It is belated but I have 'discovered' Tom Russell and Andy Hardin. They did a performance here in Juneau last night. (They will be in Palmer, outside Anchorage, tonight)

Not only did they put on a very good show but I have never in my life heard a guitar picked the way Andy picks it. He is fast, clean and inventive; his Takamine rings, pings, chimes, lilts, thumps and roars in anger and fades and cries in grief - did I mention that I liked it?

And he is the down home kid, the kind you take home for dinner. And he IS related to John Wesley.

Russell- he is just this side of slick. His voice is good, resonant and expressive and he has a wonderful ear for nuance.

I went looking to see what I could find on them.

Tom Russell

What others say about Tom Russell:
Russell stands well apart from the rest of the acoustic guitar toting crowd.
    --New Yorker, 4/12/04

Like Carl Sandburg, Russell has honored the painful birthing of pioneer and early twentieth century America ... a brutal honesty and tenderness sets his songs apart, their simplicity is endearing.
    --True West, 5/04

Russell's compositional abilities have only grown stronger with time, as has the empathy and moral authority he invests in the songs of others.
    --Portand-Willamette Weekly 9/04

[Russell] seems to have invented (and he keeps reinventing) the Americana genre.
    --Columbus Other 3/04

Russell's finest work would get the nod from Woody Guthrie himself.
    --Alanna Nash, Entertainment Weekly

Tom Russell is perhaps the finest singer-songwriter active in roots music ... his songs unfold like little movies.
    --Montreal Gazette 3/04
Russell's work is among the most moving and literary of the past thirty years, an antidote to the recent trajectory of self-absorption in American singer-songwriting . . . his story-songs are unlike any others, including those by the acknowledged best: Paul Simon, Shane McGowan and Bob Dylan.
    --Andrew Marcus, East Bay Express, 11/02
[Russell's] best songs underscore the human condition and capture the soul of the common man with uncommon decency.
    --Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times, 4/01
If California has a "musician laureate," Tom Russell would be an ideal candidate.
    --Santa Cruz Sentinel, 11/02
The master of the western-theme narrative song is Tom Russell.
    --Glen Starkey, New Times, 6/02
Tom Russell is the John Steinbeck of country song.
    --Patricia McCormick, author, Lady Bullfighter
Tom Russell is an original, a brilliant songwriter with a restless curiosity and an almost violent imagination.

Annie Prouxl, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News

Russell's Man From God summons the spirit of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" . . . Russell's reach is both wide and deep, balancing the grand sweep of history with the individual histories of his ancestors.    --Charles M. Young, The Atlantic Monthly
Russell's Man From God is awesome in its musical and lyrical purview and worthier than Billboard's top 20 albums put together.
    --Parke Puterbaugh, Stereo Review
Tom Russell is perhaps the finest singer-songwriter active in roots music . . . his songs unfold like little movies.
    --Mike Regenstreif, Montreal Gazette, 3/01
With convincing characters and historical imagery, Russell's songwriting opens the senses, and his performances deliver us to the heart of the scenes he evokes. An American master.
    --Scott Holter, Seattle Weekly, 10/02
And Andy:

Andrew Hardin


"After witnessing a performance in California in September, 2001, Tom Montgomery of San Francisco wrote: "... I can say that I'm pretty sure that I've never heard anyone in my life play the guitar any better than Andrew Hardin." http://www.andrewhardin.com/bio.html

"And that's enough. The guy has fingers like spiderlegs. Long, slender, and fast! First echoing a touch of the melody, then reaching up the neck in flurries of chords and counter-melodies. Amazing to watch, awesome to hear."