Tom Russell has long felt a kinship with the American West, examining its people, land and history. On Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs, his third album in the cowboy/western genre, he explores that tradition and adds to it with a well-executed set of originals and covers.
Tonight We Ride mixes defiance and bravado in a rollicking song of a larger-than-life adventure that begins with Pancho Villas raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Andrew Hardins guitar and Joel Guzmans accordion give the song a cinematic feel that make it sound like part of the soundtrack for Sam Peckinpahs The Wild Bunch.
All This Way For The Short Ride, a collaboration with cowboy poet Paul Zarzyski, details a rodeo riders demise. Russells somber vocal captures the spirit of an event where a thin line separates triumph and tragedy.
Russell covers two Bob Dylan songs. Seven Curses is a lesser-known tale of frontier justice with a twist. Russell imaginatively recasts Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts as a musical, sharing lead vocals with Eliza Gilkyson and Joe Ely and bringing a sense of theater to the Blood On The Tracks epic.
The Ballad Of Edward Abbey is a tribute to the ardent environmentalist who fought encroaching development in the west. Its a song that will resonate in any region where commerce competes with nature. Russell captures Abbeys fighting spirit with the lines, If a man cant piss in his own front yard/Hes living too close to town.
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