Ash Wednesday
A cross of ashes on a worshipper's forehead on Ash Wednesday
Observed by	Followers of many Christian denominations, primarily Western Christian (see below).
Type	Christian via Judaism[1][2][3]
Date	Wednesday in seventh week before Easter
2012 date	February 22
2013 date	February 13
Observances	Service of worship or Mass Marking of an ash cross on the forehead
Related to	Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras Lent Easter

Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan.^[4][5] Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40-day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned.^[6]

This practice is common in much of Christendom, being celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and some Baptist denominations.^[7][8]

Ritual[link]

At Masses and services of worship on this day, ashes are imposed on the foreheads of the faithful (or on the tonsure spots, in the case of some clergy). The priest, minister, or in some cases officiating layperson, marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes in the sign of the cross, which the worshipper traditionally retains until it wears off. The act echoes the ancient Near Eastern tradition of throwing ashes over one's head to signify repentance before God (as related in the Bible). The priest or minister says one or both of the following when applying the ashes:

Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.

—Genesis 3:19

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.

—Mark 1:15

The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday

Ashes may also be sprinkled on the top of the head, as shown in this 1881 Polish painting.

The liturgical imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday is a sacramental, not a sacrament, and in the Catholic understanding of the term the ashes themselves are also a sacramental. The ashes are blessed according to various rites proper to each liturgical tradition, sometimes involving the use of Holy Water. In some churches, they are mixed with a small amount of water^[9] or olive oil,^[10] which serve as a fixative. In most liturgies for Ash Wednesday, the Penitential psalms are read; Psalm 51 (LXX Psalm 50) is especially associated with this day.^[11] The service also often includes a corporate confession rite.

In some of the low church traditions, other practices are sometimes added or substituted, as other ways of symbolizing the confession and penitence of the day. For example, in one common variation, small cards are distributed to the congregation on which people are invited to write a sin they wish to confess. These small cards are brought forth to the altar table where they are burned.^[12]

In the Catholic Church, ashes, being sacramentals, may be given to anyone who wishes to receive them,^[13][14] as opposed to Catholic sacraments, which are generally reserved for church members, except in cases of grave necessity.^[15][16] Similarly, in other Christian denominations ashes may be received by all who profess the Christian faith and are baptized.^[17]

In the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is observed by fasting, abstinence from meat, and repentance—a day of contemplating one's transgressions. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer also designates Ash Wednesday as a day of fasting. In the medieval period, Ash Wednesday was the required annual day of penitential confession occurring after fasting and the remittance of the tithe. In other Christian denominations these practices are optional, with the main focus being on repentance. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 (whose health enables them to do so) are permitted to consume only one full meal, which may be supplemented by two smaller meals, which together should not equal the full meal. Some Catholics will go beyond the minimum obligations demanded by the Church and undertake a complete fast or a bread and water fast. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are also days of abstinence from meat (mammals and fowl), as are all Fridays during Lent.^[18] Some Catholics continue fasting throughout Lent,^{[citation needed]} as was the Church's traditional requirement,^[19] concluding only after the celebration of the Easter Vigil.

As the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday comes the day after Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), the last day of the Carnival season.

Biblical significance[link]

"Ash Wednesday" by Carl Spitzweg: the end of Carnival.

Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent. Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent's way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults. An ancient example of one expressing one's penitence is found in Job 42:3–6. Job says to God: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. The other eye wandereth of its own accord. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (vv. 5–6, KJV) The prophet Jeremiah, for example, calls for repentance this way: "O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes" (Jer 6:26). The prophet Daniel recounted pleading to God this way: "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). Just prior to the New Testament period, the rebels fighting for Jewish independence, the Maccabees, prepared for battle using ashes: "That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes" (1 Maccabees 3:47; see also 4:39).

Other examples are found in several other books of the Bible including, Numbers 19:9, 19:17, Jonah 3:6, Matthew 11:21, and Luke 10:13, and Hebrews 9:13. Ezekiel 9 also speaks of a linen-clad messenger marking the forehead of the city inhabitants that have sorrow over the sins of the people. All those without the mark are destroyed.

It marks the start of a 43-day period which is an allusion to the separation of Jesus in the desert to fast and pray. During this time he was tempted. Matthew 4:1–11, Mark 1:12–13, and Luke 4:1–13.^[20] While not specifically instituted in the Bible text, the 40-day period of repentance is also analogous to the 40 days during which Moses repented and fasted in response to the making of the Golden calf. (Jews today follow a 40-day period of repenting during the High Holy Days from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur.)

In Victorian England, theatres refrained from presenting costumed shows on Ash Wednesday, so they provided other entertainments.^{[citation needed]}

Dates[link]

Ash Wednesday is a moveable fast, occurring 46 days before Easter. It fell on February 17 in 2010, March 9 in 2011 and February 22 in 2012. In future years Ash Wednesday will occur on these dates:

The earliest date Ash Wednesday can occur is February 4 (in a common year with Easter on March 22), which happened in 1573, 1668, 1761 and 1818 and will next occur in 2285. The latest date is March 10 (when Easter Day falls on April 25) which occurred in 1546, 1641, 1736, 1886 and 1943 and will next occur in 2038. Ash Wednesday has never occurred on Leap Year Day (February 29), and it will not occur as such until 2096. The only other years of the third millennium that will have Ash Wednesday on February 29 are 2468, 2688, 2840 and 2992. (Ash Wednesday falls on February 29 only if Easter is on April 15 in a leap year.)

Observing denominations[link]

These Christian denominations are among those that mark Ash Wednesday with a particular liturgy or church service.

• African Methodist Episcopal Church
• African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• Anglican Communion
• Traditional Anglican Communion
• Individual Baptist churches may hold a service
• Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
• Some congregations of the Church of the Nazarene
• Church of God (Anderson)
• Church of North India
• Church of South India
• Some congregations of Community of Christ
• Ecclesia Gnostica
• Some congregations of the Evangelical Covenant Church
• Some Free Churches (e.g., Free Methodist Church)
• Liberal Catholic Church
• Lutheran Church
• Some congregations of Mennonite Church USA
• Methodist Church in India
• Moravian Church
• Old Catholic Church
• Reformed churches (Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), etc.)
• Roman Catholic Church
• United Methodist Church
• Wesleyan Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church does not, in general, observe Ash Wednesday; instead, Orthodox Great Lent begins on Clean Monday. There are, however, a relatively small number of Orthodox Christians who follow the Western Rite; these do observe Ash Wednesday, although often on a different day from the previously mentioned denominations, as its date is determined from the Orthodox calculation of Pascha, which may be as much as a month later than the Western observance of Easter.

National No Smoking Day[link]

In the Republic of Ireland, Ash Wednesday is National No Smoking Day.^[21][22] The date was chosen because quitting smoking ties in with giving up luxury for Lent.^[23][24] In the United Kingdom, No Smoking Day was held for the first time on Ash Wednesday 1984,^[25] but is now fixed as the second Wednesday in March.^[26]

See also[link]

• Ash Wednesday, an album by Elvis Perkins
• "Ash Wednesday", a poem by T.S. Eliot
• Ash Wednesday fires, a series of bushfires that affected south-eastern Australia in 1983
• Carnival, festival ending on Ash Wednesday
• Holy Week – the last week in the season of Lent

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ash Wednesday

External links[link]

• A Roman Catholic Ash Wednesday Service
• An Episcopal Ash Wednesday Service
• The Text This Week: Ash Wednesday
• Upper Room Ministries: Biblical Significance of Ash Wednesday
• Dates of Ash Wednesday from 1583–9999
• Lent: Ash Wednesday – All Saints' King's Lynn
• Origin, Traditions and customs and Observance of Ash Wednesday

Elvis Perkins
Elvis Perkins performing live at Joe's Pub in New York City on March 1, 2007.
Background information
Born	(1976-02-09) February 9, 1976 (age 36)
Genres	singer-songwriter, folk-rock
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, harmonica
Labels	XL Records

Elvis Perkins (born February 9, 1976) is an American folk-rock recording artist. He released his debut studio album, Ash Wednesday, in 2007. Perkins subsequently toured in support of the album with his band Elvis Perkins in Dearland, composed of Perkins alongside multi-instrumentalists Brigham Brough (bass,vocals, saxophone), Wyndham Boylan-Garnett (organ, harmonium, trombone, guitar, vocals) and Nick Kinsey (drums, clarinet, vocals). The band released their eponymous debut, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, on March 10, 2009.

The band formed in Providence, RI around 2004 when Elvis moved to the East Coast upon completing Ash Wednesday, although the members have been friends and collaborators for many years.^{[citation needed]} The band are currently based out of the Hudson River Valley of New York State.

Background[link]

Perkins is the son of actor Anthony Perkins and photographer Berry Berenson. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, and New York City with his older brother, actor Oz Perkins. Perkins is a great-grandson of the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli who was a great-niece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, the Italian astronomer who believed he had discovered the supposed canals of Mars, and a nephew of the actress Marisa Berenson, Berry's sister. His paternal grandfather Osgood Perkins, was also an actor. His maternal great grandfather was Count Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor, a Theosophist and psychic medium. His mother was also a great-grandniece of art expert Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) and his sister Senda Berenson (1868–1954), an athlete and educator who was one of the first two women elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Perkins attended Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, after graduating from high school at the Harvard-Westlake School in 1994.

Perkins' father was a well known Elvis Presley aficionado and thus named his son Elvis. Perkins took to music at an early age, briefly learning the saxophone before picking up the guitar in high school and taking lessons with Prescott Niles, one-time bassist for The Knack. While he played in rock bands, Perkins also developed an interest in the classical guitar, and began to compose music in both idioms. He also wrote poetry, and that gradually morphed into lyrics. After a short stint at college, he began to cultivate the idiosyncratic, highly personalized style that distinguishes Ash Wednesday.

"It's been a long journey, long in the coming," Perkins admits, when he discusses the album, and it took a serious detour on September 11, 2001, when his mother, a passenger on the ill-fated American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, perished in the attack on New York City's twin towers a day before the ninth anniversary of his father's death. Ash Wednesday has been shaped in part by this tragic event and its aftermath.

Berry Berenson was the younger daughter of Robert L. Berenson, an American diplomat turned shipping executive, who was of Lithuanian Jewish descent; his mother's family's original surname was Valvrojenski.

Some of his ancestry on his mother's side is French, Jewish, Egyptian, Italian, and Swiss. His father Anthony Perkins died in 1992 of complications related to AIDS.

Recordings[link]

Ash Wednesday was independently released in 2006 and was subsequently released February 20, 2007 by XL Recordings.

In 2007 he did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon.

In 2008, Perkins in Dearland recorded a cover of the Sacred Harp song "Weeping Pilgrim" for Awake My Soul, Help Me to Sing the soundtrack to the movie Awake My Soul.

His band released their debut album Elvis Perkins in Dearland on 10 March 2009.

Elvis recently worked with the Yellow Bird Project to create a t-shirt to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Ash Wednesday (February 20, 2007)
• Elvis Perkins in Dearland (March 10, 2009)

Singles[link]

• "While You Were Sleeping" (July 16, 2007)
• "All the Night Without Love" (November 20, 2007)

EPs[link]

• "The Doomsday EP" (October 20, 2009)

External links[link]

• Official website
• UK based Elvis Perkins website
• Elvis Perkins at MySpace
• Elvis Perkins: Brooding, Thoughtful, Sophisticated from National Public Radio
• Elvis Perkins and Dearland on Letterman performing "While You Were Sleeping"
• Gibson Guitar's Interview with Elvis Perkins by Ellen Mallernee
• Interview with Elvis Perkins on The Line Of Best Fit

This article is about the Baltimore television writer; for other people with the same name, see Edward Burns (disambiguation).

Ed Burns is a producer, screenwriter, and novelist. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. They have collaborated on The Corner and The Wire (HBO). Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the Homicide and Narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher. He often draws upon these experiences for his writing.^[1]

Biography[link]

Burns served in the infantry during the Vietnam War.^[2] He then served in the Baltimore Police Department for twenty years.^[2] Following his retirement from the police force he became a teacher in the Baltimore public school system.^[2] Burns has said that he stumbled into teaching with little preparation because of the intense demand for teachers in inner-city schools.^[2] Burns taught seventh grade. Psychologically, he compared the experience of teaching to the Vietnam War.^[2] He found the experience profoundly challenging because of the emotional damage that the vast majority of his students had already experienced before reaching the classroom. He saw his primary role as instilling caring behavior in his pupils.^[2] He felt his major impact was in giving the children an example of an "adult who's consistent, who's always there, who always comes through with what he said, then that's a new world for them."^[2] Ed Burns will be participating in the Vimeo Festival+Awards 2012 as a speaker.^[3]

The Corner[link]

In 1995, he co-authored, with Simon, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, the true account of a West Baltimore community dominated by a heavy drug market.^[4] Simon credits his editor John Sterling with the suggestion that he observe a single drug corner.^[5] It was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times.^[6] An adaptation of the book, also called The Corner, was produced as a six-hour TV miniseries for HBO.^[7] The show received three Emmy Awards.^[7]

The Wire[link]

Burns was a producer, writer, and co-creator (also with Simon) of the HBO series The Wire. They originally set out to create a police drama loosely based on Burns' experiences working on protracted investigations of violent drug dealers using surveillance technology. He had often faced frustration with the bureaucracy of the police department, which Simon equated with his own ordeals as a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Writing against the background of current events, including institutionalized corporate crime at Enron and institutional dysfunction in the Catholic Church, the show became "more of a treatise about institutions and individuals than a straight cop show."^[8]

They chose to take The Wire to HBO because of their existing working relationship from the 2000 miniseries The Corner. Owing to its reputation for exploring new areas, HBO was initially dubious about including a cop drama in their lineup, but eventually agreed to produce the pilot.^[8][9]

The theme of institutional dysfunction was expanded across different areas of the city as the show progressed. The second season focused on the death of working class America through examination of the city ports.^[10] The third season "reflects on the nature of reform and reformers, and whether there is any possibility that political processes, long calcified, can mitigate against the forces currently arrayed against individuals." ^[10] Burns has called education the theme of the fourth season. The writing drew extensively on his experience as a teacher. Rather than solely focusing on the school system, the fourth season looks at schools as a porous part of the community that are affected by problems outside their boundaries. Burns states that education comes from many sources other than schools and that children can be educated by other means, including contact with the drug dealers they work for.^[2] The fifth and final season focuses on the media's coverage of crime and corruption in Baltimore, tapping into Simon's past with The Sun. Burns was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2009 ceremony for his work on the fifth season.^[11] Simon and Burns collaborated to write the series finale "-30-". The show was nominated for several Emmy's, and numerous other awards.^[12]

Generation Kill[link]

Burns traveled to Africa to film a miniseries as a producer and writer for Generation Kill for HBO, which received 10 Emmy nominations.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ed Burns at the Internet Movie Database
• Ed Burns interviewed on Fresh Air, 2006-11-22
• Ed Burns interviewed on NYC-ARTS

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (November 2010)

Kay Burley (born 17 December 1960) is an English television newsreader, presenter and journalist. She currently anchors the 2.00pm to 5.00pm strand Tuesday to Friday on the Sky News station.

Early life[link]

Kay Burley was born in 1960 in Wigan, Lancashire. She was raised as a Roman Catholic.^[1] Her first reporting job was at the Evening Post and Chronicle in Wigan at the age of 17.^[2][3] She worked in local radio and TV, including Tyne Tees Television^[2] before joining TV-am in 1985 as a reporter and occasional newsreader. From 1987, she presented TV-am's first hour, filling in for Caroline Righton and covering Anne Diamond's maternity leave.^[4]

Career[link]

Burley was given her first job by Andrew Neil^[5] She joined Sky Television, launching the Sky One Entertainment Channel in November 1988 with her own documentary "The Satellite Revolution". She moved to the then fledgling Sky News in 1988.

Among many noteworthy assignments, she fronted Sky News coverage from Sri Lanka following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and subsequent tsunami. In 2005, she was prominent in Sky News' coverage of both the General Election and the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

Burley is also known for presenting news coverage on Christmas morning on Sky News, a tradition that, as of 2011, she has upheld for the last 21 years.^[6]

Burley is also an occasional contributor to the tabloid Sunday Mirror, and in the summer of 2006 appeared occasionally on Five's news bulletins.

Criticism[link]

On 3 February 2010, Burley interviewed Peter Andre less than 24 hours after Katie Price and Alex Reid were married in Las Vegas. Andre was booked in advance to promote his new album, when Burley questioned him about Price, Reid and his children. He was also asked to comment on an interview Dwight Yorke, the father of Price's first child Harvey, had given to Sky News in October 2009. When the questions advanced to asking whether Andre feared losing custody of his children to Reid, he became visibly upset, declared "I was not prepared for this", and asked to end the interview.^[7][8] Burley's treatment of Andre garnered over 900 complaints to Ofcom.^[9]

Later in February 2010, Burley was forced to apologise on-air for offending Catholics when she joked that US Vice President Joe Biden, who had ashes on his forehead to mark Ash Wednesday, had a "large bruise" that he had picked up from "walking into a door" or from slipping on ice during his recent trip to Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics.^[10]

On 8 May 2010, Burley was heckled during an interview outside the Houses of Parliament by a protester who chanted "Sack Kay Burley. Watch the BBC. Sky News is shit!"^[11] Burley, who was talking to Ben Page from Ipsos MORI, commented that "they don't like The Sun, they don't like us, they don't like Rupert" before the interview was abruptly terminated, with the broadcast cutting to a silent, animated Sky News logo for over a minute.^[12][13] Burley was also criticised for an interview^[14] with David Babbs, Executive Director of 38 Degrees in which she repeatedly interrupted him as he talked about the possible consequences of a coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, saying, "your views are not going to sway the people that are talking behind closed doors. [...] The public have voted for a hung parliament. We have got exactly what we voted for... so you marching down past Westminster today will make no difference whatsoever. [...] Why don't you just go home? Why don't you go home and watch it on Sky News?"^[15] The Guardian commented "Paxman, it ain't."^[12] The media regulator Ofcom received over 700 complaints about the incident from viewers, but found no breach of its code.^[16]

On 9 September 2010 Burley interrupted Labour MP Chris Bryant during an interview regarding developments in the News of the World phone hacking affair with the words, "No, no, no, you can't say that, sir... No, no, no, no, I have to interrupt you, do you have evidence for that?... Pretty strong claim if you don't!" When Bryant responded that the evidence for his statement was clearly included in the parliamentary debate that Burley was actually covering in that section of the programme, she replied, "So you are in a position to have listened to the debate and read the report and as a result you are content to say that on telly.?" Bryant responded, "I have just said that. You seem to be a bit dim, if you don't mind me saying so."^[17]

Writing[link]

Burley's first novel, titled First Ladies, was published on 12 May 2011.^[18] The book is an erotic romance set in the media industry, including television news.^[19]

Dancing on Ice[link]

Burley was a contestant for the second series of the ITV reality television show Dancing on Ice beginning on 20 January 2007.^[20] She was skating for MacMillan Cancer Care, in memory of her mother who died of breast cancer.^[21] She also donated her appearance fee to the charity. Kay went out of the show in the fifth week following a skate-off.^[22][23]

Personal life[link]

Burley is twice divorced and has one son from a one-year marriage to Steve Kutner, a football agent of Frank Lampard.^[24]

Burley is a fan of Arsenal, as she revealed in an interview in the London Lite newspaper (30 April 2009).

Burley was voted What Satellite TV magazine's "Most Desirable Woman on TV" for three consecutive years.^[25]

Her fitness regime consists of running four times a week and doing aerobics, maintaining her weight at around 8 stone 10 pounds (55 kg).^[26]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bio at Sky News
• Kay Burley @ TV Newsroom

v t e Sky News in the United Kingdom British Sky Broadcasting Programmes Sky News Sunrise The Live Desk Sky News Today Boulton & Co Afternoon Live Live at Five Jeff Randall Live News, Sport & Weather Sky News at Ten Sky News Tonight Sky Midnight News CBS Evening News Sky News On The Hour Sky World News Saturday Live Weekend Lunchtime Sky News at Seven Murnaghan Reporters and presenters Main Anna Botting Adam Boulton Colin Brazier Lukwesa Burak Kay Burley Stephen Dixon Lorna Dunkley Charlotte Hawkins Eamonn Holmes Sarah Hewson Gillian Joseph Mark Longhurst Dermot Murnaghan Jeff Randall Samantha Simmonds Martin Stanford Jeremy Thompson Andrew Wilson Business Dharshini David Joel Hills Sport Jacquie Beltrao Rob Curling Jon Desborough Karthi Gnanasegaram Lisa Knights Sarah-Jane Mee Nick Powell Chris Skudder Matt Teale Charlie Thomas Graeme Winch Weather Nazaneen Ghaffar Isobel Lang Denise Nurse Jo Wheeler Other Philippa Hall Anna Jones Ashish Joshi Lisa Knights Sarah-Jane Mee Paula Middlehurst Tim Marshall Gemma Morris Chloe Potter Jayne Secker Matt Smith Category

Tom Russell
Russell performing at Club Passim in 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Thomas George Russell
Born	1947/1948 (age 64–65)[1] Los Angeles, California, United States
Origin	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Country, folk
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Labels	Shout Factory
Associated acts	Hardin & Russell
Website	tomrussell.com

Thomas George "Tom" Russell (born March 5,^[2] 1947/1948^{[1][3][dubious – discuss]}) is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Texas Country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Johnny Cash, k. d. lang, Guy Clark, Joe Ely, Nanci Griffith, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Iris Dement, Dave Alvin, and Suzy Bogguss. Tom has also done collaborative work with renowned cowboy poet Paul Zarzyski. They have worked together on a few songs which have appeared in Tom's works over the years. ^[4]

In addition to his music, Russell also paints folk art, and has published a book of songwriting quotes (co-edited with Sylvia Tyson), a detective novel (in Scandinavia),and a book of letters with Charles Bukowski (Tough Company; Mystery Island Press).

Early life and career[link]

Russell was born in Los Angeles in the late 1940s.^[3] He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a master's degree in Sociology of Law (criminology).^[3] In 1969, he spent a year teaching in Ibadan, Nigeria during the Biafran War.^[3] He has also lived in Spain, Norway, and played music at a circus in Puerto Rico. He began his musical career in earnest in the early 1970s in Vancouver playing strip bars, then later relocated to Texas and formed a band with singer-pianist Patricia Hardin. In 1977, they moved to San Francisco, performing regularly in clubs there as Hardin & Russell, during which time they recorded the second of their two studio albums. They eventually split in 1979, at which point Russell drifted out of the music industry for a while.

While working as a taxi driver in Queens, Russell met guitarist Andrew Hardin (no relation to Patricia). After hearing his songs, Hardin convinced him that they should form a new band. Shortly after this, Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead was a passenger in Russell's cab. Russell sang him his song Gallo Del Cielo. An impressed Hunter invited Russell and Hardin first to join him on stage at New York's Bitter End, and then to become his regular opening act. Hardin remained Russell's full-time sideman until April, 2006.

Tom Russell Band[link]

Between 1984 and 1994, the Tom Russell Band, (composed of Russell on acoustic guitar and vocals, Andrew Hardin (guitar, bass), David Mansfield (slide guitar), Fats Kaplin (pedal steel, fiddle, harmonica, accordion), Lee Thornburg, Tom Timko (horns), Skip Edwards (keyboards), Hank Bones, Dusty Wakeman, Billy Troiani (bass), Steve Holley, Charlie Caldarola, Mike Warner, and Jeff Donovan (drums), released four albums on Philo records. These albums blend elements of folk, country, and rock music, and often featured songs inspired by the American Southwest, blue-collar American life, and events from his own life (for instance the track Road to Bayamon, a regular concert favorite, draws on his experiences playing in Puerto Rico). His storytelling approach was also showcased in songs such as Haley's Comet, which has also been recorded by co-writer Dave Alvin and tells of the last, sad days of Bill Haley.

Russell worked on the New York country music circuit of the 1980s and 1990s, along with other local musicians such as Larry Campbell, Larry Eagle, Kenny Davis, Tommie Joe White, Dave Sonnenborn, Bruce Kirschner, Billy and Brucie Lang, John Widgren, and many more. Largely due to several of the Manhattan nightclubs, such as City Limits, O'Lunneys, Cody's, The Rodeo Bar, The Lone Star Cafe and others, becoming meeting places for all of these artists, an intermingling of the bands took place. Russell was one of the "purer" of these bands, almost always featuring the same line-up.

The Man From God Knows Where[link]

In the 1990s Russell made a number of solo albums, collaborated with blues singer Barrence Whitfield on two albums, and also recorded an acoustic album mixing new material with his favorite cowboy-themed songs. His albums include several guest appearances from other folk, country, and Americana artists, such as Chris Gaffney and Dave Alvin. His song "Outbound Plane" become a Top Ten country hit for Suzy Bogguss. However, his most significant album of the 1990s was the 1999 folk opera, The Man From God Knows Where.

Drawing on the music of Norway and Ireland in addition to American folk and country, the album is a song cycle tracing the journeys of Russell's ancestors from Europe to America, and the struggles they encountered there. Recorded in Norway near the spot where his great-grandfather was born in 1847, the album features singers Iris DeMent, Dolores Keane, and Dave Van Ronk playing the roles of Russell's various ancestors and telling their stories. The title came from the epitaph of another Tom Russell, an Irish activist executed in 1803.

Recent work[link]

Russell's albums in the 21st century have been heavily influenced by his current home city, El Paso. Albums such as Borderland feature a strong Tex-Mex influence and feature songs of life on both sides of the border.

In 2005 Russell released Hotwalker, the second part of his Americana trilogy (the first part being "The Man From God Knows Where"). It was another conceptual work largely inspired by his correspondence with author Charles Bukowski. Subtitled "A Ballad for Gone America", the album features songs and spoken word pieces, many of the latter delivered by another friend of Bukowski, circus midget Little Jack Horton. The sampled voices of Lenny Bruce and Edward Abbey are also heard on an album which takes the form of a musical collage lamenting the passing of the America of Russell's childhood and the Beat generation.

In addition to working on new music, Russell also exhibits his original artwork and organizes an annual trans-Canadian music train, which combines song-writing and -singing workshops with live concerts aboard a vintage long-distance streamline train. This train trek was depicted in Russell's 2005 concert/documentary, "Hearts on the Line", produced by Canyon Productions, which features a concert with Russell and Andrew Hardin videotaped at Capilano College in Vancouver as well as behind the scenes footage of the music train experience.

In 2006, Russell released Love and Fear, a collection of original songs that were inspired by the highs and lows of his relationships with women. This was followed in 2007 by "Wounded Heart of America", a tribute album of Tom Russell songs covered by other artists, including Joe Ely, Suzy Bogguss, Dave Alvin, Jerry Jeff Walker, and beat poet legend Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Two new songs, "Who's Gonna Build Your Wall" and "The Death of Jimmy Martin", are also included on the album.

In 2008, Russell's new record company, Shout Factory, released a 2 CD retrospective album "Veteran's Day: Anthology" and Russell and Canyon Productions, Inc. released a DVD featuring Russell and Ian Tyson discussing the art of songwriting called "Mano a Mano." Russell is also working on a documentary film project called California Bloodlines and is currently touring, painting and writing new songs.

In 2009, Shout! Factory released Russell's album "Blood and Candle Smoke" featuring twelve original songs. The album was recorded in Tucson, AZ at Wave Lab Studios with members of Calexico providing a world music beat to many of the songs. The album was produced by Tom Russell and Craig Schumacher, who has worked with Neko Case, Iron & Wine and Calexico. 2011 saw Russell release both a new album, "Mesabi" and a DVD, "Don't Look Down".

Discography[link]

Albums[link]