5 years now and this is the first time I have seen him in person. Generally when going to a concert you want to hear all your old "favorites". The first half of his show was all new songs and they were fantastic and the second half was the "oldies". They thing that made it all happen was his interaction with the crowd. He created an atmosphere as if this was a private party you had put together and he was just another one of your friends. He truly is one of the best "balladeers" one could ever hear. Thanks to you Tom for making that night a memorable event.

This man can tell a story! A good singer-song writer is such an absolute joy to behold in these days of big-production, synthesized eye-candy. It's a gift to be able to keep an audience spellbound with just a guitar and a good story. He's been there, done that, and was happy to share it with us. It was amazing.

I've been a Tom Russell fan for a long time and never miss a performance when he's in the neighborhood. But last night's performance was a disappointment. It was little more than a performance of his most recent CD "Blood and Candle Smoke" stretched out with an overly long revisitation of "Hotwalker." Russell's music has taken on something of a self conscious character and this performance was no exception. It is as if he has started taking himself as seriously as he takes his music; as if he is trying (unnecessarily) to burnish his bona fides as an artist. Russell also performed a few great pieces from earlier CDs. But "Stealing Electricity" was rushed through so badly it degenerated into caricature. And "Tonight We Ride" was phoned in. We were also treated to an introduction of wife, daughter, twin grandchildren, mom, dad, the cat, the dog, etc. but more distractingly, they milled around in the flies stage left throughout the show. On the plus side Russell seems to have shed himself of the marginally talented Michael Martin replacing him with Thad Beckman, a prodigiously talented guitarist with the ability and finesse to add power and texture to Russell's music without ever overpowering it. This is something that Russell's music has lacked since the exit of Andrew Hardin several years ago.

What a great show! Tom did most of his tunes from the new CD "Blood and Candle Smoke." I'll say here what I said to him: The songs were better as performed live than on the CD. Tom was in great voice and was into the show. I'm damned glad I was able to attend. I've seen him four times and he has always given 100%....this time was no different. With all these one night stands in a row, and still not take his audience for granted: This is the standard ALL artists should try to achieve, (Are you listening, Bob Dylan?)

Tom is an incredible singer/songwriter and his supporting guitarist was amazing... Sound was great also..