Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs

Amazon.com
Tom Russell returns to the Old West with a renewed vision, as this collection of inspired originals and choice covers attests. The album's centerpiece features Eliza Gilkyson and Joe Ely trading verses with Russell on Bob Dylan's epic "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts," while another Dylan tune, the little-heard "Seven Curses," proves a highlight as well. Russell's reading of "El Paso" refreshes the classic by refusing to mimic Marty Robbins's original, while a pair of Russell's spoken-word vignettes provide preamble to "The Ballad of Ira Hayes." While the songbooks of Woody Guthrie and Linda Thompson also inspire evocative interpretations, Russell's own songs hold their own in such distinguished company. He applies his literary sensibility to a Western legacy that extends from bounty hunters to rodeo bull riders, while his "Ballad of Edward Abbey," a tribute to the naturalist, serves as an environmental broadside on how the new West has raped the old. --Don McLeese

Tracks:

Tonight We Ride
Seven Curses
El Paso
All This Way For The Short Ride
Bucking Horse Moon
Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts
No Telling
Bacon Rind, Chief Seattle, The Ballad Of Ira Hayes
Old Blue
East Texas Red
The Ballad Of Edward Abbey
Little Blue Horse

Amazon.com

Tom Russell returns to the Old West with a renewed vision, as this collection of inspired originals and choice covers attests. The album's centerpiece features Eliza Gilkyson and Joe Ely trading verses with Russell on Bob Dylan's epic "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts," while another Dylan tune, the little-heard "Seven Curses," proves a highlight as well. Russell's reading of "El Paso" refreshes the classic by refusing to mimic Marty Robbins's original, while a pair of Russell's spoken-word vignettes provide preamble to "The Ballad of Ira Hayes." While the songbooks of Woody Guthrie and Linda Thompson also inspire evocative interpretations, Russell's own songs hold their own in such distinguished company. He applies his literary sensibility to a Western legacy that extends from bounty hunters to rodeo bull riders, while his "Ballad of Edward Abbey," a tribute to the naturalist, serves as an environmental broadside on how the new West has raped the old. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews:

All the stuff that's loved by westerners in one CD.......2007-07-09

"Tonight we Ride" is the kind of riveting ballad that should go down in the annals of Western music with "El Paso", which just received its definitive cover on this CD.

And Russell doesn't let up all the way through the CD. Accompaniment is sparse, mostly guitar with an occasional fiddle.

"Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" covers Dylan one better with Eliza Gilkyson and Joe Ely along for the ride to tell the story from the point of view of the various characters.

"The Ballad of Edward Abbey" is probably my favorite. Russell memorializes the kind of man who preserves what Westerners love most, the land, the animals the freedom to be what they want to be:

Ed walked across the desert at least a thousand times
He spoke with javalinas
And if he saw a billboard he chopped that b@st@rd down
If a man can't p#ss in his own front yard, he's living too close to town...

And that's the spirit of this CD that musically preserves the spirit of the West. I can't say this is the best Tom Russell CD--I like "Man From nowhere" very much too.

Another great Tom Russell CD.......2006-05-31

If you want to learn about Texas music just buy this disc. Tom's love of life and artist's eye infect every song.

The opening number "Tonight We Ride" is hard to beat. He sang it on David Letterman's show (Paul Shaffer played the accordian!). Letterman described it as a "song that will make you want to saddle up a horse, ride up to Connecticut and rob a liquor store." Me, I just went out and bought some good Reposado Gold. Letterman's got a point, though- the songs on this disc will move you one way or the other.

My other favorites are Bucking Horse Moon, and All This Way for a Short Ride. Tom Russell is true American artist like Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger, and this is one of his best.

One of those seminal/ovularian guys..........2005-03-11

Someone once said that if you bought every miles davis album, and the albums by everyone who ever played on one, you'd have an ultimate jazz collection. Tom Russell is like that. If you bought every album that had a Tom Russell song on it, or the albums of everyone who ever played with Tom on one of his, you would have a collection that would include the top of the rock/country/folk/folk-rock charts for twenty or more years.

Now Tom does the favor (again) to others' music, using a bunch of artists who are equally unsung legends. There are a number of people out there who are becoming consummate collectors and interpreters of the American Music Idiom; Ry Cooder, Dave Alvin, Ian Tyson, and Tom Russell. On this Album, Tom and his stellar backers take some familar and some rare songs and do 'em up right in the Western way.

worth the purchase.

As Advertised.......2004-10-14

I had never heard of Tom Russell until about a month ago when he was on David Letterman. He sang "Tonight We Ride," on the show and I ordered the cd a day or two later. This disc is exactly what the title says, a collection of songs about cowboys, indians, horses and dogs.

It includes cover versions of some classic Dylan songs and new songs, and has playing in my car quite a bit. I'm not a big country fan, but to me this is not really country music, but a mixture of country, rock and even some folk.

I bought the disc based on one song I heard and was not at all disappointed. The song I had heard was the best song on the disc, but there are some other great songs on here, and not a bad song in the group. I will be adding more of his discs to my collection.

A little bit Johnny Cash..........2004-08-14

...a little bit Lee Hazelwood. I bought this album blind, on a recommendation (probably because I've been on an alt.country buying binge lately), but it's rarely been out of my CD player since. Tom Russell is as much a storyteller as a country musician. It's like the soundtrack of a great 60s western movie that never was.

Music Album:

Music Album