Customer Reviews

Borderland

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was impatiently expecting the release of Borderland. The day I bought it was a rainy and grey day. I immediately played it; the notes of "Touch of evil" filled the room, the sound of the accordion and his warm voice quickly surrounded me and transformed the day. I couldn't help falling in love with this CD.

All the songs are wonderful, the stories are real, you can figure the movie in your head while he suggests the plot. His voice caresses you. I think this album is somewhat more intimate than others, there's something subtle in the atmospheres he evokes, anyway it is pure Tom Russell 18K. The theme of the border, recurring in most of his works, here is a perfect background; sometimes the border is the divide between one world and another, between north and south, poor and rich, light and darkness, the border is that shade of grey that links, or divide, black and white. All songs are beautiful, but my favourite are "Where the dream begins" "Down the Rio Grande" and Dave Alvin's "California snow" I like very much the cover too.

This is quite possibly the spookiest record you may ever hear. Russell has created a landscape of spooky characters, spooky stories, and even spookier songs. The concept of the album is that we all put up borders in our lives and getting over those borders is the real challenge. If you like to cry, laugh, let it all hang out and party, then Tom Russell's "Borderland" is the next CD you should buy. By the way, I painted the album cover. Do you like?

My favorite music are songs that can tell a moving story. Sometimes it's a love song and sometimes its political commentary but in any case, I want a story that can be as compelling as something in Oprah's Book Club.

There are a few songwriters around who continue to write this way and can also perform with flair. Dave Alvin is among the best and he cites Tom Russell as a songwriter he admires. The new CD Borderland by Tom Russell is a perfect example of masterful songwriting, performed well by great musicians and sung with Russell's expressive (although sometimes flat) vocals.

Some of the songs on this CD are true classics. Touch of Evil, When Sinatra Played Juarez, and the Santa Fe at Midnight are great stories, mixed with a catchy melody and great instrumental backing.

Two of the songs are collaborations with Dave Alvin. Rio Grande and California Snow are two haunting songs that will stay with you. Alvin recorded a better version of California Snow on his CD Blackjack David, but Russell's version is strong as well. Finally, Next Thing Smoking is a train song that will remind you of a few of the songs on Alvin's Grammy Award winning Public Domain.

In closing, a word about Russell and his live performances. Russell is a very engagin live performer and tours with guitarist Andrew Hardin. Andrew is an incredible guitarist and is worth the price of admission on his own. He plays on this CD and also does backing vocals. When you combine him with Russell's storytelling in a live show, you have an evening that is very memorable.

I was introduced to Tom Russell's music last night at a great, intimate concert in Montclair NJ. The ridiculously talented Andrew Hardin stood strumming at his side. Together they performed just about every song on this CD. This is the stuff.
The good stuff. Lyrics that take you on a long ride, rich melodies, cantina style guitar riffs. I bought the CD after the concert and should have gotten a speeding ticket for how fast I raced home to play it. "Touch of Evil" is a great homage to Orson's last and most bizarre film. If "When Sinatra Played Juarez" doesn't get you singing along, have your ears and your head examined. "California Snow" - a story seldom told, What Work Is, The Road it Gives - songs to cool to be butchered in praise by a hack like me. If you like Tom Russell, this is a must have. If you are new to him, this is the place to start.
Nuff said.

This cd is not different from what Russell has been doing in the last 10 years. A mix of Tex-Mex, cowboy mythology, country folk, rock and short stories lyrics that could very well compare with Faulkner. This is again a great cd from a man who's in the groove. But not as good as his masterpiece "Man from god knows where". So, it's a good cd for those who have his previous ones. For starters go for "man" or for "songs of the west" first. Then decide if you want more...

This past summer, I commuted an hour and a half each way to an English teaching position. I popped a CD recommended to me by our local musical guru into my CD player. I had listened to Borderland a couple of times and found it pleasing enough. But with nothing but time on my hands as I drove the miles across the Appalachian Mountains, I REALLY listened to this CD--and I fell in love. In love with the lyrics. In love with the stories. In love with the guitar. In love with the accordian. In love with the voice. (Need I say "in love with Tom Russell"?) The reviewer who called Russell's voice "wooden" doesn't understand the rich nuance of wood, I guess. I literally listened to this album over and over again as I drove back and forth each day last summer, and I have yet to tire of it. Russell evokes the mixture of joy and melancholy that someone who has lived a while in this world knows is our human lot. Like the chorus of Touch of Evil--"Why don't you touch me anymore?"--many of Russell's lyrics are raw, simple and honest, while others are genuine literary gems. I have just ordered two other Russell CDs, and I am eagerly awaiting their arrival. I always loved driving on the open road, but now it's better than I ever imagined. These songs are so beautiful they hurt.

It is a shame that there aren't more CD's like this, but that's what makes Tom special, he's one of a kind. The new CD - and I'm lucky enough to have been listening to it for 5 days before the 'offical' release date is both epitome and sterling example of Tom's songs. Intelligent, literate, with both tunes and topics that stay in the mind. For a disc to make topics of such diverse themes as Orson Welles, Poncho Villa, and the old copper railroads that once ran from Bisbee, AZ... puts the repetitive drivel of most contemperary writers to shame. "Touch of Evil" brings to mind such previous songs as "Angel of Lyon" and "Wm Faulkner" "Down the Rio Grande", written with Dave Alvin calls to mind other collaborations between the two, or "Heartaches are Stealing" written by Tom and Ian Tyson. "Hills of Old Juarez" is something only Tom could write, while "The Santa Fe at Midnight" walks where legends have trod, starting with Hank, brings back my own memories starlite nights west of Gallup, NM. 'Let it go' brings to mind "Box of Visions" as viewed from the other side. The closing cut, "The Road..." picks up on "The Extra Mile"

Linked thematically, like many of his discs, it captures a view and feel of the border with a novelists sense of place and mood.

Quite possibly the best CD I've heard since B. Hancock's "Eats Away the Night" back in 1995.

Borderland is a good, but never a great, album. Perhaps it can't help being a letdown after the amazingly ambitious, gratifyingly realized Man from God Knows Where, in its own way the equal of its more-or-less inspiration, Paul Simon's much more famous Graceland. Borderland highlights Russell's strengths and weaknesses as a singer-songwriter: an exceptional storytelling talent on one side, mostly pedestrian melodies on the other. There certainly is nothing here to match such early, and superior, Russell works as "U.S. Steel," "The Road to Bayamon," and (of course) "Gallo De Cielo." Sometimes criticized for sounding too much like Ian Tyson for his own good, at times Russell here recalls the John Stewart of three decades ago, especially (though, alas, not exclusively) on "When the Dream Begins" and "Hills of Old Juarez," both of which could have been outtakes from Stewart's Willard album. And yet Russell's talents are undeniable. "Touch of Evil" could have been written only by a real pro. The song brilliantly interweaves deceptively random observations about the classic Orson Welles film with a lover's bitter complaints. Russell effectively locates songs in a place -- usually the Texas-Mexico border, where he resides -- and tells entirely believable stories about the people who live there and the things that happen to them. Gurf Morlix's tasteful, unbusy, sympathetic production is an unfailing pleasure. If there are no masterpieces, there are no bad songs, either.

I read a review of this CD while on business in St. Louis. I consider myself as at least somewhat savvy about americana and folk music - but I had never heard of Tom Russell. I purchased Borderland and was pleasantly surprised. He rates right at the top of the song writers list. I eventually bought a couple more Russell cds: The Long Way Around, Modern Art, Poor Man's Dream - all very listenable releases - but Borderland remains his finest work of the group I purchased. The story he weaves of unrepented love and loss is unforgettable. I am now a Russell fan and will buy the rest of his cds and hope to see him sing "Veterans Day" in person sometime soon.

Do you go through your ripped music and pull out only those songs that suit your fancy for your playlists? You don't have to with this music. It is all good, but only for those that value talent as opposed to commercialized predictable music that most hear.
I live about a hundred miles downriver from him and know, first hand, what he sings about is the truth. If you are one of those that is looking for an insightful interpretation of the southwest, in unmatched vocal poetry, this album is for you. If not, enjoy your radio music.