Customer Reviews

What I Know

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You could say that even when Tom Rush was in the thick of it, he flew under the radar. He's a true old school folk artist, albeit a unique one. His version of "Urge For Going" was a milestone for both author Joni Mitchell and Tom, and on this CD his cover of Mishka's "Lonely" approaches the success of his "Urge" cover; it actually sounds like a (get ready) H I T!
He's joined on this CD by other true greats (Bonnie Bramlett ,Emmylou Harris among them),and the tune selection and mix approaches the near perfection of his first Elektra LP.The Amazon editorial reviews pretty much nail it.
"What I Know" demonstrates forcefully that Tom Rush still knows how to make a fine album ,and those of us who appreciate the best are all the richer for it. I raise my glass to the makers of this disc!

"What I Know" is classic Tom Rush. Although it is his first studio album in 35 years, this is no comeback album. He has been performing concerts and releasing albums of his live shows during that time, all the while adding to his group of fans and intrducing his brand of folk music to a new generation. I've been going to his concerts and buying his albums for over 40 years, dating back to his college circuit days, his late night radio shows on WBZ in Boston and his classic Symphony Hall concerts. Through it all, he has remained true to his folk roots and this album is no exception. A well presented mixture of his own writing with the inclusion of some well chosen work of others, this is a collection of songs that will make you reflect and feel like you are there with Tom, feeling what he feels.

Tom Rush has been a part of my musical world since I was first introduced to Circle Game those many years ago- 35, could it be? He is an icon in my world, along with those he introduced to folk music, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell. Joni wrote Circle Game but Tom Rush recorded it first-and this CD is a little like a Circle Game, 30 years after his last CD, he recorded, 'This I Know'.

This CD is more joyous than his previous CD's, you might not think so from the title, but it has more fun from the opening track 'Hot Tonight' to the last 'Drift Away'. Tom Rush tried to retire but he says 9 months of riding circles in his tractor convinced him that he wasn't set out for retirement.

The 15 tracks on this CD are all glorious. The first track, 'Hot Tonight' ii is said is an outtake of an old Sam Cooke song 'Wonderful World' it opens the CD to a bounce. 'River Song' was written by Tom Rush and the words are so lovingly written. Nanci Griffith sings with Tom on the track 'Casey Jones,' and Emmylou Harris takes charge on 'Too Many Memories'. My favorite is 'What An Old Lover Knows' and speaks of familiarity of the known. 'One Good Man' is a raucous song of what a woman is looking for, 'round the world. Remember the old song 'Drift Away', Tom Rush brings a new melody and feeling to it. "Give me the people to free my soul, I want to get lost in your rock n' roll and drift away'. And he does, he frees our soul.

Why did it take Tom Rush 30 years to record a new CD? James Taylor, a great admirer of Tom Rush, gives us some insight when he says this of him, "He's definitely an unsung hero in popular culture, but I think Tom was as central a figure to folk music as Dylan and Woody Guthrie, But he was part of music right as it was becoming a cash cow in a corporate way. Tom just didn't have the stomach for it. He didn't interface well with that. He wasn't about making money off his music - at least that was always my feeling."

My best friend relates to one of Tom Rush's most famous songs 'No Regrets' and along with Circle Game and so many more, how could we ever have regrets with Tom Rush? He lives within my heart since I first heard him in 1968.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 03-17-09

No Regrets: The Very Best Of Tom Rush

The Circle GameThe Circle Game

This is mostly a response to the one-star review here. That review just proves that beauty is not self-apparent, and hence the cliched reference to the ear of the beholder. That review, to my ear and those of many fans of singer/songwriter soft-rock, is way off in its analysis even of Tom Rush's earlier appeal (not popular, but rather aesthetic). Rush has the most gorgeous interpretive voice, one that defined the aforementioned genre, and a self-professedly limited (but effective and affecting) picking technique.

Similarly, "Rockport Sunday" is not as great as a composed or "written" instrumental as it is in its sonic interpretation by the composer himself and his engineers/producers on The Circle Game. In fact Rush's best work starts with The Circle Game and includes Columbia's Tom Rush, Wrong End of the Rainbow, and Ladies Love Outlaws.

Sure, this album doesn't quite match those works, and true that great song choice had much to do with those albums' artistic success (as did stunning production work), but it sounds quite good and not far from what one would expect of a Rush-Rooney collaboration, which was a long time coming.

I only wish that Tom would, next time around and hopefully soon, take on an Other Voices, Other Rooms-type interpretive all-star project, on which he guested for Nanci and Rooney. There's a big chunk of the real Great American Songbook that needs to be interpreted by the greatest of vocal stylists.

Use to see Tom at the Mole Hole in Toronto, the Chessmate in Detroit ( along with Joni Mitchell) and at the Ark in Ann Arbor. He's been singing to me for nearly 40 years. Still sounds good. Age and life have smoothed and mellowed out the old Driving Wheel, and for me, songs like "Too Many Memories" hit harder after losing two wives. Thanks Tom.

What I Know satisfies on all levels: great song selections, tasty acoustic guitar, warm vocals, and captivating arrangements all make for a CD that has been on constant play in my car and iPOD since it arrived. If anyone doubts that Tom's still got his playing chops, just listen to the fills and rifts on "Drift Away". Each relistening of the CD brings new levels of enjoyment. Enthusiastically recommended !

I'm as happy as the next guy to see Tom Rush with a new album and I agree that he came up with something charming and enjoyable. But, when I see the many five-star Amazon reviews, I can't help but feel that they're inflated, especially if I compare this recording with Tom's best albums from years past. Back in the 60s and early 70s, Tom found some amazing new songwriters and worked with arrangers like Paul Harris who provided careful, ethereal arrangements to present their material in the best possible light. Don't get me wrong, What I Know is a pleasant album with fine musicianship, but it's not in the same league as the stark, wintry, conceptual masterpiece that is The Circle Game. There is, however, one knockout track that can stand alongside Tom's best work, and that is his inspired re-imagining of Dobie Gray's "Drift Away." On this track, all the things Tom does best come into play: he chose a great song, he came up with a unique guitar arrangement and, with his warm vocals and skillful picking, he made the song his own. And while the other tracks are all decent, they don't reach out and grab me the way that, say, "Driving Wheel" does when I play his self-titled Columbia LP. When I hear the opening line "I just came up on the midnight special," I'm hooked. In contrast, when I hear the chorus to Eliza Gilkyson's "Fall into the Night" ("'cause my longing meets your longing like true companions") I'm, frankly, thinking Tom's own songs are better. In fact, it's the original material (e.g., "The River Song") that provides many of this album's highlights. After listening to What I Know all the way through, I'm invariably ready to hear something rougher along the edges---maybe Dave Van Ronk or Ramblin' Jack Elliott or, to take things full circle, Tom Rush's self-titled Elektra album---not the Columbia LP I mentioned earlier, but the one that shows him lighting a cigarette in a New Jersey railroad yard, looking lean and hungry.

I'm a Tom Rush fan from w-a-y back. So had to have this CD. He's done better. If you're a Tom Rush fan, get this CD. His voice & guitar playing are as good as ever. Several songs are very nice.

If you have just recently discovered Tom Rush, get "The very best of Tom Rush: No regrets", and/or "Tom Rush, Live at Symphony Hall, Boston" first. My personal favorite is the "Live at Symphony Hall".

Tom Rush is my age. His singing was an important part of the soundtrack of my youth. I discovered he was still out there awhile back when someone emailed me the You Tube video of him performing his funny song, "Remember?" Now comes this great recording! There is not a bad cut on it. Some of it is fresh and new, some very familiar. As far as I can tell, his voice has not changed -- as warm and evocative as ever. He still knows how to choose good material from other songwriters, and his own songs are still poetry. What I didn't know back in the 70's was that he had a wry sense of humor -- that is present too. Right now my favorite song here is "River Song." But that may change tomorrow. Every one is a gem.

Tom Rush has created a wonderful album that it best described by a previous album title, "Classic Rush." "What I know" remarkably sounds like Tom has never left the scene, yet it is first new album in probably some thirty years. Early albums like "The Circle Game" were like good friends, you never got tired of them and liked having them around. I can't recall a recent album that has asked for repeated listening like this one. A personable, reflective, engaging, and fun album, expressive of the multiple aspects of Rush's unique music and personality. Welcome back, Tom!