Kla-how-ya, mother, I leave you with your white man;
I curse their church that tells us that our fathers were wrong!
And I’ll hunt my own mowitch and I’ll drink my own whiskey
And I’ll sing until morning the old fashioned song.— Ian Tyson, The Renegade
I’ve gone to school on Tom Russell for the past 24 years, since I first heard his record Cowboy Real in the bookstore where I worked when I first moved to Sisters. Blew me away. I discovered Dave Alvin through Tom Russell — they’ve co-written some absolute gems — and I’d have to say that those two are probably the biggest influences on my own songwriting.
Quick story: I was reading a bio on Breaker Morant titled Shoot Straight You Bastards! (Breaker’s last words to a firing squad) and thought, “Damn, that sounds like a Tom Russell song.” Followed immediately by “Screw that — that’s a Jim Cornelius song.” Which it is. Influences work in mysterious ways.
Anyway, point being that I studied Tom Russell like you study literature — and the same way he once studied Ian & Sylvia. The Canadian folk duo was one of the most important elements in the folk music movement of the early and mid-’60s, mining grand old traditional songs and writing new material that pushed the music forward. Ian Tyson is a great songwriter and a golden voice. He’s also a historian of the West and the cowboy life, and his songs are a vital part of the Frontier Partisans soundtrack. He was already working those Western themes with Ian & Sylvia.
Music is becoming increasingly disposable and perishable, but the “old-fashioned songs” resonate still, and will long outlive this plastic era. Tom Russell has done his part to honor those songs and kick them down the road a ways with his new collection, Play One More: The Songs of Ian & Sylvia. We picked it up from our lonely independent record-seller in Bend and felt good doing it. The arrangements are simple — guitar and vocals, mostly, with harmonies from the lovely Cindy Church. Spend some time with them. Like any good story, they are evergreen.
The collection includes a recent Russell/Tyson co-write that offers up a benediction. And I believe it:
The rain will come again one day; the stars will keep on shinin’
And the poets will return again, magic melody and rhymin’
And if God is out there somewhere, looking down on everything
Then love will always matter, and the wolves will always sing
And this I can promise you — until the day I fire my rifle into the sun, I’ll be out there singing till morning the old-fashioned songs.
Keith West says
“Music is becoming increasingly disposable and perishable, but the “old-fashioned songs” resonate still, and will long outlive this plastic era.”
Truth, which is why I listen less and less to what’s current and more and more to what came before.
I will order this today.
Greg Marshall says
I saw Tom Russell at The Rogue Folk Club in Vancouver. Cost me a lot of money picking up his CDs and a lot of time listening. Worth every dollar and minute. For the second half of the show, Jimmy Dale Gilmore showed up (not unplanned, I think, but pretty informal show after that. It was electrifying!)
Ian and Sylvia were big influences on my early life (Alberta farm kid in the Sixties) and I saw them several times first time ’round. It’s great to see Ian Tyson recognized for his writing and performing talent in his second life. There’s hope for us old guys. I used to sing along a lot, but age has wearied my voice and not even I can stand it any more!
Gotta get this album.
JimC says
Great stuff, Greg.
Matthew says
I understand what you are saying, but I’m skeptical of people who think that the music (literature or whatever) was so much better than in the old days. I remember seeing a cultural commentator talk about how during sixties music when down here thanks to all that horrible rock and roll.
The height of America music was when Judy Garland sang “I’ll meet you in St. Louis.” Also, he talked about how men where loosing their masculinity. Because masculine men just love Judy Garland musicals.
He hated how John Lennon wrote “Roll Over Beethoven” which disrespected classical music. He did not like classical music because “it didn’t have words in it.” (Also that was a Chuck Berry song.)
Anyway, I stopped listening to the guy. Sorry, just blowing off steam, but it’s easy to just denounce anything new as inferior to the rest.
JimC says
Fair enough.
Matthew says
To be honest, I was probably more mad at the guy I was talking about. It’s one of my pet peeves though.
J.F. Bell says
I suspect there may be two forces at work here.
1) Barriers to entry. By which I mean it’s never really been this easy to people to get their work out there…for better or worse. Any idiot with a camera and six seconds to kill can get famous on facebook or youtube and do so without having to work through ANY kind of filters or quality control. So while there are plenty of musicians out there cranking out a well-crafted product, there’s a also every aforementioned idiot, and
2) There was crap back then, too. Only because it was crap and didn’t find a market, it went by the wayside, no longer gets airplay, and exists only in boxes of dusty 8-tracs and cassette tapes in basements. Which is probably safest, lest it be rediscovered and sampled/remixed by said idiots.
That’s my going theory, at any rate.
Paul McNamee says
Inspirations and influences in the arts are quirky things.
When I was writing songs, I could tell you where things came from or might have come from. A lyrics like Ray Davies, a riff like Keith Richards, a triple note arrangement like Pete Townshend.
Or, something from the ether which my rock’n’roll amigo would say, “That’s a MCNAMEE song.”
But when people ask me now who my prose writing influences are, I couldn’t tell you. I know who I like to read. Whether they come through in the writing – I don’t seem to have as objective eye as do an ear.
As to finding good music, real music – it’s out there. But you’ve got to hunt. No way radio or television are going to help like the used to. All my discoveries over the last fifteen years have been through the Internet, mostly. Pandora, or comments from others with similar tastes.
J.F. Bell says
Writing and literary influences are tricky. I would venture a guess this has something to do with most people developing a fairly stable voice (as writing goes, anyway) and sticking with it by and large.
I’d say the difference in style and voice is what you mention.
A man with a particular style can write a hundred different songs that are uniquely different but still bear his particular thumbprint. His trick is keeping those hundred from sounding alike, in which instance the critics come seeping out of the woodwork to declare he’s washed-up and out new ideas.
Another man can write a hundred books with the same general tone and turns of phrase and regard (or disregard) for grammar and the generally-accepted literary rules and come out fine, so long as he tells a suitably different story each time.
Then again, I’ve got more time in with the latter than the former, so I may be entirely off-mark as music is concerned.
Saddle Tramp says
Tom Russell is one of the few that I will buy on reputation and integrity alone. I do not need to listen to any samplings before laying my money down. I pre-ordered this one and was fortunate to get the signed post card with it These songs revolve in my player daily. They seep into you slow and sure and are a very worthy tribute to a very worthy pair. Jim, like yourself my introduction to Tom was also COWBOY REAL and it is still a favorite. Bought it in Amarillo many moons ago and like you it also taken me down a trail to so many others in his orbit. Tom has been a stalwart inspiration and influence ever since and I can’t wait for the next one out of the chute coming soon to a Drive-In near you! Cowboy to the end…
JimC says
Yessir!
Ann E. Moller says
After this morning’s listening to that same CD I got from Tom at the Booth Museum last night, I copied those very lines to my veins, a triumph of Hope. Hearing Tom at Eddies Attic Thursday and then last night, I realize Tom holds a place of honor next to Dave Stamey in my Life According to books. Both men are intellectually grand, solemn, honest and inquisitive while astute to compelling humor. Giving voice to my heart, they enormously satisfy while charging the longing for more. Each encounter requires accommodation to grow my soul. A treasure in more shortening days.
JimC says
You couldn’t pay an artist a greater compliment.
Ann E. Moller says
Listening to those very lines myself this morning, I welcomed them being a triumph of hope. It is a solemn gift I will carry with me.
JimC says
Right on!
tom says
my introduction to tom Russell was thru publication out of Tucson in the 1990’s called “border beat”. we are rich with cultures here in Arizona, tonoho o’odham, pima, apache, Hispanic, and on and on. border beat dealt with “borderland culture” and much of tom Russell’s music includes this mix of “gringo” and Mexican cultures……when tom Russell comes to phoenix he more often than otherwise appears at an old Dive bar (spelled with a capital “D”!!) in an old part of phoenix, still undiscovered from the claws of urban renewal, called the “rhythm room”. this old place adds icing to the cake of a tom Russell concert!
JimC says
Excellent!