Tom Russell
2013
PM
MEL LEHAN HALL AT ST. JAMES i
3214 West 10th Ave, Kitsilano
Accessible 
All ages
This event has already taken place.
Yes! A second show has been added, but this is not a mere repeat of the previous night. Far from it! Tom recently published his first Songbook, and it contains not just the words and music of no less than 120 of his songs, but also short essays and anecdotes about those songs and their origins. Tom will read excerpts from the book and take requests all night long, striving not to repeat any of the songs he plays on Saturday! So it will be an equally memorable show, and if you can't make it on Saturday - or if you are a devotee and want to hear EVERYTHING (in which case you have extremely good taste!) come to BOTH shows!
We highly recommend that you buy tickets in advance. There will not be any tickets available at the door on the Saturday, but there likely will be on Sunday; we wouldn't advise risking it, though. Please book your tickets to avoid disappointment!
One of America's very best songwriters, Tom Russell lives near the Texas border town of Juarez (close to El Paso). He has performed 15 times at The Rogue and has released a string of amazing albums over the past few decades. He cut his teeth in the bars of Vancouver's skid road in the 1970s, quit performing for a while, and was famously convinced to resume his career when Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter was a passenger in his NYC taxi cab.
Tom's 1999 album, The Man From God Knows Where, traced his family roots to Norway and Ireland and tells of his ancestors' troubles during the pioneer days in America. From that point onwards he has released some of the very best lyrical work this side of Bob Dylan. His songs and stories tell the tales of the victims and vagabonds living on the soft underbelly of America's forgotten towns; the down and outs with the most poignant epic experiences.
On Blood & Candle Smoke (2009) some of Tom's own stories came to light: working for the USO in Nigeria during the Biafran war of 1970, being threatened by guerrillas there and in Prince George BC a few years later. Threatened with lethal weapons, that is. All sorts of harrowing tales are told by this great American songwriter, and his performances are consistently stunning.