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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland: February 2011
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland. Friday, February 25, 2011. When the Legends Die (Song #2). When I was a child my grandmother took me to her weekly painting lessons. I was the kid in the room with heroes tacked up over my head. Pictures ripped from magazines. Grandma’s paintings. At first the walls were covered with athletes. Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. Oh, those lived-in faces. I had this vision ( I’d been there. Of a songwriter alone in a kitchen on Christmas Day. Drunk. His children didn̵...But w...
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland: Monte Hellman/George Kimball
http://russelltom.blogspot.com/2011/07/monte-hellmangeorge-kimball.html
Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland. Sunday, July 10, 2011. Two summers ago I heard director Monte Hellman was trying to reach me. I was familiar with Monte’s Two Lane Blacktop. The ultimate American road movie. James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, drummer of the Beach Boys, race their hopped-up car across the America, against another car driven by actor Warren Oates. Helluva movie. Monte also directed early Jack Nicholson films and produced Reservoir Dogs. The songs “Road to Nowhere. George Kimball died s...
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland: Train Dreams
http://russelltom.blogspot.com/2011/12/train-dreams.html
Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland. Monday, December 12, 2011. Pass me that flask of cognac with the 1950’s Union Pacific Dome-Liner etched on it. I’ll tell you about. Vintage streamline rail cars, sailing up the western coastline, towards my favorite city. All aboard! Coming April 13-18. Los Angeles to Portland and back. Special guests: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Jon Langford, and Thad Beckman. And yours truly: Tom Russell. The song South Coast. On the streets of Paris and London in the 1950’s....
russelltom.blogspot.com
Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland: December 2011
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland. Monday, December 12, 2011. Pass me that flask of cognac with the 1950’s Union Pacific Dome-Liner etched on it. I’ll tell you about. Vintage streamline rail cars, sailing up the western coastline, towards my favorite city. All aboard! Coming April 13-18. Los Angeles to Portland and back. Special guests: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Jon Langford, and Thad Beckman. And yours truly: Tom Russell. The song South Coast. On the streets of Paris and London in the 1950’s....
russelltom.blogspot.com
Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland: Adventures in the Hollywood Skin Trade
http://russelltom.blogspot.com/2011/06/on-childhood-sundays-jiminy-cricket.html
Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland. Saturday, June 18, 2011. Adventures in the Hollywood Skin Trade. On childhood Sundays Jiminy Cricket crooned “ When You Wish Upon A Star. 8221; as Disneyland came on the TV. Chilling. This song was performed by Cliff Edwards, also known as Ukulele Ike. A funny little, frog-faced man, born in 1895 in Hannibal, Missouri. He left school to become a vaudeville crooner. Taught himself the ukulele and recorded hits like “ California Here I Come,”. She’d sing . I say, wha...
russelltom.blogspot.com
Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland: November 2010
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland. Saturday, November 27, 2010. On through Hachita and Animas; past the monument where Geronimo surrendered; ate crackers and cut meat near Skull Valley; arrived in Douglas, Arizona. I showed them the Gadsden Hotel lobby, where Villa rode his horse up the stairway. There’s a stuffed puma, a cowboy watering hole – The Saddle and Spur Bar. Monday night show at the Rhythm Room. After seven hours we hit old Magdalena and the adobe home of Steve Bodio and his wife Libby...
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In a Perfect World | Back in the Day
https://gawilli.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/in-a-perfect-world
Back in the Day. In a Perfect World. September 5, 2010. About ten years later, John and I made our first visit to the local butcher shop, and who do you suppose was standing behind the counter? Although I didn’t make the connection, he did, and came out from behind the counter to say hello and meet John. We quickly became regular customers and got to know the other good folks that work there, but his face is always the one I look for. Then last week the driver and his parents released a video. 8220;to he...
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland: September 2011
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland. Sunday, September 18, 2011. The Last Mesabi Blog. Last summer we went to the circus in Switzerland. It was all very boring, until the last act. The extreme artist, Freddy Nock. Appeared from behind the curtain. He walked up a diagonal wire, backwards. The new record, Mesabi. Is out. I’ve written here about most of the songs, at least the peripheral color. Have kept me going. The only way to end this record – with its so called dark moments,. 8220; Love Abides.
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland: July 2011
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Tom Russell: Notes from the Borderland. Monday, July 25, 2011. Heart Within A Heart. Truth is a pathless land. So sayeth Krishnamurti . Two roads may not. Diverge in the woods this time around. Suddenly there are no roads. Life isn’t what happens to you, but how you react. To what happens. The journey home after we’ve lost our maps or honing devices. Time to re-tool personal philosophies. All gospels become Gnostic. And left their mark on the cave wall. Song #9 coming…on Mesabi. Sunday, July 10, 2011.
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