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Tom Rush - Blues, Songs and Ballads Audio CD

A fair review of the Tom Rush "Blues, Songs and Ballads" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Tom Rush reviews here, or go back to the Tom Rush tabs.

Tom Rush Band: Tom Rush
Title: Blues, Songs and Ballads
Rating:
Release Date: 1991-10-11
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Duncan and Brady 2: I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister 3: San Francisco Bay Blues 4: Mole's Moan 5: Rye Whiskey 6: Big Fat Woman 7: Nine Pound Hammer 8: Diamond Joe 9: Mobile-Texas Line 10: Joe Turner 11: Every Day in the Week 12: Alabama Bound 13: More Pretty Girls Than One 14: Sister Kate 15: Original Talking Blues 16: Pallet on the Floor 17: Drop Down Mama 18: Rag Mama 19: Barb'ry Allen 20: Cocaine 21: Come Back Baby 22: Stackerlee 23: Baby Please Don't Go

washtub bass
He won't win plaudits for orginality or breaking moulds but if you're tired of folk music full of nasal whines and sloppy finger-pricking Tom is your only man. Rush's beautiful guitar picking style and his deep voice are peerless. Some poeple may find this twee or too easy-going but I can't give it less than five starts as to me it is perfect.

The thing I like most about Tom Rush is the emotion he puts in the guitar playing. His voice too sounds like of sad a lot of the time but still comes across like somone who would actually be good craic!

The production on this album is great too. Just a voice, a guitar a washtub bass, and harmonica.


Just in the nick of time
My, how bad they sounded as I've just about worn it through over the years. I was going through my LP collection the other day and tried to play my copy of this album. I heard Tom live many years ago and have been a fan ever since. I was overjoyed to find that this recording as well as some of his others was now out on CD. This album belongs in everyones collection of Folk classics.


Sings and plays his way into your memory, for good!
And it's just Tom, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, backed up by [who was it?], Mitch or Bruce somebody or other on gut bucket, also known as washtub bass. Yep, this is definitely one of the best of the best. Tom was young at the time he made this, but sounds like a real old-timer. At the time these two albums were made, he was one of the main characters in the Cambridge (Mass. ) folk revival, along with the Baez sisters, Jackie Washington, Eric Von Schmidt, Debbie Green. Eric Andersen, and the like.

This one starts out like a gunshot with "Duncan and Brady", and basically never lets up. Rush mixes pathos and humor and plenty of other assorted moods and reveries. The fellow can sing and play with the best of them. Check out the wonderful slide guitar playing on "Rye Whiskey". And he almost chews/ruminates on his words, with his terrific sounding, relaxed baritone voice. When he tells (sings) a story, you get lost in the believability of it. It's awesome, really.

As of 3-4 years ago, Rush was still tremendous in concert, and his banter and joke telling are as good as his playing and singing. He can be truly hilarious, make you nearly fall off your seat a' laughing. I'd say he's as good a showman and interpreter of old tunes as Michael Cooney, but that's a tough contest given the fact that they inhabit somewhat different (though not too) emotional dimensions.


Nostalgia ain't enough
It is nice to have "Mole's Moan" which was just everywhere you turned in Boston at the time. After playing it I realized that these songs have been done much better by other musicians and this really served as a portal to more hard core traditional folk music for me. Unfortunately that time as expressed on this set is dated.


A Must-Have for your Folk Collection
Nevertheless, I'd find myself singing the songs anyway; they never seemed to leave me. This is a truly delightful set of songs! A friend taped this for me back in the early eighties, and I wore the tape out within a year or two, and I never could find another copy of the album. And when I finally found the CD--hallelujah!--it was as if I'd never been without it. From start to finish, this is a great song set: hilarious at times, moving at others, and always delivered by Rush expertly. A supremely underrated work that won't disappoint you.


You can see a complete list of all Tom Rush discography, or go back to the Tom Rush tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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