Folk music tonight

Me and Tuffy P are going out tonight to see Tom Russell, and Rosalie Sorrells at Hugh's Room here in Toronto.

Review to follow later tonight....

Update: It's midnight, and we just got home from Hugh's Room. Fantastic show tonight. Rosalie Sorrells opened with a set of lovely songs and stories, including some by her friend Utah Phillips. Tom Russell then appeared with Michael Martin accompanying on guitar and mandolin. Martin is one of those pickers who play with a remarkable effortlessness. That way, he reminded me a little of Mark Stuart. He gave the tunes colour and some perfect border flavour. Tom Russell is, among other things, one of the best songwriters I know of. He brings such rich imagery to life - it was really fantastic. We were sitting at a table close to the stage - the players were no more than a dozen feet from us. I really enjoyed the fact that we had such a world-class writer and performer playing for us in such an intimate environment. Russell played and sang songs recorded on several of his albums, including two songs made famous by others. I've known Gallo del Cielo, a song about a legendary one-eyed rooster, for many years, as Ian Tyson recorded it on Old Corrals and Sagebrush as a Mexican Polka. (Russell told the audience....we don't have to play no steenking rooster song.....but we will). More recently, I've heard a version of this tune by Joe Ely, which is a little closer to Russell's approach to the song. The other song was Navaho Rug, a huge tune in Canada for Ian Tyson on Cowboyography. For the encore, Russell brought out Rosalie Sorrells and Sylvia Tyson to help him close the show.

Many of the people in the audience were part of the "Cowboy Train" from Vancouver to Toronto. This 4 day cross-country train trip included a lot of music by Tom Russell and Rosalee Sorrells and others. There were late-night jam sessions and open mics and it sounded like a fantastic (though expensive) trip.

Tomorrow night, we're off to Massey Hall for the Los Lobos show - this is a week of border music for sure.