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Album Details

• Artist: Tom Russell
• Album: Modern Art
• Label: Hightone
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-05-22

Modern Art is Tom Russell's fourth album for the High Tone label and it is comprised of about half original songs and half covers. He stretches out, somewhat, from his previous album Borderland. There isn't as much theme happening on this album with the combination of his own tracks as well as others. There is the highlight track, "Ballad of Sally Rose", an old Emmylou Harris song that Tom performs with none other than Nanci Griffith. Nanci is the common denominator on Modern Art too. She also is found singing on "The Dutchman", "Bus Station", and "Golf Coast Highway". Tom and Nanci's voice go together like Gram Parson's and Emmylou. Another great track is "The Kid From Spavinaw", a beautiful folk ballad about Mickey Mantle. He keeps the sports theme going with "Muhammad Ali". He also does the impossible by putting music to the Charles Bukowski poem "Crucifix In A Death Hand". "American Hotel" is another great interpretation. It is a song written by a friend named Carl Brouse, who died last year, about a man named Stephen Foster who was a songwriter who died broke in the American Hotel in New York. There may be some disjointedness in Modern Art but that's what art is all about. Tom Russell is a true American folk singer that will be remembered for years to come.

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