TOM RUSSELL'S HISTORY
BY DAVID VEITCH * 03/14/99
The Calgary Sun
(c) Copyright 1999 The Calgary Sun. All Rights Reserved.
THE MAN FROM GOD KNOWS WHERE -- Tom Russell: The death of Russell's
* father inspired this ambitious, 74-minute song-cycle/folk-music opera
that both traces his family history and, on a more universal level,
chronicles the plight of immigrants as they try to forge a new
existence
in America. Guest vocalists Iris DeMent, Dolores Keane, Sondre Bratland
and others give voice to Russell's ancestors. They sing about whiskey
and dashed dreams; estranged families and orphan trains; ruined crops
and suicide; homesickness and inconsolable loneliness; all to music
that
demonstrates how Celtic folk was the seedling from which American
* country music grew.
Generally, the album is stirring and earnest, though Dave Van Ronk
adds some bawdy humour and politically incorrect insight as The
Outcast,
who reminds Americans "your promised land was settled by bastards,
drunks and thieves." A less-travelled path through American history
and,
quite simply, a
remarkable achievement.
SUN RATING:4 (OUT OF FIVE)
