I've been a Tom Russell fan for a long time and never miss a performance when he's in the neighborhood. But last night's performance was a disappointment. It was little more than a performance of his most recent CD "Blood and Candle Smoke" stretched out with an overly long revisitation of "Hotwalker." Russell's music has taken on something of a self conscious character and this performance was no exception. It is as if he has started taking himself as seriously as he takes his music; as if he is trying (unnecessarily) to burnish his bona fides as an artist.
Russell also performed a few great pieces from earlier CDs. But "Stealing Electricity" was rushed through so badly it degenerated into caricature. And "Tonight We Ride" was phoned in.
We were also treated to an introduction of wife, daughter, twin grandchildren, mom, dad, the cat, the dog, etc. but more distractingly, they milled around in the flies stage left throughout the show.
On the plus side Russell seems to have shed himself of the marginally talented Michael Martin replacing him with Thad Beckman, a prodigiously talented guitarist with the ability and finesse to add power and texture to Russell's music without ever overpowering it. This is something that Russell's music has lacked since the exit of Andrew Hardin several years ago.