By Ray Shasho
American folk and blues raconteur Tom Rush has been
captivating audiences with his deep- rooted acoustic stylings and musical repartee
for over a half century. And there is still nothing more profound then
witnessing the simplicity of a lone performer onstage with an acoustic guitar and
a story to tell. Tom Rush has that rare ability to interpret life stories in
its most traditional and purest form.
Tom began his life as a troubadour by performing at
Boston- area clubs while attending Harvard University in the early 60s. Rush
released two albums by the time he graduated.
By 1965, he signed to Electra and recorded three
albums for the record label.
The
Circle Game album released in 1968, covered tunes
by singer-songwriter counterparts Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and James
Taylor. The release also spawned the self-penned folk classic, “No Regrets.”
The song has been covered by numerous artists over the years including … The
Walker Brothers (#7 Hit -1975, UK Singles Chart), Emmylou Harris, Fairport
Convention, Olivia Newton-John, Curtis Stigers, Waylon Jennings, and Shirley
Bassey. The album cover was photographed
by Linda Eastman.
According to Rolling
Stone magazine, The Circle Game ushered
in the singer/songwriter era.
James Taylor was quoted saying, “Tom was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main
influences.”
Tom
Rush in the 60s … (Tom Rush at the
Unicorn, Got a Mind to Ramble, Blues, Songs and Ballads, Tom Rush, Take a
Little Walk with Me, The Circle Game)
In the early 70s, Tom Rush recorded for Columbia
Records.
Rush toured extensively throughout the 70s. He became
a traditional act at renowned music clubs like The Cellar Door (Washington, DC)
and The Bitter End (New York), but also played large arenas supporting
legendary rock acts like Loggins and Messina, and Alice Cooper.
Tom
Rush in the 70s … (Classic Rush, Tom
Rush, Wrong End of the Rainbow, Merrimack County, Ladies Love Outlaws, The Best
of Tom Rush)
After taking a break from touring, Tom Rush
triumphantly returned (1981) to a sold-out Symphony Hall in celebration of
twenty years in music. The following year, Rush spearheaded what would become a
traditional annual musical event at Symphony Hall in Boston. The event mirrored
a concept from the Club 47 coffee house in Cambridge, Massachusetts of the
early 60s- allowing established artists and newcomers to share the same stage.
The concerts would spotlight well-known artists like Bonnie Raitt or Emmylou
Harris, (along with then unknowns) Alison Krauss or Mark O’Connor. Tom took the
Club 47 concert series on the road …where it’s been ever since. The show has
performed at Boston’s Symphony Hall, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and
New York’s Carnegie Hall to name a few.
The Club 47 concert series continues to pack houses,
delight audiences, and animate music critics. Rush says … “It all comes down to a really good excuse for getting some friends
together and throwing a party.”
Tom
Rush in the 80s … (Tom Rush: New Year,
Tom Rush: Late Night Radio, Tom Rush: Blues, Songs and Ballads -re-release)
In 1999, Columbia/Legacy released a Tom Rush
retrospective album that covers his recorded musical history from 1962 to the
present.
Tom
Rush in the 90s … (Work in Progress, Tom
Rush: Wrong End of the Rainbow-re-release, The Very Best of Tom Rush: No
Regrets)
In 2009, Tom Rush recorded his first studio album in
35 years. The album entitled, What I Know
was recorded in Nashville. The release includes original material along
with harmonies by Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Bramlett and Nanci Griffith.
Tom
Rush 2000’s and present … (Merrimack
County/ Ladies Love Outlaws –re-release, Live at Symphony Hall, Boston, Trolling
for Owls, How I play(some of) My Favorite Songs, Judy Collins’ Wildflower
Festival, What I know)
Most
recently, a video surfaced on You Tube of Tom Rush performing the hilarious/
sad-but- true … Steven Walters penned ditty, “The Remember Song.” The video has generated over six- million
views.
Tom
Rush will be embarking on a new tour beginning December 7th from
Portland, Maine. The tour lands at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, Ponte Vedra
Beach, Fl on January 10th, the Largo Cultural Center in Largo, Fl on
January 11th and Big Arts- Schein Performance Hall, Sanibel Island,
Fl on January 12th.
Order tickets for the Ponte Vedra Beach show at http://pvconcerthall.sjcvenues.com/
or call (904) 209-0399 for more information.
Order tickets for the Sanibel Island show at www.bigarts.org
or call (239) 395-0900 for more information.
I had the great pleasure of chatting with Tom Rush
recently about the tour, and just about life in general.
Here’s my interview with a pioneer of the onstage
concept of …a man, his guitar, and a story… singer, songwriter, and musician …
TOM RUSH.
Ray
Shasho: Thanks for being on the call Tom … so how are things?
Tom
Rush: “Well, it’s snowing again now, it’s just blowing
around in the air … but I think summer is finally over.”
Ray
Shasho: Not down here in always sunny Florida.
Tom
Rush: “Sure … go ahead and rub it in.”
Ray
Shasho: But you’ll be down here soon performing three shows in the “sunshine
state.” Besides the upcoming tour, you’re
also compiling the talent for an upcoming Symphony Hall concert.
Tom
Rush: “Yup, the 28th of December. This is my fiftieth year of recording and doing shows.
Ray
Shasho: Congratulations!
Tom Rush:
“Thank-you! It’s
king of depressing actually. (All laughing)
We’re going to do the show to kind of put the end-cap on the fiftieth
year.”
Ray
Shasho: Have you lined-up all the guest artists that are performing at the show
yet?
Tom
Rush: “I’m getting there … pretty close. I’ve got Nanci
Griffith, Jonathan Edwards, Buskin & Batteau, and trying to line up a
couple of more. I’m hoping this will turn back into an annual event; I use to
do these every year back in the early 80s, and then Symphony Hall started using
the dates for Pop shows between Christmas and New Years and I couldn’t get a
date from them. But now they’ve opened up again, so I’m hoping I can do it
again next year and maybe keep doing it going forward. But we’ll have a good
time.”
Ray
Shasho: Tom, I’ve been disgruntled with the music scene for quite a long time.
Growing up in the 60s, we had the best of the best, and most of us probably
thought it would never end.
Tom
Rush: “Well I think the good news is, these days there are
a lot of music scenes, which has nothing to do with the industry … with a
capital I, and the industry is kind of circling the drain. I’m sure you’re aware; a number one record today sells about ten
percent of what it did about twenty years ago. It’s all gone over to the
internet, and that’s good news for the working musicians and bad news for the
superstars.”
Ray
Shasho: And there aren’t many record companies left so it’s almost impossible
to get a record deal.
Tom
Rush: “Again, the good news is, sensible new musicians
don’t want a record deal … they’ll do it themselves. They can connect with
their audiences on the internet; sell
their product on the internet. There are acts that can sell ten thousand seats
today who have never been on the radio. So, it’s kind of exciting.”
Ray
Shasho: I miss those days of hearing a song on the radio and running down to
your local record store to buy the record.
Tom
Rush: “That was a good model, the record company, the
radio stations, and the concert industry working together in symbiosis … but it
doesn’t work that way anymore.”
Ray
Shasho: I chatted with Roger McGuinn (The Byrds) and he seems to be happy with
being in control and not depending on record companies.
Tom
Rush: “It is hard to start out now; even though you’ve got
an infinite amount of shelf space on the internet, it’s hard to get peoples
attention. So Roger and I are fortunate that we’re going in with an existing
audience. But given that we have an existing audience; it’s a great way to keep
in touch with them. The Symphony Hall show for instance, I wondered how was I
going to get a promoter to put up fifty or sixty grand to take a chance whether
we could sell this Hall. And what am I going to have to give up in exchange for
that investment. So I thought what about a kickstarter campaign … and we filled
half the Hall before it went on sale. So we’ve got all the bills paid going in,
and it’s a good feeling. They’ll also be doing a six camera shoot at the show; some
folks will be doing a documentary on me. So it will be a lot fun. Tickets
aren’t on sale yet but tomrush.com will have all the news soon.”
Ray
Shasho: Tom, were you part of that Greenwich Village music scene with Maria
Muldaur … Bob Dylan, and all those great artists?
Tom
Rush: “Not so much, I was up in Cambridge, Massachusetts …
there was a different music scene up there. The Greenwich Village scene,
everybody wanted to get matching shirts and go on the road. Up in Cambridge, it
was much more of an amateur scene. They were just doing it for the love of the
music. A few of us went on to become professionals but not very many. It was
mostly typewriter repairmen, psychopharmacologist, and people who just loved to
get together to play music for the fun of it, and really had no intention or
desire to go professional.”
Ray
Shasho: So what was your big-break leading you into a professional music
career?
Tom
Rush: “I had a couple of friends with radio shows on WBZ
in Boston, and they were 50,000 watts clear channel, these guys would get fan
mail from New Zealand, and had regular listeners in Ohio and Western
Pennsylvania, just a huge-huge audience. I didn’t understand that at the time …
what 50,000 watts clear channel meant. They’d invite me to play some songs on
their shows and had no idea what type of audience I was playing to. I still get
a lot of people saying, “I use to hear you on WBZ!”
Ray
Shasho: I associate timelines of my life with music. Like… where was I when I
first heard a particular song being played on the airwaves etc. Or in your case,
through my teen years … every time I’d pick up the Washington Post
entertainment section … there you were performing at The Cellar Door in
Georgetown.
Tom
Rush: “I’m being told over and over… “You’re the
soundtrack to my college years …or my time in Viet Nam …or whatever, so people
are coming to hear the songs they are familiar with, and God bless them, but if
you want to do new stuff, you’ve got to sort of shoulder aside some of the
older stuff. I still do a lot of the old stuff onstage … some Joni material, The Circle Game, “No Regrets” …which is
my song, “Driving Wheel,” songs that people associate me with, but I also
manage to squeeze in new material, and the good news is that my crowd seems to
love it.”
Ray
Shasho: I truly
believe …a lone singer onstage
with a guitar and a
story to tell imprints an everlasting impression that a band of musicians just can’t
compare to.
Tom
Rush: “I do agree, and there aren’t many people doing that anymore. It’s
an interesting discipline to be able to get up with just a guitar and hold
people’s attention for a couple of hours.”
Ray
Shasho: “I enjoyed the “What’s Wrong with America” video on your website. Do
you think musicians should publicly endorse and campaign for a candidate?”
Tom
Rush: “I’ve avoided that. On the one hand, I think my job is to give a
person a little vacation from everything that’s wrong with the world, so I try
not to get political onstage; I have been doing this, “What’s Wrong with
America” song, which is quite different. I think even rich people will get a
laugh out of it. But I think in general, I shy away from politics onstage.”
Ray
Shasho: Tom, I ask everyone that I
interview this particular question. If you had a ‘Field of Dreams’ wish to
collaborate or play with anyone, living, or in the past, who would you
choose?
Tom
Rush: “That’s a tough one …but I’d love to be able to sit in the audience
and listen to Robert Johnson or Josh White. I did get to see Josh White play;
he was one of my idols. I’d love to see Lead Belly and some of the old blues
guys that aren’t with us anymore. That would be a treat.”
Ray
Shasho: It’s a
shame that many of those incredible blues players weren’t appreciated back in
their day as much as they are now.
Tom
Rush: “That was one of the interesting things about the
Club 47 in Cambridge; they made a point of going out and finding these guys. A
lot of them had retired, and most never played for a white audience before.
They’d bring them up to Cambridge and these guys would be sitting in front of a
bunch of white college kids. It must have been like going to Mars. But the kids
loved it and a lot of the blues guys got a second career out of playing for
college kids.”
Ray
Shasho: Tom, did you ever have it in your heart to
pick up a ‘Strat’ and just wail away? (Laughing)
Tom
Rush: “I tried playing electric for awhile and it just
didn’t work out. My reflexes are centered on the six string acoustic. I just
played the electric too hard and it sounded awful, so I gave it up.”
Ray
Shasho: I
love “The Remember Song” because it’s so true … and based on the audience
response, I think people can really identify with the lyrics. (Over 6-million views on You Tube) Are you surprised how popular that tune has
become?
Tom
Rush: “That was kind of a surprise …yea. My web guy was putting up some
stuff on You Tube and I said …let’s put up “The Remember Song” people might
like it. It didn’t cost anything, what the hell. And it’s the one that took
off. It’s a song for our times.”
Ray
Shasho: Do you have a favorite tune you like to perform onstage?
Tom
Rush: “Not in particular, having been added it for fifty years; I have
enough of a repertoire that if I get bored I can swap it out for something
else. And then there’s new material coming along, either my songs or music I
find on other peoples recordings. So, no, I don’t think I have a favorite. I
like mixing things up, doing some silly stuff, along with serious stuff, up
tempo, and some quiet things … it keeps me interested.”
Ray
Shasho: What I Know is your latest
release, do you have plans to record in the studio again soon?
Tom
Rush: “I’ve got about three or four projects going at the same time and I
don’t know which one is going to make it to the studio first. I wrote a kid
song for the first time ever … and not necessarily kid songs but silly songs
coming along. It would be a fun project to do; I could probably whip it off in
a day. But then there are collections of other things, stuff that I’m writing,
songs that I’ve learned from other people. I had so much fun working with Jim
Rooney and his people down in Nashville, and I’d love to get back in the studio
with him.”
Ray
Shasho: They’ve got some amazing players down in Nashville don’t they?
Tom
Rush: “Oh boy … working with these guys is like having a magic carpet
ride. There are fifteen tracks on the CD and six of those are first takes. And
I was actually disappointed they were first-takes because I wanted to do them
over and over. (All laughing) It just felt so good. Every other house down
there is a recording studio. You can get really top quality recording studio
time for cheap.”
Ray
Shasho: Your wife ‘Renee Askins’ is an author who wrote
a book called “Shadow Mountain” …can you talk
about her
book?
Tom
Rush: “It’s a good book … fifteen years working to get wolves restored to
Yellowstone Park, and got the job done against overwhelming odds, because it
was not popular with the ranchers who have a very disproportionate amount of
power out there.”
“They had separate releases in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana; the
wolves have flourished now and have been taken off the endangered species list
in all three states. Each state is managing them very differently; Wyoming is
managing them very badly. There basic policy is … just shoot them … every
chance you get.”
“When she got the job done, Doubleday asked her to write a book
about it, and she did, and it’s an excellent book. A women’s take on … why it
was worth it, what it was really all about underneath it all, our relationship
with wildness and wilderness … it’s a really a nice piece of work.”
Ray
Shasho: Tom, thank you so much for being on the call today. But most of all …
for the fifty years of great music and storytelling that you’ve given to all of
us. We’ll see you in Florida!
Tom
Rush: “Well thanks … I’ll keep doing it, if you keep listening!”
Sign up
for the Tom Rush Newsletter on Tom’s official website at http://tomrush.com/
Order
the latest release from Tom Rush What I Know at amazon.com.
Order author
Renee Askins (Tom’s wife) incredible journey … Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild at amazon.com.
Tom Rush In Concert/ Florida dates …. Ponte Vedra
Concert Hall, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fl on January
10th, the Largo Cultural Center in Largo, Fl on January 11th and Big Arts-
Schein Performance Hall, Sanibel Island, Fl on January 12th.
Order
tickets for the Ponte Vedra Beach show at http://pvconcerthall.sjcvenues.com/
or call (904) 209-0399 for more information.
Order
tickets for the Sanibel Island show at www.bigarts.org
or call (239) 395-0900 for more information.
GREAT
HOLIDAY GIFT! Purchase Ray’s very special memoir called
‘Check the Gs’ -The True Story of an Eclectic American Family and Their Wacky Family
Business … You’ll LIVE IT! Also available for download on NOOK or
KINDLE edition for JUST .99 CENTS at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com -Support
Ray so he can continue to bring you quality classic rock music reporting.
~~Pacific
Book Review says Ray Shasho is a product of the second half of
the 20th century, made in the USA from parts around the world, and within
him is every trend in music, television, politics and culture contributing to
his philosophical and comically analytical reflections collected in his fine
book of memories. I found Check the Gs to be pure
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own life, as I too am within a few years of Ray. So to all, I say if
you have a bit of grey hair (or no hair), buy this book! It’s a
great gift for your “over-the-hill” friends, or for their kids, if they are the
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