Size: 507 MB
Time: 75:28
File: Flac
Released: 2004
Styles: Blues-rock
Art: Full
1. A Crack In Time (4:35)
2. I Should Have Been Home (4:09)
3. You're My Baby (3:46)
4. Last Night (4:43)
5. One Meat Ball (3:54)
6. Crossroads (7:29)
7. Soldier (5:50)
8. Shackles And Chains (4:03)
9. This Is Your World (4:40)
10. Don't Turn Your Head (3:14)
11. The Answer (3:58)
12. Nothin' Can Save Me (5:52)
13. Time Flies (4:21)
14. Drive By (4:35)
15. Sam Brown (4:20)
16. Wild Wild West (3:03)
17. Dram Of A Better World (2:47)
In 2011, Calvin Russell died after 62 long and intense years on the road. As a singer/songwriter, he described his life, which saw him shuttle between the stage and prison. He lived life the hard way, not surprising when you spend the first five years of your life in a bar in Austin, Texas, where your father was a cook and your mother a waitress. There wasn't much time to spend with little Calvin. Not only did his parents work around the clock, but they also had eight children to care for.
Calvin learned to play guitar at twelve, and a year later, he gained his first band experience as a rhythm guitarist in a garage band. The band played rudimentary rock music; he didn't care much for his parents' favorite music, country & western.
At fifteen, Calvin had had enough of life with his family in Austin and ran away to San Francisco. He survived life on the road by working all sorts of shady jobs. As a marijuana dealer, he frequently ran afoul of the law and ended up in prison several times.
Ultimately, he spent about 10 years behind bars over the course of 20 years. In 1984, he embarked on a journey through the Great South, crossing the Rio Grande to Piedras Negras and El Paso. There, he began writing songs in earnest and performing from town to town. He lived as a homeless drifter and, in the winter of 1985, was caught by Mexican authorities with American marijuana in his pockets. He was charged with fraudulently importing narcotics and spent a year and a half in Mexican prisons.
Back in Austin, he worked as a plumber and hung out on the music scene with legendary musicians like Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, and Leon Russell. This helped him make a name for himself in Austin's alternative country scene.
Calvin Russell's real breakthrough as a roots musician, however, came through a chance encounter in December 1989. No one paid much attention to the then-over-40-year-old singer, who was singing his songs in a corner of a bar, accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar.
No one, except Patrick Mathé, the boss of the French independent record company New Rose, who regularly visited Austin to discover new artists. That encounter ultimately led to the birth of the recording artist Calvin Russell.
The album "A Crack In Time" was recorded in Austin with producer Joe Gracey and released in Europe by the New Rose label in early 1990. "A Crack In Time" was extremely successful in Europe.
A year later, "Sounds From The Fourth World" was released, again recorded in Austin with Joe Gracey. Calvin toured extensively in France, where his music was embraced by the alternative rock crowd. Meanwhile, in Texas, where his albums were also released, he was largely ignored. While the press noted the singer's success in Europe, he barely made a name for himself as a musician.
In 1992, "Soldier" was released, a magnificent album produced by Jim Dickinson, the emperor of the Memphis Sound. "Soldier" was somewhat more well-received in his home state, but Russell's biggest success came in Europe, where "Le Voyageur" was released in 1994, a live album that culminated in a marathon tour of 178 concerts across Europe over the course of a year.
In 1998, he released a Best Of album, "This Is My Life," and it was then that he was confronted again with his criminal past. After a brawl at a gas station in Texas, the alerted police found Russell with marijuana. He faced another year in prison, but fortunately, he ultimately escaped with a suspended sentence.
Thus, Calvin Russell continued releasing albums and performing until his death in 2011, primarily in Europe, with his spirited roots rock about life on the streets and in prison—in short, about freedom and adventure, longing and vulnerability, undying love and deep disappointments, and trains that never reach their destination.
Thus, we remember Calvin Russell as the Charles Bukowski of roots music.
A Man In Full FLAC
