By ‘Rebel’ Rod Ames
Photo courtesy of Colin Young Wolff
Recently Tom Russell took time out of his busy schedule to talk to me from his home in El Paso, Texas.
We talked about everything from his experiences in Africa, teaching criminology in the late 60’s, which had a great deal to do with him evolving into the singer-songwriter he has become. He let me know what’s on the burner, what’s next from Tom Russell after an instant classic like his latest release, Blood and Candle Smoke, and finally to his artwork and his upcoming art show in Austin.
Mr. Russell is one of the few artists around today who I would call a master at what he does. To me he belongs in the same circles as Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, and John Prine, just to name a few.
Here is the conversation in it’s entirety:
‘Rebel’ Rod –
Thanks for taking time to talk to me today. I loved your latest record. In my review I called Blood and Candle Smoke nearly flawless. I’m not good enough of a reviewer to say anything is perfect. (Tom Russell and I laughed at this one, but my laughter was more on the uncomfortable side of things). What would you say about it?
Tom Russell –
Well, I think it’s by far my strongest record. We took a lot of time, or I took a lot of time writing the songs. I think it’s a major step forward in my recording career. I like every song on there. I perform every song on the record live in the current shows. And I feel very strongly recording in Tucson and that whole scene influenced this record. In working with Calexico and working with one of Dylan’s old drummers, who lived over there, Winston Watson. Just the whole combination I think is a major step forward for me.
RR –
I would agree with that. In fact I was going to ask you about that as well. I like Calexico a lot and they couldn’t have been a better choice, but, personally I would have never thought of putting the two of you together. How did that come about?
TR –
Well, the inspiration for me was the Bob Dylan bio-pick soundtrack, I’m Not There, where lots of indie rock and young bands were interpreting Dylan songs, and I heard Calexico on there a few times. Particularly the song “Going To Acapulco”, a Dylan song they did with Jim James singing it. I thought, well that’s the combination you got to have. Great writing and combine it with the new sounds, because I don’t really hear a lot of great young song writers, but I do hear a lot of sonically interesting stuff. So I thought I’d put the two together. You know, use that newer, more of a “world music” sound, but control the writing from my end and work on the songs a lot. That was more or less the combination.
RR –
Well, you obviously gelled. It certainly shows on the record.
TR –
Thank you.
RR-
How would you say you have evolved as an artist over the decades? Longevity in this field is very difficult to achieve, yet you have been very successful at achieving it. What’s your recipe for your longevity as a writer and performer?
TR –
By staying away from any networking scene. Any kind of a deal like LA, New York, Austin, or Nashville, by trying to remain an outsider, and I have friends in all those places. But by not caving in to any category or networking scene like SXSW, or whatever, or Americana. All that stuff goes away. It doesn’t help you in any way. You know, you’ve got to find your own path, I think as a writer, and it’s very hard to do in this country, especially because the first thing they want to do is categorize you. What do you do? Country? Folk? Americana? What? And my stuff has always been outside those boundaries and living in a place like El Paso, way off the map, has allowed me to extend myself as a writer I think.
RR –
A lot of inspiration there as well I’ll bet.
TR –
Yeah, there’s a lot happening (chuckle). There’s a lot happening in Juarez right now.
RR –
Yeah. A lot of good and a lot of bad.
TR –
Yeah, I’ve written about it. I have a blog on my website, my publicist wanted me to write an article about it. I sort of addressed it about a month ago. They published it in a blog called Rumpus (www.therumpus.net), a really cool radical blog. I sort of gave my take on the history around here and the Juarez drug war thing.
RR-
It really does hit close to home doesn’t it.
TR – Yeah it really does.
RR –
That kind of leads me to my next question or topic, if you will. “Whose Gonna Build Your Wall”, from your EP of the same name. I really appreciate what that song talks about. The illegal immigrant situation as far as the USA is concerned. The song speaks so well of the hypocrisy of the whole situation. What exactly led to you writing this song?
TR –
Well, mainly, I heard a comedian once, I stole that line maybe, from a guy who said, if you kick all the illegal Mexicans out down here, whose going to build the wall to keep ‘em out since they do all the work around here anyway. I thought it was funny, and then they kept busting this white developer over in San Diego for using illegal workers to build the wall to keep them out. I thought it was hilarious. Those were kind of the inspirations for the song. I wrote it about 3 years ago and performed it on The David Letterman Show a couple years ago. It got a lot of reaction both pro and con. The right-wingers didn’t like it. Now when I perform it I think most people kind of get the humor of it.
RR –
Sure, sure, and Letterman is obviously a big fan of yours as well. I saw you on his show again the other night performing “East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam”. Great performance by the way.
TR-
Oh, thank you, I appreciate it.
RR –
You’ve lived and traveled all over the world. Places from Africa to Alaska. I know Africa must have been terrifying, but It seems when listening to a couple of the songs from Blood and Candle Smoke, songs like “East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam” and “Criminology”, I detected a fondness of it’s people. Can you elaborate on that please?
TR –
Well, I was a kid. 18 or 19 I can’t remember. But I got out of college early. I had a masters degree that I got pretty quickly, and I was sent over there. I didn’t really know where Nigeria was, but I was ready for the adventure, I had a lot of guns pointed at me, which I reference in the in the songs on this record, like “Criminology”. But the people particularly, in much the same way that I like the Mexican people around here, they were impoverished a lot of them, but so full of joy, and life, and passion. You can’t forget that. Of course there was this huge tribal war going on. The Biafran War and we were about 300 miles from the front. It was an eye opening experience. And yet, as Graham Greene, who is probably my favorite writer, the English writer said, “you can get out of Africa but 20 or 30 years later you can be having a drink on your porch and all of those images will flood back into your body and your head.” I think about it a lot every once in a while. It’s where I grew up in some ways. It’s where I decided to put all of my eggs in one basket and become a songwriter. So a lot went down over there.
RR –
Yeah, It was kind of the birth of what was to come.
TR-
Exactly.
RR-
After you do something like Blood and Candle Smoke, and I know you’ve probably been asked this a million times, so a apologize in advance, but after a masterpiece like that, and I do call it a masterpiece.
What do you do to follow that? What’s next?
TR –
PPSSSSSSHHHT! I’m just scaring this cat out of the yard. “HEY!” He’s a killer, killer-cat.
Yeah, I ask myself that, umh, I don’t think I can come right back with a great twelve song record. It’s going to take a couple of years. Because I worked very hard on this one. But I do have a couple things in the pan. I’m working on a couple of books. I say that. I don’t know how long it will take. A book of essays on the West, like my Juarez piece, and you could read some of my blogs online, and you can get an idea of some of my prose writing.
RR –
I promise you, I will.
TR –
Yeah, you can connect to all that on the front page of www.tomrussell.com. You go down, and you’ll see the blog button and you can go back and read about all of these songs. They’re just short paragraphs about each one, and the Juarez piece.
I’ve got a book of essays that’s about three quarters done, and then a novel. I did write a novel about 20 years ago that was published in Norway, a crime novel. I always thought I’d get back to that, and now with the Juarez thing, I’ve started a novel and I’m about 40 pages into it.
Musically, I’m going to do a soundtrack for this documentary we’ve been working on about the west called “California Bloodlines”. It started out being about my sister in law who ranches alone out in California on a historic ranch. That’s probably the next musical type project. But I’ll be touring behind this current record for at least a year. So there’s plenty on the plate.
We also do the Music Trains I’m involved with. We just had one across the Southwest, and we’ve got a couple coming next year with maybe Dave Alvin and with The Flatlanders in California and the Southwest. All of that information is on a website, called www.rootsontherails.com.
RR –
Sounds like a great show.
I saw on Facebook that you have an art show coming up soon in Austin?
TR –
Where are you living right now?
RR –
Just west of Kerrville, Texas
TR –
Oh okay, I know the area. We’re in Austin November 12 at The Cactus and then in San Antonio on the 15th at Casbeer’s. But on November 12th, I’m pretty sure that’s the correct date, I also have an opening of a little art show at Yard Dog on South Congress in Austin. They were the first gallery to handle my paintings and yesterday I sent them about eight paintings called “Cowboys and Indians”. A bunch of heads of Indians and a couple of cowboy pictures.
RR –
Beautiful work.
TR –
Thanks Thanks. I also have a gallery in Santa Fe called The Rainbow Man that handles my bigger stuff. You know, when I have the time I like to go and paint because I can’t write songs all day obviously.
RR-
Oh sure, and you do both very well by the way.
TR –
Thank you. Oh! There’s a festival too, called The Rice Festival, I think it’s sold out. But it’s in Fischer, Texas on November 13th.
RR –
You’re a busy guy.
TR –
Yeah, but you should probably come out to The Cactus. That should be a good show. I’ve got a great guitar player with me now named Thad Beckman from Portland. He’s got about six records out. He’s a great finger picker, so it’s kind of a new sonic edge to the music and we’ve been doing every song on Blood and Candle Smoke.
RR –
I’m looking forward to meeting you at one of the shows.
Tom. Thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to seeing you at either the show in Austin or San Antonio.
TR –
Thank you, I hope to see you there. Adios.
That’s it. I hope you enjoyed reading this half as much as enjoyed talking to him and writing it all down. It was an amazing interview of one of my favorite artists. A real treat.
If I can’t make up my mind on which show I’m going to, San Antonio or Austin, I guess I’ll just go to both shows. Sometimes it’s just easier that way.
