Tom Rush - Selftitled (Great Folk Album US 1970)

Size: 74.5 MB

Bitrate: 256

mp3

Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock

Artwork Included

Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Another self-titled album, this time for CBS, finds Tom Rush continuing to mine the fertile vein of folk-rock songwriters the likes of James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Canadian Murray McLaughlin. Standouts include David Wiffen's "Driving Wheel," McLaughlin's "Old Man's Song" and "Child's Song," and Browne's "Colors of the Sun." Also, there appears to be a hint of country sneaking into the arrangements. A very solid effort.

Tom Rush is the 1970 album from pioneer Folk rock musician Tom Rush. He covers songs from fellow folkies Jackson Browne, Murray McLauchlan, James Taylor and David Wiffen. Guest musicians were David Bromberg on Dobro and Red Rhodes on Steel Guitar.

Tom Rush (born February 8, 1941) is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.

Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the adopted son of a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after having graduated from the Groton School. He majored in English literature. Many of his early recordings are versions of Lowland Scots and Appalachian folk songs. He regularly performed at the Club 47 coffeehouse (now called Club Passim) in Cambridge, the Unicorn in Boston, and The Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Rush is credited by Rolling Stone magazine with ushering in the era of the singer/songwriter. In addition to performing his own compositions, he covered songs by Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Murray McLauchlan, David Wiffen and William Hawkins, helping them to gain recognition early in their careers.

Bob Dylan is reputed to be the "Roosevelt Gook" credited as playing piano on the 1966 Elektra album Take A Little Walk With Me, though many believe it was Al Kooper under another name to collect a second musician's fee.

His 1968 composition "No Regrets" has become an acknowledged standard, with numerous cover versions having been recorded (Rush did two radically different versions himself). These include The Walker Brothers, who gave Tom Rush a belated Top Ten exposure as a songwriter on the UK singles chart, Emmylou Harris, who included the song on her 1988 album Bluebird, and Midge Ure whose cover also made the UK Top Ten.

A video of his performance of Steven Walters' "The Remember Song" was placed on YouTube and to date (June 2012) it has received over 6 million plays. 

Writing on his website, Rush said, "I've been waiting 45 years to be an overnight sensation, and it's finally happened! A video clip of my performance of "The Remember Song" has 'gone viral.' I felt terrible at first, thinking I was being accused of being a musical equivalent of Ebola, but my children explained to me that this was a good thing." One of the earliest music videos produced (1968) for an artist by a record company, Elektra, can be found at his website, www.tomrush.com. It was used to promote his signature song, "No Regrets" for "The Circle Game" album. A number of recent videos from a 2010 concert performed in Old Saybrook, CT can be found on the video website Vimeo under a search for Tom Rush.

Tom Rush is married to author Renée Askins and was formerly married to singer Beverly Rush.

Over the years Tom Rush has used a number of guitars on stage, his current primary one a handcrafted acoustic made by Don Musser. In February 2012, Rush appeared on stage in Colorado with a new instrument, a cedar-top Dreadnought with an inlay of a snake wrapped around a reclining nude woman. The guitar, crafted by McKenzie & Marr Guitars is a "re-incarnation" of one of Rush's earliest acoustics - the famous "Naked Lady."

On 28 Dec 2012 Rush appeared at Boston Symphony Hall to celebrate fifty years in the music biz.

Tom Rush is a gifted musician and performer, whose shows offer a musical celebration...a journey into the tradition and spectrum of what music has been, can be, and will become. His distinctive guitar style, wry humor and warm, expressive voice have made him both a legend and a lure to audiences around the world. His shows are filled with the rib-aching laughter of terrific story-telling, the sweet melancholy of ballads and the passion of gritty blues.

Rush's impact on the American music scene has been profound. He helped shape the folk revival in the '60s and the renaissance of the '80s and '90s, his music having left its stamp on generations of artists. James Taylor told Rolling Stone, "Tom was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main influences." Country music star Garth Brooks has credited Rush with being one of his top five musical influences. Rush has long championed emerging artists. His early recordings introduced the world to the work of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor, and in more recent years his Club 47 concerts have brought artists such as Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin to wider audiences when they were just beginning to build their own reputations.

Tom Rush began his musical career in the early '60s playing the Boston-area clubs while a Harvard student. The Club 47 was the flagship of the coffee house fleet, and he was soon holding down a weekly spot there, learning from the legendary artists who came to play, honing his skills and growing into his talent. He had released two albums by the time he graduated.

Rush displayed then, as he does today, an uncanny knack for finding wonderful songs, and writing his own - many of which have become classics re-interpreted by new generations. (It is testimony to the universality of his appeal that his songs have been folk hits, country hits, heavy metal and rap hits.) Signed by Elektra in 1965, Rush made three albums for them, culminating in The Circle Game, which, according to Rolling Stone, ushered in the singer/songwriter era.

In the early '70s, folk turned to folk-rock, and Rush, ever adaptable, saw more room to stretch out. Recording now for Columbia, he toured tirelessly with a five man band, playing concerts across the country. Endless promotional tours, interviews, television appearances, and recording sessions added up to five very successful but exhausting years, after which Tom decided to take a break and "recharge" his creative side at his New Hampshire farm.

01. "Driving Wheel" (David Wiffen) – 5:22

02. "Rainy Day Man" (James Taylor, Zachary Wiesner) – 3:07

03. "Drop Down Mama" (Sleepy John Estes) – 2:33

04. "Old Man's Song" (Murray McLauchlan) – 3:22

05. "Lullaby" (Jesse Colin Young) – 3:45

06. "These Days" (Jackson Browne) – 2:40

07. "Wild Child" (Fred Neil) – 3:13

08. "Colors of the Sun" (Jackson Browne) – 3:51

09. "Livin' in the Country" (Day, Winsted) – 2:31

10. "Child's Song" (Murray McLauchlan) - 4:09

1. Tom Rush

or

2. Tom Rush

or

3. Tom Rush