I received a pretty elaborate press release along with the CD, and the present Tom Russell's bloodlines go back to Patrick Russell from Templemore, Ireland. About eight years ago the present Tom Russell was in a bar in Downpatrick, Ireland, and an old man came up and asked him if he was Tom Russell. The old man said, "They hung your namesake, Thomas Russell right across the road in 1798, during the United Irish Rebellion. There"s a poem about him call "The Man From God Knows Where." Tom Russell decided then and there to right this song cycle. The Original title was to be American Primitive, but after that encounter in the bar in Ireland it became "The Man From God Knows Where". The rest of the CD follows his ancestors from Ireland and Norway. I hope I didn't make this sound confusing. It's one of those conceptual things that keeps you involved from Track one throughTrack 26..........