Tom Rush has been a part of my musical world since I was first introduced to “No Regrets” when I was in high school, and then I explored ”Panama Limited” and other acoustic blues clues to his beginnings after I saw him in concert at the Celebrity Theater back in 1971.      The kid that introduced me to this man’s music was Rick Rogers.  Rick was a slow talking, longhaired, guitar toting hippie wannabe, with a gentle soul and easy laugh, who said to me in passing, “you should listen to Tom Rush, you’d like him”.   How he knew I don’t know.   But he was right.  I did.   If you are out there somewhere, Rick, I owe you!

 

The 3 singers and songwriters at the top of the pyramid for me for years were Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Rush and John Stewart.   I was fixated on their music and to this day, I own every piece of vinyl any of them have ever released, and in some cases, extra copies because I wore them out.   Mark Knopfler has joined this elite club in my later years.     John Stewart died last January and Gordon’s prime has passed.   These were sad events for me.   Used to be I would look forward to each of their next albums with baited breath.  In Tom’s case, I would have joined Tut inside the pyramid if I held my breath that long.   

 

After Merrimac County in 1972, there was Ladies Love Outlaws in 1974, which was, I think, a stab at a Nashville commercial chart hitter…..but I always felt it was over produced and Tom’s excellence got lost in it.   ”No Regrets“, one of his signature songs, was much better when it was first released on the Circle Game album juxtaposed with “Rockport Sunday“, his eloquent solo guitar companion piece.   (Footnote, it seems to me that when it was released on Classic Rush on Elektra, they reversed the order…..Rockport was first, No Regrets second, and on the Classic Rush album, the opposite occurred.  Tom, no doubt tinkering?)

 

Anyway, after his last Columbia release, there were a couple of recordings in the early 80’s that I unearthed in the Folk section of now defunct Tower Records and Ebay.   Also, a New Years special I taped off of PBS in 1980, but nothing else until the Very Best of Tom Rush  which is quite a nice compilation of the Prestige, Elektra and Columbia years.  A new one, “River Song“, appeared at the very end and knocked my socks clean off.    (It has become my wife’s and my courtin’ song)    It was like an old friend coming home.   But that was all she (or he, in this case) wrote.

 

Not that Tom wasn’t busy doing this or that, but musically, I lost him.   Until the Internet.   (Thanks Al?) 

One fine day, I found him and his website (circa 2000 and loose change?)    I was sitting around playing www dot fill in name here dot com and there he was.   On a lark, I emailed him and asked him the equivalent of “whassup” and when might he be coming to Phoenix.    Amazingly, he emailed back.   And said, he didn’t know.   But if someone was interested, let them know to contact him.   Cool, I thought.   Who do I know?   Big fat hairy nobody.  

 

But I was on his mailing list and over the ensuing years, found his humorous live collection Trolling for Owls and I got hold of a 6 song cassette “work in progress” that he released in limited supply and I then wore out.  (One day it unraveled and became ‘one’ with my previous car’s cassette player for eternity.)     But that is where I first heard “All A Man Can Do” .     Which now makes its appearance on the brand new , What I Know, Tom’s first major studio album in all those intervening years, and which was just released this week. 

Tom doesn’t write much.   When he does, he gives birth to monster songs…..like “No Regrets” or the “River Song“.    He is a very literate fellow and usually goes deep when he writes.   The cheerful exceptions to the rule are found here in What I Know …….his latest songs are far less introspective and far more joyful.   And unself-conscious.   Listen to ”Silly Little Diddle” and “What I Know”, and the concert opener “Hot Tonight” and ”One Good Man“   “River Song” makes a reprise appearance here with a different arrangement……(and again, like “No Regrets” back in 1974, he got “River Song” right the first time in 1999.  But its such a great song, it lives well here.  I just like the crescendo bridge in the first version and the way he delivers the hook line towards the end of the song.  But what do I know? 

Tom’s amazing ear and talent for interpretation of other artists’ material is legendary.  For the uninitiated, Tom recorded James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Joni Mitchell, long before the world knew anything about them.   And his song selections over his career have been delightful.   This album is no exception.    It sneaks up on you.    You hear it the first two times and are pleased.   You hear it again, and something gets in underneath you, and then you start to hear the whole thing.   Not with your ears so much as your spirit.   The phrasing, both guitar and vocal are classic Tom Rush.   (Which is why he is so good as a solo act, he communicates intricate things with voice and strings).    He makes ”Drift Away”, the Dobie Gray standard sound like a Tom Rush song.  As familiar as it is, you hear it differently.   The more you listen to it, the more distinctive it becomes.   And its the sparest arrangement on the album (just guitar and cello).   

 

The fine accompaniment on this album manages to avoid overproduction.   I was tickled to find Rush veterans Trevor Veitch and Robin Batteau making appearances on the album, and the other assembled musicians are all top notch.  He jokes about the sax and steel together on “What An Old Lover Knows but the instruments work just fine.   “Lonely”  the Mishka Frith reggae classic is amazing…..I didn’t know I knew the song until several listenings.   Tom’s interpretations are that distinctive and this is a truly wonderful rendition.   When I hear “You’re Not Here With Me”, I feel the same things in my spirit that I felt when I heard “Wind on the Water” from his Merrimac County album.   On this album, Tom found me.   Got right through the crust and right in my spirit.   That’s what he always did, with his songs or those he interprets, and its quite amazing that he can still do it.   Because we have all changed.   Or have we?   

 

You are in for a treat if you are a longtime fan like me, because this is an outstanding album.   If you are new to Tom Rush…I envy you.   You have years of music to discover.    But listen to this a dozen times or so first…..don’t miss any of the nuances.    Its worth sipping slowly.       In this season of being confronted with life’s impermanence and the inevitable fading of hopes and dreams, it is quite extraordinary to have this gift appear, as though no time has passed at all.   In ”Too Many Memories” (with Emmylou Harris doing harmony vocals), the writer defines growing old as replacing hope with regret.   

 

What I Know …..is that we can thank Tom Rush for putting that notion on hold for awhile.

I am foraying into uncharted territory here.   Being an amateur historian, in addition to the many other interests in which I am not proficient,  I feel compelled to try and at least add a little historical perspective.   Frankly, I am angry.   Everytime I turn on the radio or open a newspaper, I am either greeted with a story about A-Rod’s steroid use (which frankly is not front page news) or another overwrought description of our economic problems.   ‘Recession’ isn’t good enough.   ‘Downturn’ is unromantic.   No.  We have to throw words around like Catastrophe.   Crisis.    Disaster.    Good for ratings and apparently pretty good for powergrabbers in Washington.

 

An unnamed political operative in a major political party recently was quoted as having said “you never want a good crisis to go to waste”.    A pox on his mansion!    That mentality is precisely what should give us all pause to question what we are being spoon fed.   The media and politicians are like Chicken Little, except I note, they are Chicken Little with a Big Agenda.   Lets face facts.    The Great Depression was a crisis.   The Tsunami that killed an estimated 250,000 after Christmas in 2004 was a catastrophe.    Michael Jackson’s life is a disaster.   (Ok, not a disaster, just painful to watch)   But the point is, we need some perspective.   To run around ascribing our present difficulties as catastrophic does great disservice to those of us who are trying to get through life as best they can in difficult times.     Some parts of the country are having severe unemployment, while others are wondering what the fuss is about.     Many of us in the middle have seen our incomes decline, our houses lose value, and we are having to do with a bit less, or a lot less.   

 

Unemployment is at 7.6% and climbing, but lets remember that most economists consider “full employment” (those that want to work) at about 4% unemployment or 96% employed.   Today in our “crisis”….92.4% of Americans are working.    Huh?   Where’s that in the headlines?     That fact does not make it easier for those unemployed, but it does put the problem in a different perspective.     More perspective?   Unemployment during the Depression was at 25% and more.   When Mr Carter was President in 1980, unemployment was over 14%, interest rates and inflation were racing for 20%.   Since then we have weathered two more recessions and an S&L collapse, not to mention the 1987 Stock market crash, and a couple of wars.      Here’s some more perspective.    Hurrican Katrina displaced a city and killed 1,100 people.     The Tsunami of 2004 killed 250,000 and displaced half a continent.   Does anyone really want to make that comparison?   

 

In our personal lives, some of us got divorces, some got sick and recovered, some lost family members.    Life comes with adversity.   It is not advertised to be different, and our expectations should not be falsely encumbered with visions of sugarplums dancing on our 401K’s.   In the words of a wise philosopher, $#%@ happens.

 

And now, we are warned that we are facing an imminent economic catastrophe.   Are we really?    Aren’t Americans capable of reaching out to one another in hard times?    Isn’t that what we do?     Doesn’t history teach us that we can recover from whatever life throws at us?    That, in the words of Dr King, we shall overcome?    Do you realize that we endured a Civil War that killed 2% of our population, the Great Depression and 2 World Wars (and countless bad Presidents) in the span of one lifetime?    Do any of our present troubles come even CLOSE?     And if they did, how does panic help?

 

When did we become so susceptible to fear…..when did we lose our confidence in ourselves and in a power greater than ourselves?   

 

Life has hardships and ups and downs.   We have all been caught in troubles, whether financial, emotional, or physical.    And we will again.    Whom does it profit to display us at our worst?  To portray us as though we are incapable of rising above our circumstances?      If we can be convinced that we are powerless and that we should fear the future instead of looking forward with hope and faith, then we are ripe for tyranny.

 

Be careful whom you believe.   Evaluate what you are being told you must give up in order to persevere.    We will get through this together, and sometimes separately, because that is what we have always done.   Encourage one another and tell them not to believe the words they hear coming out of the mouths of those who believe you don’t have what it takes.    Who would bully you with fear tactics and crisis mongering.  Don’t drink that Koolaid and don’t let the government or the media tell you otherwise and fleece you in the name of “not letting a good crisis go to waste”.

 

And the next time you see Chicken Little, introduce him to the Colonel.