Tom Russell's entry into the Folk Pantheon

Mike Regenstreif calls Tom Russell “the best songwriter of my generation” and initially that seemed a stretch to me. Russell has been a favorite of mine but I've tended to put the more literate singer-songwriters (we're talking Dave Carter territory) on my highest pedestal. 

But in reviewing Russell's output (not even considering his releases of late as he's shattered and stomped on the mold of running out of things to say as a performer ages) and his genre-crossing talents, he deserves such rightful recognition.

The Russell songs that connect with me the most:

* "U.S. Steel" with that great line: "My ex-boss Mr Goodwin, he keeps shaking my one good hand..." - Russell never names the culprits behind the individual decimation he is describing, just the effects, and that's a teaching moment decision for me 

* "Gallo Del Cielo" - his yips are an unexpected plus and this: anyone else have a stirring song about cockfighting?

* "The Sky Above, The Mud Below" featuring these descriptive verses:

"...Now the Deacon was a preacher who had fallen hard from grace
He owned the bar and a string of quarter horses that he'd race
Yea, Deacon he could drink and curse, though he still quoted sacred verse
He was sheriff, judge; he owned the hearse, a man you did not anger..." 

and
 

"...Well the trial commenced and ended quick they didn't have a hope
Deac says we'll cut your hair now boys and you can braid yourselves a rope
The Old Testament, it says somewhere eye for eye and hair for hair
Covet not thy neighbors mare, I believe it’s Revelations..." 

* "Manzanar" - this detailing of the Japanese-American internment during WWII will cause you to pause and ponder

* "Big Water" - with Russell and Iris Dement trading off verses and the line about his wife and kid, a pair of old hound dogs and a Sears and Roebuck canoe, it is simply classic

* "Isaac Lewis" - is as good as any of the lost-at-sea celtic and UK genre

* "Tonight We Ride" - is simply a cowboy song with an extremely engaging rhythm

* "The Angel of Lyon" - featuring: 

"...And he sang Ave Maria 
Or at least the parts he knew..." 

Yes, it's a minor point (maybe) but who writes that a character sings a song and then continues with a description about the lyrics, and not the vocals  -- what caused Russell to make such a decision? 

and

"He had a vision of Anne Marie
With a rosary in her hand
So it's exit the rainmaker
The old gray flannel man..."

There's more single-minded focus featured later in the song but those last two lines in the above are just descriptively perfect.

* "The Man from God Knows Where" - the entire folk opera

Being Irish probably genetically predisposes me to enjoying it but what an undertaking and his carrying it off is an absolute joy.