The first Tom Russell tune I heard was “Gallo Del Cielo,” which stopped me in my tracks as a guy in my unit played it over a field telephone speaker out in the field. You couldn’t get much lower-fi than that delivery, but I was transfixed by the song. I wrote the performer & title down in my notebook and made a note to acquire it once I got back to the barracks. I jumped into the back catalogue pretty deep after that. The only other memory I have of the guy who introduced me to Tom Russell was him getting busted for trying to smuggle a confiscated Colt .38 Special back from Iraq.

I can’t find a version of “Gallo Del Cielo” online that does the studio recording justice, so instead I went with a live version of the initial track of Blood and Candle Smoke inspired by Tom’s experiences teaching in Nigeria during the Biafran War. This is a pretty fair introduction to how densely allusive his songwriting can be.

I don’t think Tom tours anymore and I’m not even certain he still plays shows. If he was coming remotely close to the People’s Republic I would be there. He’s one of my favorite living songwriters.

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