Without a doubt, Tom Russell has been one of America’s finest songwriters in folk and acoustic music during the past several decades. He continues this mastery with his new album “Modern Art”, which I’ve been programming on recent shows. This program of “T for Texas” starts off with a band of Northerners doing Jimmie Rogers classic and then moves on to a select few Texas performers.

The highlight of the show is a nearly one-hour in-studio interview by my son Matthew with Tom Russell recorded on April 30 at WKCR-FM in New York City and aired on the station’s “Tennessee Border Show,” a show Tom has appeared on throughout the years, especially when he was residing in New York. The interview (also with long-time Russell accompanist Andrew Hardin and Hot Club Of Cowtown fiddler Elana Fremerman) features live performance of the songs “Modern Art” and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and then a magnificent reading/singing of Charles Bukowski’s poem “Crucifix In A Death Hand” woven together with a verse of Warren Zevon’s “Carmelita” and Russell’s “That’s What Work Is.” The music finishes up with “Tijuana Bible.”

• Artist, "Title", Album, Label

• Northern Lights, “T For Texas”, ,

• Northern Lights, “T For Texas”, Three August Nights/Live”, Prime CD

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• Austin Lounge Lizards, “Stupid Song About Texas”, Texas Songwriters, Silverwolf/Kerrville

• Terry Allen, “Amarillo Highway”, From Hell To Breakfast, Sugar Hill

• Rosie Flores, “West Texas Plains”, Texas Boogie, Hightone

• Dave Alvin, “East Texas Blues”, Texas Boogie, Hightone

• Tom Russell & Katy Moffett, “Mineral Wells”, Texas Boogie, Hightone

• Tom Russell & Nanci Griffith, “Bus Station”, Modern Art, Hightone

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  Interview of Tom Russell (& Andrew Hardin and Elana Fremerman) by Matthew Winters/WKCR-FM, New York City, on April 30, 2003

  “Modern Art”
  “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”
  “Crucifix In A Death Hand/Carmelita/That’s What Work Is”
  “Tijuana Bible”

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• Hot Club Of Cowtown, “Cherokee Shuffle”, Ghost Train, Hightone

• Ray Wylie Hubbard, “Dust Of The Chase”, Texas Songwriters, Silverwolf/Kerrville

• Robert Earl Keene, “The Road Goes On Forever”, From Hell To Breakfast, Sugar Hill