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| Tom Russell To Release New Album On Shout! Factory With a career stretching back nearly four decades, and a catalog of more than 20 albums, Tom Russell is already considered one of the great singer/songwriters of our time. Nevertheless, his newest album, Blood and Candle Smoke, a collection of powerful observations and deliberations, takes his work to another level entirely with tremendous songwriting and a new, contemporary spark. Set for a September 15 release on Shout! Factory, Russell will promote the album with a national tour throughout the U.S. beginning in September. For the new set, featuring some of his most intimate, insightful material, Russell ventured from his home in El Paso, Tex. (where he moved from New York 10 years ago), to Tucson' s Wave Lab Studios. Studio owner Craig Schumacher (Neko Case, Iron & Wine, Calexico) co-produced the album with Russell and Joey Burns, John Convertino, Jacob Valenzuela of local heroes Calexico provided the bulk of the instrumental support. The Tucson connection came about after Russell heard the soundtrack to the Bob Dylan film I' m Not There, which featured several younger artists interpreting Dylan songs. "The ones that really stood out to me were the ones backed by Calexico, " says Russell. "I thought, how great is that-you' ve got a new kind of world/mariachi sound but the great writing of Bob Dylan....So I did more research and I found that a lot of the records Calexico, Neko Case and others were making came out of this one studio in Tucson called Wave Lab. I went in there for two weeks and sat on a stool and sang everything live with my guitar, and they built it around that, " says Russell about recording with members of Calexico, Craig Schumacher and the other talented musicians who joined them in the studio. The consummate storyteller, Russell has amassed a devoted following that cherishes his vivid, novelistic tales evoking the spirit of the American experience in tightly constructed, panoramic vignettes. Among his most ardent fans are fellow artists; Johnny Cash, Doug Sahm, k.d. lang, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Iris Dement, Dave Alvin, Joe Ely, Ian Tyson, Nanci Griffith, and Guy Clark have all recorded Tom' s songs. But all of that work has been a first act. The dozen new songs comprising Blood and Candle Smoke "start the second half of the story, reaching out toward wider realms, " he says, 25 years after the release of his debut solo album, Heart on a Sleeve. The songs on Blood and Candle Smoke, which follows the 2008 Shout! Factory career retrospective Veteran' s Day: The Tom Russell Anthology, were all written by Russell about his life experiences. In a lived-in, tenacious voice, Russell recalls his time spent teaching in Africa in the late 60' s in "East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam, " and "Criminology, " which has a West African/reggae feel to it. "Santa Ana Wind, " a ballad influenced by the author Joan Didion which features Gretchen Peters and Nick Luka on steel guitar, brings to mind the duets of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. "Nina Simone" recounts Russell' s first exposure to the legendary vocalist, hearing her interpretation of Dylan' s "Just Like a Woman" while in Mexico, and "Crosses of San Carlos" broaches the subject of the Native American experience. "Finding You" is a simple love ballad to Russell' s wife, and "Mississippi River Runnin' Backwards" touches on Hurricane Katrina, and evokes an America that' s all but disappeared, one of "old ladies gamblin' in riverboat casinos, whirlpools swallowed ' em down, insurance executives and Fuller Brush salesmen, bushwhacked tryin' to leave town." The movie-esque "The Most Dangerous Woman in America" is a tribute to Mother Jones that is also a story about a man coming home from prison, and is a song which Russell likens to something that Bruce Springsteen might have written for his Nebraska album. The dark side of a musician' s life on the road in "Don' t Look Down, " and "Guadalupe"-which Russell calls "probably my favorite song that I' ve written" and from whose lyrics the album title Blood and Candle Smoke is taken, is about witnessing the passionate spirit and faith of the Indians in Mexico City. "American Rivers" again references the American Indian, with an ecological message to the story. The album ends with "Darkness Visible, " another snapshot of an America that never makes the headlines, its title drawn from a William Styron book. "It' s kind of a carnival song, " says Russell. "The carnival is over, the circus has left town, and this poor loveless guy is putting up posters for the next show." With its top notch songwriting and beautiful production, Blood and Candle Smoke is sure to be a career defining album for Tom Russell. "I' ve finally arrived at a newer sound that I like, and 12 new songs that I really like, " he says. "I think I' m really stepping forward into a bigger, broader world with this album." Shout! Factory is a diversified entertainment company devoted to producing, uncovering and revitalizing the very best of pop culture - The Stuff You Grew Up On But Never Outgrew. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their careers sharing their music, television and film faves with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory' s DVD offerings serve up classic, contemporary and cult TV series, riveting sports programs, live music, animation and documentaries in lavish packages crammed with extras. The company' s audio catalogue boasts Grammy -nominated boxed sets, new releases from storied artists and lovingly assembled album reissues. These riches are the result of a creative acquisitions mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Jazz News :: home page |