Tom Russell
The Man From God Knows Where

For those who approach Tom Russell's music, even superficially, the first thing that strikes about this artist is his distinctive vocation as a storyteller: over the course of his long career, this extraordinary figure has used stories, people, events of all kinds as raw material to shape his songs, all linked to that immense, fascinating, and contradictory country known by antonomasia as America—both during his period with the Tom Russell Band, from 1984 until the mid-'90s, and in the more strictly singer-songwriter phase of the new millennium. Between these two major phases stands the core, the absolute pinnacle, the most monumental, ambitious, and risky work of this artist—a project that only Tom Russell, with his talent and vocation, could have completed.

Behind this evocative and somewhat unsettling cover lies a concept album: twenty-six tracks over seventy minutes of music; to tell the truth, "The Man From God Knows Where" is more than just a concept album, it is a collective work, a choral masterpiece: in fact, Tom Russell shares the stage with other voices: Iris DeMent, Dolores Keane, Karl Bremnes, Sondre Bratland, Dave Van Ronk, each embodying a different character in this sound film that tells the story of America through the stories of its first inhabitants, particularly Irish and Norwegian immigrants, which are deeply connected to a personal and introspective journey of self-discovery through one's origins. "The Man From God Knows Where" is the main theme of this cycle of stories, revisited four times throughout the album: an acoustic ballad, tense and dusty, where old forgotten ghosts resurface time and again; then there are the portrayals of pioneers, "America's primitive men in America's primitive land", "Patrick Russell", where the singer gives voice to an ancestor of his, a sober, strong, and proud ballad, amidst memories of Irish famines and the hope for a better future, emigration as the only salvation, and then the challenges of a new life in an unknown and hostile land, which takes on dramatic contours in the paced, sorrowful waltz of "Ambrose Larsen". "Marie Clare Malloy" is a beautiful dance accompanied by Irish fiddles, epic and captivating, "Anna Olsen" a sweet and melancholic acoustic ballad; then there's another character, "The Outcaste", interpreted by Dave Van Ronk, who doesn't partake in the events described in the album but simply declaims a ragged and drunken street musician ragtime, as a detached, cynical, and caustic observer.

The stories of these men and women unfold and intertwine through reflections, dreams, and disillusionment, giving life to songs like the nostalgic and melancholic "The Old Northern Shore", one of the emotional peaks of the album, sweet and soothing folk accompanied by typical instruments like fiddles and bagpipes, the graceful, enchanting "When Irish Girls Grow Up", "Anna Olsen's Letter Home", where the genocide of the natives and the gold rush are evoked, and "Throwin' Horseshoes To The Moon", a sorrowful and ragged memory of an inveterate gambler, who is none other than Tom Russell’s own father. The environmental and emotional context of this album is completed by songs highlighting certain aspects of this primordial America narrated by Tom Russell, a non-place where the defeated, the miseries rather than the splendors, are emphasized, such as "The Dreamin'", an intense and dreamy elegy dedicated to whiskey, the rustic naivety of "Acres Of Corn", the album's most strictly country and reassuring ballad, interpreted by an excellent Iris DeMent, the sad western of "Sitting Bull In Venice", where the persistent bass line and scorching guitars clash with Russell's apathetic singing and the moving "Rider On An Orphan Train", where the stories of many orphans arbitrarily sent to unknown families in the American Wild West are evoked. "The Man From God Knows Where" closes finally offering a bit of serenity with "Love Abides", a sweet and consoling ballad containing what is the message of the entire album, "Hey, look how far we've come, do we know who we are? Stranded on a mountain top, trying to catch a falling star, here's to what we've left behind us, here's to what we keep inside".

For Tom Russell, creating "The Man From God Knows Where" was the dream and goal of a lifetime: it took eight years to conceive the album in its entirety, two years of studio work, and in the end, the result is this: a humble epic, that tells stories, lives, hopes, dreams and sufferings of humble people, yet at the same time manages to sound like something great, majestic and epic, in its alternation of wonderful, melodically ingenious acoustic ballads and sublime forays into the folk of old Europe. Like a seasoned director and screenwriter, Tom Russell managed to place the right people in the right roles, creating something that can be considered an unmatched milestone, the ultimate expression of genius, inspiration, and creativity of a vast artist—a masterpiece for music as a whole.