Tom Russell at Thousand Oaks Library 11/30 November 30, 2008

Hi all!! We are very excited about our upcoming show with Tom Russell at Concerts at the Bodie House -This show will be held at the Thousand Oaks Library (Grant R. Brimhall Library), 1401 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91362.
Concerts at the Bodie House in Agoura Hills presents
Tom Russell
Sunday, November 30, 2008 8PM
Donation: $25 (All proceeds go to the musicians)
Dessert/Appetizer Bar (food contributions appreciated)
GOOGLE MAPS - TO Library Map:
http://maps.google.com/?q=Thousand%20Oaks%20Library&t=h&utm_campaign=en_US&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en_US-ha-na-us-gns-ssm&utm_term=add

RSVP:818-621-8309 or BodieHouse@aol.com
www.BodieHouse.com

Tom Russell started his music career in a highly unconventional fashion. He began in the early 1970s, playing strip bars in Vancouver, and later formed a band with singer-pianist Patricia Hardin. As Hardin & Russell they regularly played clubs in in San Francisco in the late 70’s, and recorded the second of their two studio albums. After they split in 1979, Russell did a stint as a taxi driver in Queens, where Russell met guitarist Andrew Hardin (no relation to Patricia), and formed a new band. Hardin remained Russell's full-time sideman until April 2006.Shortly after this, Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead was a passenger in Russell's cab. Russell sang him his song Gallo Del Cielo. An impressed Hunter invited Russell and Hardin first to join him on stage at New York’s Bitter End, and then to become his regular opening act.
The Tom Russell Band made four albums during the 1980’s, which featured Andrew Hardin and accordion maestro Fats Kaplin. These albums blended elements of folk, country and rock, and often featured songs inspired by the American Southwest, blue collar American life, and by events from his own colorful life. Russell also made a number of solo albums in the 90’s, collaborating with blues singer Barrence Whitfield for two of them, and then recording an acoustic album that included guest appearances from such artists as Chris Gaffney and Dave Alvin. His song Outbound Plane became a Top Ten country hit for Suzy Bogguss. However, his most significant album of the 1990s was the 1999 "folk opera", The Man From God Knows Where.
Drawing on the music of Norway and Ireland in addition to American folk and country, the album took the form of a song cycle tracing the journeys of Russell's ancestors from Europe to America and the struggles they encountered there. Recorded in Norway, near the spot where his great grandfather was born in 1847, the album features singers such as Iris DeMent Dolores Keane, and Dave Van Ronk playing the roles of Russell's various ancestors and telling their stories. The title came from the epitaph of another Tom Russell, an Irish activist executed in 1803.
Russell's recent albums have been heavily influenced by his current home city El Paso. Albums such as Borderland feature a strong Tex-Mex influence. In 2005 Russell released Hotwalker, the second part of a planned "Americana trilogy" (the first part being "The Man From God Knows Where"), anther conceptual work largely inspired by his correspondence with author Charles Bukowski. Subtitled "A Ballad for Gone America", the album features songs and spoken word pieces, many of the latter delivered by another friend of Bukowski, circus midget Little Jack Horton. The sampled voices of Lenny Bruce and Edward Abbey are also heard on an album which takes the form of a musical collage lamenting the passing of the America of Russell's childhood and the Beat generation.
In 2006, Russell released Love and Fear, a collection of original songs that were inspired by the highs and lows of his relationships with women, followed in 2007 by "Wounded Heart of America", a tribute album of Tom Russell songs covered by other artists, including Joe Ely, Suzy Boggus, Dave Alvin and Jerry Jeff Walker. Recently, Russell's new record company, Shout Factory, released a 2 CD retrospective album "Veteran's Day: Anthology" and Russell and Canyon Productions released a DVD featuring Russell and Ian Tyson discussing the art of songwriting called "Mano a Mano." Russell is also working on a documentary film project called California Bloodlines" and is currently touring, painting and writing new songs.